Post Category → Europe

Watch: What does Europe really look like?

This video, just released by the European Environment Agency, takes viewers on a 100-second journey across Europe, with each second representing approximately 1% of the continent’s land area.

Based on land-cover data from the EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme, it provides an aerial perspective of Europe’s diverse landscapes to provide a visualisation of what the continent’s landscape looks like and how the continent’s land is used.

Not surprisingly, the largest chunk of land cover is taken up by farmland, industrial-sized crop fields, livestock pastures and patchworks of fields. The video also shows how little space is allotted to wilderness and nature and asks: “Isn’t it time to rethink how we use our land?”

Daniel Raven-Ellison, a UK-based citizen geographer who trekked across 12 European countries over a three-week period this year to produce the video, said:

“As a geography educator I want everyone to be better informed so that we can make better decisions for people, nature and the climate. I wanted to make a film that uses science-based information to reveal how we are really using our land – and to physically show how we can make more space for nature.”

NYT: Heat Waves Killed an Estimated 50,000 in European Cities in 2026 – Gift Link

NYT: Heat Waves Killed an Estimated 50,000 in European Cities in 2026 – Gift Link

More on last summer’s deadly heat in Europe, which many have already forgotten about.

Malta, Italy and Hungary experienced the highest death rates, according to a study by the Imperial College of London’s Grantham Institute published last week in the journal Nature Health. Naples was the hardest hit city, where 815 people per million died from summer’s relentless heat.

The NY Times reports:

Severe heat killed more than 50,000 people in European cities and towns this summer, according to peer-reviewed estimates released by scientists in London on Friday.

That is three times as many people as would have died had humankind not warmed the planet by burning oil, gas and coal, the researchers said. Their estimates suggest that this summer’s intense heat was Europe’s deadliest by far this century.

The study, which modelled historical relationships between heat and health in 854 cities, found a record death toll powered by the heatwaves in 2026, nearly twice that of either of the next two deadliest years.

NYT Gift Link. And a detailed report in the Guardian.

Inside Climate News: How the Climate Crisis Fueled the Youth Protests Roiling France

Inside Climate News: How the Climate Crisis Fueled the Youth Protests Roiling France

The heating planet is fueling unrest, that’s been clear. The past month of youth protests in France, which come after the country’s hottest year, are just one example.

The students’ demands are far-ranging: more teachers, smaller class sizes, a shortened school day and an overhaul of the post-secondary college application system. But the heart of the revolt is indignation over crumbling school infrastructure—a problem laid bare by climate-change-fueled heat waves.

This year was France’s hottest on record, and the country counted 8,000 excess deaths during the summer’s heat waves. In June alone, deaths spiked 11 percent compared to the same month in 2025.

France’s schools, meanwhile, were not built for the hotter world the students have inherited after generations of fossil fuel use have warped the climate. Many buildings were designed to hold onto heat; air conditioning is rare. As classrooms recorded temperature peaks above 100 degrees Fahrenheit this spring, schools reported incidents from fainting to nosebleeds.

Link.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art – Notebook and Snapshots

In the Giacometti Hall at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, pictured above, Alberto Giacometti’s “Walking Man” appears to be entering from the lush woods beyond the glass. The image doesn’t quite do justice to the work—or to its stunning setting beside the Garden Lake, just a few metres away.

It’s an apt image for a museum, located in the quiet town of Humlebæk just north of Copenhagen, that feels less like a conventional gallery and more like a journey through art, architecture and landscape.

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