Embers of denial

Express Tribune

29-07-2025

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Europe is ablaze and not just with heat. This summer, Europe endured a heatwave of unprecedented ferocity. From late June into early July, cities across the continent were gripped by temperatures soaring past forty degrees Celsius. In Portugal, June records shattered as the mercury climbed to 46.6 degrees. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom all recorded record-breaking heat, triggering health alerts, school closures, and even temporary shutdowns of nuclear reactors in Switzerland
The human cost has been heart-rending. Over a mere ten-day span, an estimated 2,300 lives were lost across twelve major European cities, with approximately 1,500 of those fatalities directly attributable to climate change's intensification of the heatwave. Portugal alone reported nearly 300 excess deaths in June, mostly among the elderly. These are not distant tragedies. They are our collective failure to heed warnings.
Severe wildfires swept across Europe, affecting Spain, Greece, Turkey, France, and the UK. In Spain, a fire near Madrid burned 3,000 hectares and forced evacuations. Crete saw over 1,500 people displaced by fires, while blazes in Izmir, Turkey, led to casualties and uprooted more than 50,000. The UK experienced its worst wildfire season on record. Overall, nearly 6 million hectares have burned this season.
These scenes are not mere statistics; they are tears in our shared fabric of civilisation. Hospitals have been overwhelmed, rescue workers stretched thin, and economies bruised. Farmers survey charred fields. Tourists flee burning shores. A continent defining itself through culture, art, and community is now haunted by climate's cruelty.
The causes are unmistakable. Europe warms at twice the global rate, its geography amplifying temperature spikes. Climate scientists warn this is not a fleeting anomaly; it is the new normal. We invited this destruction with inaction, denial, and shortsightedness.
Emergency response must be reimagined. Heat health plans must expand, protecting the vulnerable with accessible cooling shelters and early alert systems. Equip ambulance teams and hospitals with protocols tailored to heat crises. Citizens must be taught to recognise heat stroke and take simple preventive measures.
Forests require stewardship that matches the scale of devastation. Land management must focus on controlled burns, firebreaks, and community education. Early detection systems like satellites, drones, heat sensors must become common tools, not distant fantasies. And evacuation strategies must respect local voices, drawing on pastoral knowledge and lived experience to guide effective responses.
Urban planning demands transformation. Cities must be retrofitted to withstand the new climate reality. Green corridors, reflective surfaces, and denser shade trees not decorative afterthoughts must become central to civic design. Building codes should mandate fire-resistant materials and design that respects natural floodplains and wind paths.
But long-term solutions must transcend bricks and asphalt. Governments must re-establish climate mitigation as a moral imperative. Emissions targets must be met with humility and enforced with integrity. Coal must not be a fallback; fossil fuel subsidies must not be a policy tool. Renewable infrastructure must be accelerated, not delayed by corporate compromise or political cowardice.
Europe's summer fires will end, but the crisis will continue. Europe can lead this transformation, and yet many leaders still protect growth at the expense of survival. That must end. The calculus is simple: business as usual will kill. Bold choices, even unprofitable ones are the price of preservation.
This summer will be etched into memory, not as a freak anomaly, but as a reckoning. We stand at a crossroads where apathy leads to ashes, and ambition leads to resilience. Europe and the world must choose with urgency. To protect lives, to heal the land, and to demand a future where climate extremes are resisted, not endured. We have been warned. We now must act.