Post Category → Climate Change

France Wildfires live updates: France 24, the Guardian and The New York Times (Gift link)

France Wildfires live updates: France 24, the Guardian and The New York Times (Gift link)

The devastation continues. As of early this evening 197,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in southwestern France because of the unprecedented wildfires that continue to burn and spread near Bordeaux. More than 70,000 have been evacuated in Spain, mostly from villages west of Madrid.

Live coverage from France 24, The Guardian and The New York Times (Gift link).

Wildfires have ravaged nearly 98,000 hectares (242,000 acres) in France this year, an area nearly 10 times the size of Paris. A fourth heatwave in two months is expected to kick in by Wednesday 29 July.

T&E analysis: Charging infrastructure has far outpaced EV sales in all but one EU country

T&E analysis: Charging infrastructure has far outpaced EV sales in all but one EU country.

Good news for those of us with EVs in the European Union, from an analysis by Brussels-based advocacy organization Transport & Environment (T&E):

All but one EU country are meeting the bloc’s targets for EV charging infrastructure to keep pace with the number of EVs on the road, new research shows. The analysis by T&E also finds that most of the EU meets its goals for fast chargers to be located every 60 km along main roads. T&E said the network expanded in advance of strong electric car sales growth in 2025 and 2026, showing the charging targets are enabling the EV transition as intended.

Link.

Guardian: AI-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk

Guardian: AI-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk.

I see lots of this slop on Facebook and Instagram, encounters that result in an immediate block. If you use AI to enhance your wildlife photos, please stop.

From the story:

Scientists are appealing to birders to limit their use of AI when editing images over fears that it could undermine the credibility of popular citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist and Macaulay Library, which are routinely used in scientific research to monitor species’ habitat range.

The rise of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini has led to a sharp increase in fake and enhanced images of rare and celebrated birds across wildlife photography forums. Users can create high-quality fake images in seconds – or enhance a photograph by asking the AI to remove a branch or leaf that might be obscuring part of the subject, which can inadvertently introduce significant changes.

In a recent commentary in the science journal Nature, researchers warned that hundreds of fake images have already been discovered on popular databases for recording species. They said that the true scale of the issue is unknown – as many could go undetected – and could contaminate records collected by the public.

Link.

EOS – For the Birds: Solar Panels over Peatlands May Increase Avian Biodiversity

EOS – For the Birds: Solar Panels over Peatlands May Increase Avian Biodiversity.

A new study finds an unusual mix of bird species thriving in a German solar park built on degraded peatland. EOS, the news site of the American Geophysical Union, reports:

When Hanna Rae Martens visits the solar park she studies in northern Germany, she finds meadow pipits perched on the panels. They launch off to catch insects, then return, using the panels like tree branches.

This solar park, built on rewetted peatland, hosts a more diverse bird community than adjacent drained farmland, according to a new study in Ecological Solutions and Evidence. The findings suggest that combining peatland restoration with solar energy development could benefit birds.

And

The solar park attracted a mix of species, including some typically found in wetlands, wooded edges, and urban areas. “The presence of wetland species like reed bunting and the endangered meadow pipit shows that the solar park is truly rewetted,” Martens said. “But we also recorded species like Eurasian tree sparrow and tree pipit, which are not typically found in peatlands. They all appear to use the structure of the solar panels.”

Link.

The 19th: Trump dismantled a federal climate website. These women rebuilt it.

The 19th: Trump dismantled a federal climate website. These women rebuilt it.

A good piece on the three women who rebuilt Climate.gov after the Trump Administration took it offline. All three, Rebecca Lindsey, Anna Eshelman, and Mary Lindsey lost their jobs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) courtesy of Elon Musk’s DOGE slaughter of the US federal bureaucracy last year. Their site, Climate.us, went live on 22 June.

The venture came out of a need for more science-backed climate information. For decades, Climate.gov was the go-to resource that translated complex climate science data into accessible public information, sharing critical tips on everything from how to survive heat waves to explainers on El Niño’s impacts on hurricanes to over 15 million site visitors per year. Funding for climate communications used to come straight from the federal government and for that to just be “yanked away” was jarring, (Rebecca) Lindsey said.

“It’s not a pretty picture for climate communication and climate journalism right now,” Lindsey said. “We just felt like it was really important that there be a mature, robust, comprehensive online platform to serve as a hub. We felt that there needed to be a foundation, or cornerstone, that other people could build on and grow with.” 

Via Kottke.org.

Link.

The Guardian: Listen to Britain’s Dawn chorus of 1976, illustrating the Dramatic Loss of Birdsong in 50 years

The Guardian: Listen to Britain’s dawn chorus of 1976 – the dramatic loss of birdsong in 50 years.

The Guardian recreated a decade-by-decade audio landscape of what the past morning symphonies of birds sounded like before 73 million of them were lost over the past five decades in Great Britain. The story also mentions a ‘shifting baseline syndrome’, a gradual shifting of accepted norms that applies, in this case to the natural environment, be it habit loss, species decline or the rapidly rising temperatures brought on by the climate crisis.

“What we have is a shifting baseline,” said Dr Rob Robinson, a senior scientist at the BTO who researches wild bird populations. “People engaging in nature today are going to think the numbers they are seeing are normal, particularly children. But if you go back 50 years, they would have been able to experience a much richer environment.”

And

This “shifting baseline syndrome” – a gradual shifting of the accepted norm when it comes to the natural environment – is, said nature writer Robert Macfarlane, an “enormously powerful and I think very pernicious, psychological mechanism whereby each new generation measures loss from the degraded baseline that it grew up into. We’re part of a web. We’re wired into the wild world. Birds help us remember that, and they can do it in a very everyday way.”

Give it a listen – possibly the most mindful 35 seconds you’ll experience today.

Western Europe records its hottest June after searing heatwave

It’s Official – Copernicus: Western Europe records its hottest June after searing heatwave

It was also the second hottest June ever for the planet as a whole. The Copernicus Climate Change Service’s report for the month is here. A summary from France24’s report:

The EU’s climate monitor said Thursday that Western Europe this year experienced its hottest month of June on record as an intense heatwave swept across the world’s fastest-warming continent. A “heat dome” weather effect – a high-pressure system acting like a lid on a boiling pot – led to all-time and monthly temperature records in several countries.

The report comes as a new heatwave is battering Europe this week, following a record-breaking one in June and an unusually early spring hot spell in May.

The average temperature in western Europe reached 20.74C in June, more than 3C above the 1991-2020 norm, according to the European Union‘s Copernicus Climate Change Service. It broke the region’s previous record set in June 2025.

“We will see more heatwaves in a warmer world,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus.

“They will be more intense and they will last longer, and they will impact more geographical areas,” Burgess told AFP.

More links:

The Atlantic: The Ticks are Winning – Gift Link

The Atlantic: The Ticks are Winning – Gift Link

From a report published in 2023, on no longer not-so-hidden powers of tick saliva:

The secret behind tick stealth is tick saliva—a strange, slippery, and multifaceted fluid with no biological peer. It keeps the pests’ bites bizarrely itch- and pain-free, and allows them to feed unimpeded by their hosts’ immunity. As climate change remodels the world, spit is also what’s helping ticks enter new habitats and hosts—bringing with them the many deadly viruses, bacteria, and parasites they so often import.

Gift link.

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.