Pakistan, July 10 -- Western Europe's hottest June on record should bury, once and for all, the comforting illusion that extreme heat is still a distant or occasional climate warning. According to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the region's average temperature in June reached 20.74degC, more than 3degC above the 1991-2020 norm, breaking a record set only last year. Globally too, June was the second-hottest ever recorded, while sea surface temperatures continued to push into dangerous territory.

That this happened in rich, insured and infrastructure-heavy Europe is precisely why the alarm should travel beyond Europe. Heatwaves closed schools, disrupted power systems, strained public health services and made nights unbearable ...