Several events have been canceled or postponed in the country to avoid overloading hospitals which are already near their breaking point, especially in the Paris region.
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PARIS — France has recorded 1,000 more deaths than usual this month — an increase that can be attributed to the record-breaking heat wave the country has gone through in recent days.
“Since June 24, approximately 1,000 additional deaths (unconsolidated figures) have been recorded compared to the deaths recorded in previous months,” the French national health agency said in a statement on Sunday.
“This increase has been more pronounced in regions under a red alert over the past few days,” the agency continued, referring to the highest alert level for heat waves.
On Sunday, most of France was no longer on red alert, after more than a week of scorching heat, including several record-breaking days and nights. High temperatures are now moving eastward. The heat wave — the worst to ever to hit Western Europe — could not have occurred without humans heating the planet by burning fossil fuels, scientists said.
Spanish researchers are attributing more than 210 fatalities to the heat — a number expected to increase.
In France, several events have been canceled or postponed over the weekend, such as the Pride festival and the Solidays music festival, to avoid overloading hospitals which are already near their breaking point, especially in the Paris region.
“The increases [in deaths] are seen across all age groups, underscoring the fact that the effects of heat waves can affect the entire population. Nevertheless, 85 percent of the deaths recorded involve people aged 65 and older,” the French health agency said, adding those were “preliminary data that underestimate the total number of deaths.”
Across Europe, more than 1,300 excess deaths have been recorded since June 21 linked to the extreme heat, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday.
In a post on X, he noted that Europe is “the fastest-warming continent on Earth,” warming at twice the global average, with around 150 million people currently living under extreme heat.
“Hundreds have died, schools are shut, grids are buckling,” he said, warning that climate change is making once-rare heat waves increasingly frequent.
“Driven by climate change and global warming, the phenomenon of the ‘once-in-a-generation’ heat wave is now occurring nearly annually. We were warned,” he said.
The heat wave has become a debate talking point for politicians, less than a year ahead of a high-stakes presidential election. Some schools have had to close and public transportation was affected, raising concerns about the French state’s lack of preparedness for extreme heat waves that are likely to become more intense, more frequent and longer, according to climate scientists.
The extraordinary heat wave — the worst to ever hit Western Europe — could not have occurred without humans heating the planet by burning fossil fuels, scientists say. New research published Friday by the World Weather Attribution consortium found that this kind of event would have been “virtually impossible” just 50 years ago, and has become vastly more likely even over the past two decades due to global warming.
The World Weather Attribution consortium, which includes scientists from Imperial College London and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, used peer-reviewed methods to compare this week’s heat wave to other hot European summers in 1976 and 2003.
“Over the full extent of this heat wave, we found that in the last 50 years … the chance of a heat wave like this has changed immensely,” said lead author Theodore Keeping, an extreme weather researcher at Imperial College London.
Israel’s government unanimously voted on Sunday to formally recognize the Armenian genocide, amid worsening ties with Turkey. “Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, the Armenian genocide …
They are also considering references to the U.S. war in Iran as part of the draft summit declaration, NATO diplomats told POLITICO.
Europeans should not try to replace all of the expensive kit supplied by America, French Deputy Defense Minister Alice Rufo tells POLITICO.
Jordan Bardella called the U.S. president’s behavior “erratic but also extremely unsteady and constantly shifting.”
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