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NYT: How Heat Affects the Brain – Gift link

NYT: How Heat Affects the Brain – Gift Link

This week’s NYT Climate Forward newsletter surveys recent research into how brain function changes when temperatures rise.

A growing body of research has shown that our brains work differently when temperatures spike. Test scores fall and drivers honk more often. The good news is that we’re learning a lot more about how heat affects the brain. In fact, hundreds of peer-reviewed papers on the connection between heat and health have been published in recent years.

But there are longer-term effects of exposure to heat to consider, too. Recent research has found that hotter weather may make the brain more vulnerable to air pollution, increasing the risk for dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

And this, on the impacts of the air pollution and heat combination:

Exposure to particulate air pollution, known as PM 2.5, is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in older adults, they wrote. It can also affect brain development in young people, increasing the risk of anxiety and depression. The report cited an estimate that one in four dementia deaths is attributable to air pollution.

Link.

France records 2,025 excess deaths from heatwave, but data remains incomplete

France National Health Service Reports: France records 2,025 excess deaths from heatwave, but data remains incomplete.

Le Monde reports (subscription only):

A rapid-fire communication was aimed at quashing all speculation over deaths related to France’s record-breaking June heatwave, even if it meant presenting a partial picture that could get worse. In an update published on Friday, July 3, Santé publique France, the French national public health agency, estimated that 2,025 additional deaths were recorded between June 22 and June 28 compared to the previous week, an increase of 29.1%. While these figures should be interpreted with caution due to incomplete data, they offer a first snapshot of the fatal effects of the historic heatwave that swept across the country.

And from The Guardian’s report:

Public Health France said on Friday there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week”. It said the figure was probably an underestimate and “mortality will rise further”.

Watch ‘Only a Child’, Oscar-shortlisted Visual Poem Celebrating 12-year-old’s 1992 Rio Summit Speech

In case you missed it, this is ‘Only a Child’, the 2022 Oscar-shortlisted animated short directed by Simone Giampaolo who brings together 20 animation directors to give shape, color, vibrance and a renewed urgency to the powerful speech delivered by Severn Cullis-Suzuki at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. She was 12 at the time and her presentation garnered worldwide attention.

”I’m only a child, yet I know we are all part of a family — five billion strong; in fact, 30 million species strong — and borders and governments will never change that. I’m only a child, yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.”

Today in Nice – 29 June 2026

The heatwave that has been baking Europe for the last week is creeping eastward, but it still hit 34C (93F) late this afternoon in Nice and 33C (91F) in Monaco. And the airconditioning on the crowded 18:06 train from Monaco between the two wasn’t working. One passenger measured the temperature at 42C (108F). I watched passengers whose breathing labored. It was stifling.

Continue reading →

World Weather Attribution report: Fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in just a few decades

World Weather Attribution report: Fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in just a few decades.

A study by World Weather Attribution released on Friday (26 June) shows that the heatwave that is currently baking much of Europe is the continent’s worst so far, in terms of heat stress and temperatures, and that the recipe of conditions that created it would have been virtually just 50 years ago. Brought to you by fossil fuels.

Some of the major findings:

  • Heatwaves cause more deaths in Europe than all other natural hazards combined
  • Vulnerability to heat has shifted over time, from primarily elderly people living alone to populations facing socioeconomic disadvantage and chronic illness, including homeless people and migrants, highlighting the need for adaptive, equity-focused heat-health policies.
  • In 1976, when some of the previous European records were set, the 2026 temperatures would have been virtually impossible to occur in June, while also highly unlikely at any time of the year. In 2003, the first major heatwave of this century, daytime heat like this would still have been very rare, about 10 times less likely than today, while nighttime temperatures such as this June would have been more than a hundred times less likely in 2003.
  • Across large parts of Western Europe, June is warming faster than any other month. In addition, daily maximum temperatures are warming faster than night time temperatures, though both are warming much faster than global warming. The hottest daily temperatures are warming at about triple the rate of global warming and night time temperatures at about twice the rate. Many capital cities are experiencing not only their hottest June 3-day period but also the hottest three-day period since 1950, according to the ERA5 dataset. However, due to global warming these temperatures are now no longer unusual during the summer months in many capitals.
  • This means that a similar heatwave in June would have been about 3.5°C cooler during the day in 1976 and about 2°C cooler in 2003. The nighttime temperatures would have been about 2.4°C cooler in June 1976 and about 1.3°C cooler in June 2003.
  • This June 2026 heatwave occurred under a circulation pattern broadly similar to historical analogues – Southerly Flow. However, a similar circulation pattern now produces significantly hotter temperatures than it did in the mid-20th century because the climate baseline has warmed.

And

  • This summer shows that at 1.4°C of global warming, extreme heat is already reaching the limits of our societies’ ability to cope. Our analysis here shows that intense heat is increasing rapidly even in living memory, with such events tens to hundreds of times more likely since only 2003 and virtually impossible just 50 years ago. A rapid phase-out of fossil fuels is critical if we are to avoid even higher temperatures and their consequences in the future.

[Report summary] [Full report]

A London Climate Action Week event scheduled for today at the London School of Economics was cancelled due to record high heat.

A London Climate Action Week event scheduled for today at the London School of Economics was cancelled due to record high heat.

The UK recorded its highest June day, with temperature of 36.1C recorded in Hampshire. France recorded its hottest day ever, breaking the record set the day before. The country’s national heat index, an average of the day- and night-time highs measured at 30 weather stations across France, hit 30C (86F).

Copernicus Image of the Day: Heatwave affecting Western Europe in the third decade of June 2026

Copernicus Image of the Day: Heatwave affecting Western Europe in the third decade of June 2026

Today’s Image of the Day from the European Union’s Earth Observation programme. That’s a lot of red.

From the image description:

A severe heatwave is currently affecting western Europe, France and Spain being the most affected countries. According to the French Meteorological Agency Météo France, Tuesday 23 June was reported the hottest day recorded since measurements began in 1947. In Spain, the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) issued a red alert for above average temperatures in several areas in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, including Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Cantabria cities.

This data visualisation, based on data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites acquired on 23 June 2026 at 09:54 UTC, shows the Land Surface Temperatures (LST) across central and southern France, and northern Spain. Extensive red and purple areas are visible, indicating peaks of the LST exceeding 50°C. It should be noted that LST values reflect ground surface temperature rather than air temperature. Although the two are broadly correlated, they can differ significantly.

Link.

Guardian: How India’s heatwaves are shutting schools – and pushing women out of the workforce

Guardian: How India’s heatwaves are shutting schools – and pushing women out of the workforce

Arsalan Bukhari and Naila Tabbasum report from Delhi:

Outside, the temperature has passed 41C (105.8F). Inside Sakshi Katyal’s city apartment, the air conditioner is blasting but it does little to relieve the stress of balancing housework and helping her five-year-old log in on a laptop to online classes. Her daughter’s school closed in May and Katyal is not clear when it will reopen. Probably not till the autumn.

Schools across Delhi and in about half of India’s 28 states have been ordered to close from mid-May until the end of June, when in many places the summer break starts. There is no official record of closures in past years but the Guardian has spoken to school officials who say the number of days schools are shut for because of the heat has risen sharply. The impact on families, especially on working women, has been huge.

And

India is facing increasingly intense spells of extreme heat, with this year’s heatwaves beginning as early as April. Hundreds of thousands of parents in India are struggling with managing jobs and children as lives are disrupted by prolonged school closures linked to the high temperatures. And as childcare disproportionately falls to women, it is women who are bearing the brunt.

Link.

Le Monde: France issues red heatwave alert on Sunday for third of country

Le Monde: France issues red heatwave alert on Sunday for third of country.

The red alert impacts 26 million people in 35 departments, more than a third of the country. Another 45 departments are on orange alert. From the report:

France issued a red heatwave alert across more than a third of the country for Sunday, June 21, as a ferocious heatwave dug in and the government banned the consumption of alcohol in public spaces in departments under this alert during the annual Fête de la Musique festivities.

The prolonged heatwave, which began earlier this week, has disrupted the country, forcing the cancellation of dozens of trains and the suspension of classes.

Link.

Study: Temperate local extinctions from climate change are outpacing tropical extinctions

Study: Temperate local extinctions from climate change are outpacing tropical extinctions.

From a study published yesterday (18 June 2026) in Nature Climate Change, “Climate change may soon cause a catastrophic loss of global biodiversity”. From the abstract:

For decades, tropical species have widely been considered more vulnerable than temperate species. However, some studies have suggested the opposite.

Using a global-scale dataset from resurvey studies spanning 5,151 plant and animal species encompassing 39,157 sites, we show that climate-related local extinctions were significantly more frequent among temperate (49% of surveyed species) than tropical species (33%).

We then tested whether these more frequent temperate extinctions were explained by greater sensitivity to warming among temperate species, by faster warming at higher latitudes, or both. We found that extinction probabilities increased significantly with the magnitude of recent warming in temperate regions, and that temperate species also showed a general trend towards higher sensitivity to warming.

Overall, our findings challenge the long-held view that climate change more strongly impacts tropical species and suggest that temperate species are increasingly vulnerable.

Link.

David Attenborough’s life’s work, searchable.

David Attenborough’s life’s work, searchable.

This will be a fun rabbit hole.

Sir David Attenborough just turned 100. In recognition of his brilliant career and life, here’s everything he’s ever worked on, in one place.

Nearly 5,000 episodes across 90 series — from Zoo Quest in 1954 to Secret Garden in 2026. Search by animal, habitat, location, natural phenomenon, or theme to find exactly the episode you’re looking for.

Link.

Via Kottke.org, still on the shortlist of my favorite old skool blogs.

The Conversation: Climate change – how fires and floods are creating uninsurable areas across Europe

The Conversation: Climate change – how fires and floods are creating uninsurable areas across Europe.

There’s been lots of talk about the impacts of climate change on the insurance industry in the US, but I haven’t seen too much –besides some anecdotal evidence in the agriculture sector mostly — here in Europe. That is changing.

In Europe, concern over the protection gap – meaning the share of disaster losses that insurance does not cover – is rising. According to EIOPA, the EU’s insurance regulator, 75% of economic losses from natural catastrophes in Europe have historically gone uninsured.

In Germany, the national insurance association has warned that premiums could double within a decade due to climate-driven claims. In France, the national natural disaster scheme, known as CatNat, has been running at a deficit since 2016, prompting the government to raise the compulsory surcharge on all property insurance policies from 12% to 20% in January 2025.

In short, traditional insurance is ill-equipped to confront the reality of climate change. There are, however, alternative models that could provide coverage to people most at risk.

And concludes:

As these innovative solutions emerge, one thing is clear: uninsurable areas are no longer some distant future prospect. Weather-related damage has always happened, but the mechanisms we built to absorb climate risk were designed for a more stable climate. As that stability erodes, the question is no longer whether or not the public sector will need to play a larger role, but how quickly it can be redesigned to do so.

Link.

Solar panels were blamed for wiping out fields, but birds and insects are now rewriting the story beneath them

OKDiario: Solar panels were blamed for wiping out fields, but birds and insects are now rewriting the story beneath them

Done right, fields where solar panels are now being installed are coming back, healthier, and supporting numerous kinds of wildlife, birds included.

For years, the fear around solar farms has been easy to picture. Rows of dark panels, wide open fields, hot metal under the sun, and barely a bird in sight.

New data from Spain is now pushing back against that image. In several solar plants studied in 2025, researchers found more bird species inside the facilities than in nearby agricultural control areas, suggesting that well-managed solar farms can sometimes become unexpected refuges for wildlife rather than empty industrial spaces.

Link.

Guardian: Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown

Guardian: Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown

These record high temperatures are part of an alarming long-term trend. From the story:

Temperatures in the Antarctic climbed above 15C this month, shattering the previous winter heat record for the usually frozen region and raising concerns about the speed of climate breakdown.

The new winter peak temperature was logged by the Argentinian Esperanza base on the Trinity peninsula on 6 June amid a protracted heatwave, when the maximum daily temperature exceeded zero degrees for three consecutive weeks.

Scientists said the high of 15.4C broke the previous record set at the same station in 1998 by 2C. “This is absolutely crazy,” said Raúl Cordero, an Ecuadorian climate professor at the University of Groningen. “It is also about 20C above normal for this time of the year. That is a huge anomaly.”

Link.

Guardian: ‘My head spins with the heat’ – India’s gig workers battle exhaustion amid soaring temperatures

Guardian: ‘My head spins with the heat’ – India’s gig workers battle exhaustion amid soaring temperatures.

The climate crisis is a serious health crisis. From the report:

Rising temperatures are turning cities across south and south-east Asia into places where workers can no longer recover from the heat. A new report by US-based People’s Courage International (PCI), using research in Delhi, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Jakarta and Quezon City, has found hotter nights, combined with the urban heat island effect – the trapping of heat inside dense cities – are leaving millions of informal workers exhausted before a new workday even begins.

And

The crisis is worsening in south Asia as climate change is predicted to triple the chance of pre-monsoon heatwaves, such as a 15-day one that turned deadly last month. Scientists say night-time temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures across much of the region, reducing the hours people once relied on to recover from extreme heat.

Across Asia, the International Labour Organization estimates that more than 70% of the workforce are exposed to excessive heat at some point during their jobs, with informal workers among the most vulnerable. This has a big impact in countries like India, where nearly 90% of workers are employed in the informal economy.

Link.

Le Monde: Heat dome over Europe scorches UK, France, Spain

Le Monde: Heat dome over Europe scorches UK, France, Spain.

All time record highs for the month of May bring in the first European heatwave of 2026. Among those was the UK where temps reached 34.8C, surpassing the previous all-time May peak of 32.8C, reached in 1922 and 1944. From the report:

Temperatures hit record highs for May in the United Kingdom and France on Monday, May 25, as forecasters warned of a prolonged period of extreme heat across Europe throughout the week. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer.

And

A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and farmers reported accelerated harvests as temperatures went beyond 30°C across the region. Scientists say human-driven climate change is amplifying such extremes, with Europe warming faster than the global average and heatwaves growing more frequent and severe.

Link.

Guardian: ‘It’s no longer exceptional’ – Karachi struggles under brutal new reality of extreme heat

Guardian: ‘It’s no longer exceptional’ – Karachi struggles under brutal new reality of extreme heat.

The climate crisis driving a health crisis is rapidly reshaping everyday life. From the report:

An intense and prolonged heatwave has been causing misery for millions across Pakistan and India. In southern Pakistan throughout April and May, temperatures have risen far above seasonal norms. In Sindh, daytime temperatures have frequently crossed 44C to 46C, forcing residents indoors during peak afternoon hours and severely affecting outdoor labourers, transport workers and farming communities.

And

The strain is also becoming visible in local healthcare facilities. Dr Suresh Kumar, who heads the children’s ward at Ibrahim Hyderi government hospital, said the number of children visiting the outpatient department has risen sharply since the last week of April. “On normal days, we would see around 50 to 60 children,” he said. “Now the number has crossed 200 daily.”

And

The World Weather Attribution group has looked at the current extreme heat in Pakistan and India and found that “human-caused climate change approximately tripled the probability of an event like this happening, making it no longer exceptional in today’s climate. The same heat event would have been about 1C cooler in a pre-industrial climate.”

Link.

Declare climate crisis a global public health emergency, experts tell WHO

Guardian: Declare climate crisis a global public health emergency, experts tell WHO

.. Or millions will die unnecessarily, according to a report issued on Saturday by the Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health. From The Guardian report:

The independent pan-European commission on climate and health, which was convened by the WHO, concluded the climate crisis was such a worldwide threat to health that the WHO should declare it “a public health emergency of international concern” (Pheic).

The international spread of vector-borne disease, such as dengue and chikungunya, as well as the health impacts of extreme weather events, global heating, food insecurity and air pollution make a Pheic necessary, said the commission’s report, which will be presented to European ministers on Sunday before the WHO’s world health assembly starts on Monday.

And, notably:

The commission also urged governments to stop subsidising fossil fuels, which are directly responsible for 600,000 premature deaths a year in Europe alone. The region spends about €444bn (£387bn) a year on subsidies for oil and gas production, the report said. In 12 European countries, fossil fuel subsidies exceeded 10% of national health expenditure in 2023 and in four exceeded the entire health budget, the report observed.

From the WHO press release:

The commission’s report drew up 17 recommendations spanning four areas: treating climate change as a growing threat to health security, transforming health systems, scaling up local action, and reforming the economic and financial systems that are driving the climate crisis.

Download the Call to Action.