(Original title: High temperature disaster shrouded Europe: thousands of people died in heat wave, the UN Secretary-General issued a grief)
Financial Associated Press, July 19 (Editor Shi Zhengcheng)As the northern hemisphere is approaching the hottest season of the year, combined with the impact of this year’s abnormally high temperature, people in many Western European countries have become more and more deeply aware of the taste of “the heat exposes all things, and all things cannot escape”.
Extreme heat has also reawakened human attention to climate change, and UN Secretary-General Guterres also lamented on Monday:Either act together or commit suicide together.
UK: Historical temperature extremes just a stone’s throw away
As expected by the Met Office, the country’s temperature has been charging towards historic extremes since Monday. As of Monday evening, the highest temperature recorded in the country was 38.1°C in Santon Downham, Suffolk, which is still some way off the record high of 38.7°C (Cambridge, 2019).
(Source: UK Met Office)
Meanwhile, the Harden region easily set an extreme record temperature for Wales at 37.1C, after the previous record of 35.2C set in the same region in 1990.
The unusually high temperatures also caused many facilities to fail. Luton Airport, near London, announced directly on Monday that it had temporarily suspended operations due to “flaws on the runway surface” caused by the high temperature, and did not resume operations until 18:00.At the same time, the British Ministry of Defence also announced that due to the country’s largestRAF Blitz Norton ‘melting on the tarmac’the country’s military aircraft will go to the alternative airport to take off and land.
But for the British people, Tuesday may be the hardest day.Nottinghamshire could see a rare high of 41C on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Met Office.Public bodies, including British Rail, have called on people to “stay out of the house unless necessary” for the first two days of the week.
Bob Ward, director of communications at the Grantham Research Centre at the London School of Economics, said in an interview with the media that temperatures in the UK exceeding 40°C are unprecedented. The country is still struggling with heat waves and still sees itself as a cool country. Ward expects,The death toll from extreme heat in the UK could reach 2,000 this week alone, after the heat killed 1,600 last year.
Top temperatures in the UK are now expected to drop back below 30C as a fresh round of rain arrives on Wednesday.
Temperature “catastrophe” in many countries in Western Europe
Compared with the British island countries, the extreme heat in France, Spain and Portugal has continued since last week, causing more damage and losses.Some media also usedhigh temperature disaster(heat apocalypse) such extreme words.
The Gironde provincial government said on Monday that 14,300 hectares had been burned in the area and 24,000 residents had to be evacuated. Authorities have deployed 1,700 firefighters to respond to the blaze, which has injured at least 12 people. At present, the fire in Gironde can also be observed intuitively on satellite cloud images.
(Source: Social Media)
According to pictures posted by netizens in Bordeaux, the capital of Gironde province, on social media, thick smoke from wildfires can already be seen over the city.
(Source: Social Media)
In addition to the Gironde department, the French meteorological agency issued a high temperature red warning on Monday for 15 regions, meaning temperatures could reach 42C. In addition, 51 areas are under a high temperature yellow alert, and the authorities are asking people to avoid going out between 11:00 am and 21:00 pm.
According to media reports,Thousands of people have died from heat in Spain and Portugal recently. Among them, in Zamora, Spain, the body of a shepherd was found in the embers of a wildfire, the second direct victim of a wildfire after a 62-year-old firefighter died on Sunday.
After Portugal ushered in a record high temperature of 47°C last week, the Portuguese Meteorological Service continued to warn that one-third of the country’s mainland Europe is still in a state of “extremely prone” to wildfires. The most urgent matter for the country at present is to try to avoid a repeat of the tragedy of 66 people who died in wildfires in 2017.
United Nations Secretary-General lamented
At the Petersburg climate talks in Berlin on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued yet another stern warning to attendees.
Guterres said in a video speech,With half of humanity on the planet threatened by floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires, no country can stay out of it. However, we continue to fall into dependence on fossil fuels.
Guterres said that what bothers me the most right now is,The international community is still unable to work together as a multilateral community in the face of a global crisis. Instead of taking responsibility for our common future, some countries are still playing the blame game. Guterres emphasized,We are now faced with a choice between taking action together or committing suicide together.