There used to be a time when the climate emergency was happening in places other than Europe. Not anymore. While the deforestation of the Amazon was an early focus – with more latterly the low-lying Pacific island states, such as Fiji and Vanuatu, reaching the news headlines – this spring and summer’s heatwaves in Western Europe have made some sit up, with others having to make a run for it. The climate emergency is now a ‘first world problem’ with Europe on the front line.
In western Europe, the combination of a wet winter promoting plant growth, three heatwaves in three months and a long dry spell, drying out the land, has set the scene. A scene very similar to the January 2025 California wildfires that destroyed 18,000 homes and displaced 200,000 people. The persistent winds in both Spain and France have helped create forest firestorms, especially north of Madrid, where fires are combining and gaining momentum.
So far, around 300,000 holidaymakers and locals in south-west France and north of Madrid have been moved out of harm’s way. The message coming from the response services across southern Europe is that emergency planning for heatwaves wildfires needs to be taken to a much higher level. As previously reported, deaths caused by previous heatwaves in Europe run into tens of thousands. For some working-class elderly and the medically vulnerable, it has become too hot to live.
By contrast, while not being able to use a hosepipe and needing to take measures to stay cool in heatwaves are necessary, many who can afford it are now taking a second pragmatic look at the holidays they booked in the south of France and Spain and wondering whether a change in plans is due.
Me included. The camp site we booked a fortnight ago is seven miles from Bordeaux Airport, which has been put on wildfire alert. The drive from Calais to the south of France is full of tinderbox dry forests. There is also the issue of holidaying in areas where people have been burnt out of their homes, which leaves an acrid taste in the mouth.
Our final destination, Léon, where the hope is to see the full eclipse on 12 August, is nowhere near being ‘out of the woods’. According to BBC Weather, a fourth heatwave is on the way for western Europe and could bring 40 degrees Celsius heat for days during the coming fortnight.
These climate conditions are happening because Europe is the globe’s fastest-heating continent, warming twice as fast as anywhere else. According to the scientists at World Weather Attribution, “fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in just a few decades … this means that a similar heatwave in June would have been about 3.5°C cooler during the day in 1976 …”
What we are witnessing is the shape of Europe’s near-future climate emergency coming into view. Climate scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades and take no pleasure in seeing their warnings come to pass. The failure of free-market governments to take heed – and even more recently rowing back from supposed ‘green new deals’ to focus on rearmament – is striking.
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