In the newsletter: From avoiding flights to checking on vulnerable neighbours, there are steps we can all take to fight the effects of extreme heat
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From the comfort of a friend’s air-conditioned car last weekend, I watched a dozen sweaty men on a “beer bike tour” chug booze while pedalling through Berlin, as the city broke its temperature record with 39.2C heat. Few wore hats, and their tender pink necks showed signs of sunburn.
A few days later, I visited Coschen, the eastern German village that provisionally recorded the hottest temperature the country had ever seen, in a district where nearly every other voter backs a far-right party that denies basic climate science. One man who lives down the road from the station that reached the national record-breaking 41.7C high calmly told me “it was also warm” when he was young.
Both of these scenes were on my mind when scientists published the first estimates of the death toll from Europe’s ferocious June heatwave, which is likely to range from several thousand to more than 20,000. Because while there are some aspects of climate breakdown that may leave you feeling powerless as an individual, I strongly feel heat should not be one of them.
Four ways to stay safer
There are four basic ways to cut the vast death toll from heat: stop the planet from baking, cool your immediate environment, avoid the heat, protect vulnerable people. If you live in a rich democracy, you have power over them all. So, here’s what you can do to stay safe.
First, the climate. The June heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” even just a couple of decades ago, scientists say, and studies have found more than half of heat-related deaths in European cities are tied to burning fossil fuels. For the average person, cutting carbon pollution means avoiding flights, eating less meat, swapping gas boilers for heat pumps, and combustion-engine cars for electric vehicles – or bikes and buses – and simply buying less stuff. Comforting as it may be to blame billionaires and Big Oil, the way we live, move, shop and vote also has an outsized impact on how hot the planet gets.
Then there’s temperatures closer to home. In cities, hot weather is compounded by the urban heat island effect – partly due to car culture that prefers tarmac to green space – along with poor building design, particularly in northern Europe. Air-conditioning is a powerful shortcut to cool homes (although it strains electricity grids and worsens urban heat for those without it), while shading solutions such as awnings and external shutters can often achieve the same effect without the trade-offs. Even renters on tight budgets can adopt makeshift versions. Hanging curtains or bedsheets outside windows can lead to surprisingly large temperature differentials. (Check out my colleague Zoe Wood’s seven-point guide to cooling your home, by the way.)
The next thing to watch is how we behave. Drinking water, drawing curtains, wearing loose clothes and avoiding the sun are all simple ways to deal with the heat. But what feels like common sense to some may be unfamiliar to those who did not grow up with extreme heat. As I passed the boozy bachelor party drinking their way through the Berlin heat – an extreme case in 40C, perhaps, but worryingly common at 35C – an Italian friend lamented how many cars and flats had opened their windows when the outdoor air was so hot.
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My friend is not alone in her bemusement. Avikal Somvanshi, a heat researcher at the University of Darmstadt, felt like he would faint when crossing the city’s paved-over square a couple of weeks ago, and was surprised by people in northern Europe’s relationship to heat. “In India, and even in southern Europe, when the sun is out people seek shade,” said Somvanshi. “My fellow Germans will just stand there trying to get a tan.”
The final step is to take care of those in need. Trade unions are pushing for work to stop when temperatures soar, particularly for builders and farmers. In cities such as Barcelona, small businesses and public buildings have been turned into makeshift cooling centres. Doctors have touted the benefits of checking in on older people and those with underlying illness, who make up the vast majority of heat deaths, particularly those who live alone. In Paris, vulnerable people can sign up to have the city’s authorities check on them during a heatwave, while in Denmark, volunteers have taken this service into their own hands. You do not need to wait for organised help. Knock on your neighbour’s door – a cool drink or a hand with the groceries could spell the difference between life and death.
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