The vicious heat waves striking parts of the U.S., Mexico and Europe this July would have been “virtually impossible” without human-driven climate change, according to new research published Tuesday, a stark reminder of the need to rapidly transition to cleaner energy and that such deadly weather is set to become more commonplace in the future.
Brutal heat waves hit parts of Europe, North America and China this July.
The intense heat waves hitting parts of North America, Europe and China this July illustrate the deadly consequences of burning fossil fuels, according to analysis from World Weather Attribution, an international network of scientists researching climate change.
Punishing heat waves in the U.S. and Europe, where temperatures have broken new records and triggered deadly fires, were made around 1,000 times more likely due to climate change, the group said.
The severe heat in China, where temperatures reached more than 52 Celsius (126 Fahrenheit), was around 50 times more likely to happen due to human-driven global warming than in the past.
As well as being more likely, elevated levels of greenhouse gasses from burning fossil fuels also drove up temperatures during the heatwaves, the group said, with the European heat wave approximately 2.5 Celsius hotter than it would have been, the North American heatwave 2 Celsius hotter and theChina event 1 Celsius hotter.
The group’s findings, which have yet to be peer reviewed, suggest July’s heat is likely to be commonplace in the future, with similarly severe events happening once every 15 years in the U.S. and Mexico, once every 10 years in southern Europe and once every 5 years in China.
Without drastic action to rapidly cut down on the burning of fossil fuels, such events will become even more common, the group warned, with heatwaves like recent ones set to happen every two-to-five years if the world heats up to 2 Celsius above preindustrial levels.
This is a developing story and will be updated.