Public sentiment is largely negative regarding the extreme heat wave in Southern Europe, with widespread concern over climate change, inadequate responses from authorities, and its detrimental impact on daily life and vulnerable populations. Many commenters express frustration over dismissive attitudes towards the situation and emphasize the need for urgent action, highlighting a sense of helplessness in the face of escalating climate issues.

European Governments

Local Authorities

Environmental Organizations

is that map of black death? Literally the same

Deadluss

we developed a weather control device in poland, not sharing though.

wojtekpolska

grafknives

The key is to have enough coal &amp; other shit burning fumes to scare away the heat.

eloyend

I zimno i pada, i zimno i pada na to miejsce w środku Europy a lato nie jest gorące.

13C degrees, rain and wind around 70km/h at the moment on the northern coast of Poland.

Pshek_Russoyob_III

Love these maps of *Europe* that opt to show more Africa and Middle East than the Nordics.

kolppi

I spent a week in Germany (I usually alternate/work in Cyprus and Egypt) and it was by far the hottest, most annoying weather I’ve had so far this year lmao. Immediately followed by rain. Felt like I was going mad.

cypriotakis

Poland, Alpes and Montenegro. Love the cool right now.

requiem_mn

Biased colour scale. Down to -50°C for summer, seriously?

Fluffy-Fix7846

It has been very chilly here in slovenia and I'm loving it. I'm also scared of the next heatwave because I wont be acclimatised to it

howmanyusethisapp

RYPIIE2006

Thanks US, China and Russia we have fucked atmospheric streaming.

kvacm

That 2 weeks of hot summer are gone, now its more like a warm but rainy October.

MasterOfDull

this map is really weird, what are those border lines between Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro?

Evangilee2

Holy fuck, Bordeaux people. You guys still alive?

no_name65

I hate these constant weather post so much.

29NeiboltSt

Why do you guys always leave out half of the nordics when you pist about temperatures. You rather share part of Africa than the actual Europe when posting in /r/europe

Luutamo

I'm so happy (Switzerland). We had 17-29 degrees since Sunday. And it won't get hotter the next week. So much better than 36.

MarucaMCA

This is how I learned that the nuclear reactor in Tihange exploded.

Defective_Falafel

Dublin how are you, is anybody still alive there?

rzet

The weather service in Iceland if projecting almost 30°C after the weekend.

Our houses are built for winter, this isn't natural. Hell, I'm in shorts and t-shirt at 15°C !!!

Help us!

Skastrik

Brave-Two372

Its finally over 25 celsius in Finland right now.

According_Ratio2010

Nah France is not that anymore just 2 or 3 cities in south that are above 30. But the rest are much more breathable outside.

VeryluckyorNot

Ignash-3D

Ja pierdolę, enough of those heat waves, almost all summers since 2019 have had them with temps over 40°C, been. I'm moving to Poland.

swiwwcheese

[deleted]

Not *AmericaBad*. And not exactly *AmericaGood* either… but keeping this post up for the discussion.

Youaresowronglolumad

Also notably [cold kills eight times more than heat in Europe](https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/cold-kills-eight-times-more-than-heat-in-europe-study-finds-9zljphpdt) "some 363,800 people die annually from cold."

And in the UK apparently you can't open windows? Lmao

https://preview.redd.it/hh4otcf7zcaf1.png?width=597&amp;format=png&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=35416e9778536b76767225147dd02073833f7fec

alwayscheeseburger

This is why it makes me confused on how shitamericanssay members get so angry at the suggestion of ACs. They make fun of us for not doing anything about gun deaths but then don’t do anything to prevent this lmao

GoldenStitch2

Europeans can't be making fun of US gun deaths knowing their countries can't handle the hot or cold. At least gun ownership gives millions a hobby and/or protection from crime.

2006pontiacvibe

These are the same people claiming American houses are made out of cardboard

Mobile_Toe_1989

More people die in Europe from heat and cold than die in the US from heat, cold, guns, and natural disasters altogether by those numbers. 

I'm pretty sure even if you broke it down per capita, they would still have more deaths due to weather than we do from weather and firearms deaths combined. You might even be able to add in all murders and still come out lower. 

The difference is insane. Only something like 2300 people die a year from heat stroke here, because we have air conditioning, fans, swamp coolers, and other cooling methods. Only about 3000 die from cold because we have an abundance of energy, more powerful heating systems, better insulation, and an abundance of natural fuel (wood). 

They can shit talk us all they want. More people die in the UK, a country with the population of roughly New York, than die in this entire country from heat stroke. 

We have first world problems. They have third world problems. Use insulation, buy a fucking AC.

Typical-Machine154

We should start making jokes about how euros are dying because heat waves and cold sheers because its funny! /s
 (Dont actually do that as you will be just big as an asshole as the people making the school shooting jokes, but you get my point)

check8rs

For an accurate comparison here we can look at deaths to cold and heat in the US as well. 2300 to heat in 2023 and 3600 to cold in 2022. So about 100x as many in Europe than US.

Manotto15

The deaths from heat and cold are literally over ten times the deaths due to gun violence.

Necessary-Visit-2011

No wonder they hate us.  We have central heating and air conditioning.  I'd hate me too if my government wouldn't let me warm or cool myself.

Balefirez

Just a few minutes ago I saw a post complaining it was 90°.

theEWDSDS

Okay, so immediately thought this was a stupid comparison because obviously we would have some heat related deaths in the US and we have more extreme weather than the EU so I could easily see it being higher despite the prevalence of central AC and AC units. Buuuut we average at 1200! And the highest number I could find was 11,000. 

That is wild to me.

Edit: replying to a deleted reply.

Ehhh that population difference doesn't reconcile the 175,000 death tool Europe the continent is ~750,000,000 and the US is ~340,000,000

Double the population but 100 times the temperature related death is actually insaneto think about. The post is still mostly pointless but that level of death is staggering.

But I went ahead to check the EU faced anywhere 40 to 60 thousand heat related deaths with a population of 440,000,000. Which is again staggering to me

gregforgothisPW

Lmaooo that is so funny. The yuroid mind cant comprehend installing a $200 window ac unit

Boxheadlookinahh

Gun death statistics often include suicides too.

BewareTheDarkness

These heat wave fellas might need to be banned

Porterpotty34

We are waking up to AC in Europe. We got a heat exchanger in my summer house in Sweden a few years ago, we were shocked how cheap the electricity bill was(cut in 1/3) compared to running radiators in winter, and we can turn on ac in the summer too as a bonus, not that we really need AC, knock on wood. It's rare that it goes above 30°C.


We mostly installed it to keep the summer house from becoming damp and the pipes freezing when we aren't there, we're surprised how effective it was and how much better it was compared to radiators. 

Robinsonirish

To be fair, they can barely afford their bills already, much less an AC or heating unit!

YggdrasilBurning

With all their riches from not paying for Healthcare, why can't they get central air and at least add ice in their shitty drinks?

RoastPork2017

I guess Europe is third world lol. 

You can’t even keep kids in your schools from dying of heatstroke or keep them warm during the harsh winter. What a joke /s

Leftregularr

It’s strange how they’ve been ridiculing Texas for a one-time event from nearly five years ago that resulted in a few deaths. I assumed they had a perfect track record with cold weather and zero fatalities

Aarpnation

could someone pls give me the link to this article?

Superb-Green-3384

Please report any rule breaking posts and comments that are not relevant to this subreddit. Thank you!


*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmericaBad) if you have any questions or concerns.*

AutoModerator

Just wow

[https://www.thelancet.com/cms/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00023-2/asset/fa61d3b4-9fd4-46da-bfd1-3c890f1f0fbe/main.assets/gr3\_lrg.jpg](https://www.thelancet.com/cms/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00023-2/asset/fa61d3b4-9fd4-46da-bfd1-3c890f1f0fbe/main.assets/gr3_lrg.jpg)

Suspicious_Expert_97

https://preview.redd.it/ojxvfxcs62bf1.jpeg?width=1179&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=164137d82b5d94754829f9a9ea0a93ee9363ad65

[https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/deaths-from-heat-and-cold-deception](https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/deaths-from-heat-and-cold-deception)

OzzyKP

To be fair, they also have 744 million people vs 340 million. 
So the ratio is kind of close, heat deaths are just a bit more per capita not a ton more. All for defending America but need to use accurate statistics.

VengeancePali501

Lol as if we don’t have heat and cold related deaths in the US. Also that number is insanely high, I’m curious to wonder how they classify heat-related causes of death versus us and other countries/regions.

But I mean hell yeah brother get that scope and extended mag because meh Europe has more heat-related deaths!!!! Who cares about the leading cause of death for children in this country anyways?

Flacko757

The WHO European Region has nearly 1B people whereas the US has about 340M… so not exactly comparable. That said, the per capita numbers are still higher for heat related deaths in Europe than gun related deaths in America, just not as extreme as these numbers imply.

theromanempire1923

Holy shit this sub is embarrassing as fuck, gun deaths are a problem in this country and making fun of other nations weather isn’t gonna change that. It’s ok to admit this country isn’t perfect.

yourmumissothicc

The following submission statement was provided by /u/upyoars:

---

&gt; Human-caused climate change was responsible for around 1,500 deaths during this year’s atypical heat wave across Europe, a newly published rapid study of mortality data suggests.

&gt; The study, conducted by scientists at Imperial College of London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, examined 2,300 heat-related deaths across 12 European cities during the heat wave from June 23 to July 2. About two-thirds of those deaths — approximately 1,500 — were **directly attributable to additional warming caused by the climate crisis**, scientists said.

&gt; Those deaths only happened “because of climate change,” said study co-author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College. “**They would not have died if it would not have been for our burning of oil, coal and gas in the last century.**” Temperatures across those 12 cities were **2 to 4 degrees Celsius above what would have naturally occurred if not for human-caused climate change**, the scientists discovered.

&gt; The climate crisis also likely contributed to higher rates of wildfires seen across Europe. More than 200,000 hectares of land have burned across European Union member states since the start of the year, more than twice the average that has burned annually from 2006 to 2024. Around 1,118 wildfires have been detected across the EU, too — **a 56 percent increase** from last year.

&gt; “The evidence connecting the climate crisis and extreme wildfires is clear. Increased global temperatures and reduced moisture lead to drier conditions and extended fire seasons. Prolonged heatwaves can take what was once a natural event in the fire-cycle process and supercharge it into a maelstrom that devastates entire communities. And, crucially, worsening wildfires **mean larger amounts of stored carbon are released into the atmosphere**, further worsening climate change.”

---

 Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1m080io/1500_deaths_in_europes_heat_wave_were_due_to/n37d96z/

FuturologyBot

would be cool if they showed the average death count from heat waves in europe over the last 50 - 100 years. 

Every year, hundreds die because they don't have access to air conditioning, but it would be cool to see if that number went up, lowered, etc.

YouLearnedNothing

I was in Northern Italy and Barcelona during this heat wave and as an American from the Southwestern U.S., it was brutal even for me. I don’t know how people in that heat could survive without A/C and I guess this article reinforces that.

Ghost2Eleven

I'm wondering why it's even called a "heatwave". This is how summer is now for a few years. 


It's used to be 75 to 85°fahrenheit in the US in Michigan and the equivalent in Celsius for Europe on a similar latitude to the upper Midwest of the US. A heat wave lasted a week and didn't really go above 100° for more than a few days


Now 85 - 95°f standard. Not for a week, for the whole summer.


We also have weekly or bi weekly rain and thunder storms that cause flooding. 


My city had to redo their entire sewer and storm drains over the last 15 years to accommodate the increased water management.


It's not a wave, it's the crisis. It's here and thanks to the racist idiot religious fanatics in my country, America is just going to make it worse for at least the next 4 years.


Our military alone has a similar global footprint of countries like Denmark or Sweden.

Impressive_Log7854

heatwaves are the silent killers that spike the death rate

Fred_Milkereit

The solution for that, if you live in Florida, is to ban the words 'climate change,' and pass laws prohibiting 'weather modification equipment'

insuproble

&gt; Human-caused climate change was responsible for around 1,500 deaths during this year’s atypical heat wave across Europe, a newly published rapid study of mortality data suggests.

&gt; The study, conducted by scientists at Imperial College of London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, examined 2,300 heat-related deaths across 12 European cities during the heat wave from June 23 to July 2. About two-thirds of those deaths — approximately 1,500 — were **directly attributable to additional warming caused by the climate crisis**, scientists said.

&gt; Those deaths only happened “because of climate change,” said study co-author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College. “**They would not have died if it would not have been for our burning of oil, coal and gas in the last century.**” Temperatures across those 12 cities were **2 to 4 degrees Celsius above what would have naturally occurred if not for human-caused climate change**, the scientists discovered.

&gt; The climate crisis also likely contributed to higher rates of wildfires seen across Europe. More than 200,000 hectares of land have burned across European Union member states since the start of the year, more than twice the average that has burned annually from 2006 to 2024. Around 1,118 wildfires have been detected across the EU, too — **a 56 percent increase** from last year.

&gt; “The evidence connecting the climate crisis and extreme wildfires is clear. Increased global temperatures and reduced moisture lead to drier conditions and extended fire seasons. Prolonged heatwaves can take what was once a natural event in the fire-cycle process and supercharge it into a maelstrom that devastates entire communities. And, crucially, worsening wildfires **mean larger amounts of stored carbon are released into the atmosphere**, further worsening climate change.”

upyoars

Must be the part that doesn't follow the Mediterranean habit of extending the lunch break until evening and taking things easy during the hottest part of the season.

pauljs75

Love it when I raise the possibility of accidents or death to my employer and they laugh in my face telling me I still have to be in the office.

navybluesoles

It couldn’t have been from a lack of AIR CONDITIONING could it??

Numerous-Cup1863

Dont let anyone downplay climate change as a catastrophic ongoing event.
Dont listen to the misinformation or deniers.

LordLucian

Like 4 million people die in the EU every year and we're talking about 1500 extra? To blame the use of oil, coal and gas?

ieraaa

Are deaths from extreme cold down? Doesn’t extreme cold kill 8 or 9x?

JTuck333

The elderly were disproportionately affected, with 1,100 of the 1,500 deaths people aged 75+.

Jesus people...check on your grandmas...

NanditoPapa

I have a 5000 BTU window unit in a two and a half story house in Ohio and it keeps the downstairs cool and the whole house humidity is only 30 to 40% even though it's much higher humidity outside and temperatures have been pushing 90 for weeks. Downstairs where the window unit is is holding at 70 to 74° f. I run it Non-Stop. I don't like hot weather I'm 65 and exercise all the time so I'm pretty heat intolerant but climate change doesn't scare me here in Ohio because warmer Winters would be nice. Last January was unusually cold and not nice. The climate has changed and fluctuated as long as the Earth has been around and yet life still thrives. The carbon dioxide level has been much higher and life thrived then. And who gets to set the average global temperature and how on Earth would we ever mandate an average global temperature and maintain it.

Global-Piece-7291

Kinda expected given that every year people are dying from heat no? 

From 2024: [Heat claims more than 175,000 lives annually in Europe, latest data shows](https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1152766)

And this happens every single year, in germany the statistics don't even categorize age ranges younger than 65 as their own individual groups, anyone under 65 gets thrown in the "&lt; 65 years old" statistic and those don't make up 5% of the total deaths by heat. [Hitze und Übersterblichkeit in Deutschland](https://www.rki.de/DE/Themen/Gesundheit-und-Gesellschaft/Gesundheitliche-Einflussfaktoren-A-Z/H/Hitze/Bericht_Hitzemortalitaet.html)

If you check my link, the numbers are just for germany alone but 2018 seemed way worse.

It's also not surprising in the slightest, we have temps outside going 32°C and more, you still see elderly people with walking aids walk around without shade or beverages, which is highly dangerous and to add, most of these deaths are due to underlying conditions.

What's interesting is there've been deaths due to heat since forever (including medieval times) and there're specific points in history where it's gotten a lot worse e.g. when the planet abruptly transitioned from a warming period towards a little ice age. While scientists aren't 100% certain, it is estimated that we get hit by 2030 with another little ice age, right now we're still in a warming period which is called [Holocene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene), these usually last up to 15k years and we're past year 11,700 already, so say we get "unlucky" then Holocene might last for another 3k years or more.

So the question is how much worse it will become before a shift happens, if a shift happens at all (before the extinction of humanity).

frisch85

I thought it's because of the energy crisis? There isn't sufficient electricity in Europe, they wouldn't use the air conditioner and so on.

Only_Pilot_284

It was definitely global warming that killed those people, not governments discouraging the use of air conditioning. 

I believe climate change is a thing, but it's shit like this that makes no one take it seriously.

captchairsoft

Mandate power rationing....reduce airconditioning....complain its never been this hot before because of global climate change.....rinse and repeat

jjr10000

Europeans will die before getting an air conditioner...now it's a proven fact.

somewhatfaded

Oh, hogwash.  Enough with the sky-is-falling climate change nonsense.

Perhaps 1500 lives could have been saved by air conditioning.

VictoriousStalemate

OMG please .. climate crisis ...

&gt;Temperatures across those 12 cities were **2 to 4 degrees Celsius above what would have naturally occurred if not for human-caused climate change**, the scientists discovered.

How exactly "scientists" discovered that? This is literally a comparison between what is, and what would have happened if there were no humans on Earth. How could you possibly know the latter?

Climate hysteria is dead, guys. These attempts to resuscitate it are truly ridiculous.

peternn2412

Planes burn jet fuel everywhere they fly, so yeah, carbon footprint is global regardless of where you take off.

HashtagRenzo

What are the long term implications?  Is half of Europe going to be desert?  I’m terrified by how fast this is all happening.  I still have family members who deny climate change even exists, and most people just go about their day with no more thought than what they’re having for lunch.

BertTKitten

kaynkayf

Well, the AC business is going to boom further, and caused more emissions. When there is money to be made, it will be made.   
  
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/07/20/1056271/europe-heat-waves-air-conditioning/#:\~:text=Fewer%20than%2010%25%20of%20households,that%20contribute%20to%20climate%20change.  
  
"Fewer than 10% of households in Europe are air-conditioned. But as temperatures rise, that figure is set to climb."

NyriasNeo

I can think of one instance in europe when Id say it got like..burning lava levels of hotter

Tikiboo

Hopefully they stop denying climate change. These are some of the coldest countries.

SnooHedgehogs190

Just wanted to respond to the stuff about China. 

Interesting note about how we get a lot of product from China and the partial drive this likely has on their emissions. 

That aside, China was kind of dealt a bad hand. An enormous population, aridification, and massive heatwaves over the past years have forced energy infrastructure growth and usage in a way that isn't sustainable. 

It's easy to condemn them when they're currently the biggest emitter on the planet and have planned for the construction of more coal plants in Q1 of 2023 than they did throughout all of 2022. You have to think though, just last year they experienced the worst heatwave they've ever had in recorded history and it's incredibly hard to deal with that without relying on fossil fuels when the infrastructure is there and the population exceeds 1.4 billion people. Sensitive populations need to stay cool, and the easiest way to do that right now is with air conditioning powered by fossil fuels, as incredibly unfortunate as that is. The renewable grid and battery technology just aren't quite there yet. 
With that said, China's share of energy powered by coal has only continued to decrease despite their added capacity, while the renewable energy share continues to rise very quickly. 

I definitely don't condone the rapid increase in coal power plants they have planned, believing their reliable energy needs could be better met by nuclear power, but I can't deny that they're still growing their renewable capacity more than other nation in the world right now by a large amount. I guess we'll also see how their decreasing population effects their CO2 emissions in the future.

disgruntledgrunt29

Imagine what's going to be like in the peak of summer in August. 50C+ ???
Feels like a Nostradamus apocalypse is underway.

&gt; The animation below uses data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission’s radiometer instrument and shows the land surface temperature across Italy between 9 and 10 July. As the image clearly shows, in some cities the surface of the land exceeded 45°C, including Rome, Naples, Taranto and Foggia. Along the east slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, many temperatures were recorded as over 50°C.

Usually we measure the surface air temperature in about 2.00m hight. But as long as it scares some people, why not use the ground temperature, right?

LackmustestTester

may 2025 hopefully be La Nina for the entire globe.........................

Ziedra

The_Debtor

Who was recording temperature 700 years ago? Or 5000 years ago?  "Hottest temperatures ever recorded" is an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence.

Used_Professional460

mizan

I don’t understand how we haven’t been able to effectively message to the wealthy/corporate owners. Your multiple properties will be worth more if more of the world is livable.

Lookimindaair

The rich just flock to cooler areas. Their mountain or seaside homes

string1969

Politicians, millionaries, billionaries and their friends won't be sweating? They live in air conditioned constant comfortable untouched bliss.

InternationalCut5718

If Trump takes us to war with Iran, I worry about Iranian retaliation against the US grid timed to take out power for several days right at the beginning of one of these major heat waves

AlexFromOgish

Highly recommend this sub read The Heat Will Kill You First. It’s horrifying. It’s happening.

P3achV0land

Climate denialism is now in the form of people believing it's not man made so that they can collectively do nothing to change it.

WaltEnterprises

Southern Europe is facing a severe heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 40°C, leading to emergencies related to wildfires and power supply stress.

Extreme Heat Wave in Southern Europe

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want