00:00Western Europe saw its hottest June on record, and meteorologists say it highlights just how dramatically the climate is changing.
00:08The average temperature last month reached 20.74 Celsius.
00:12That's more than 3 degrees above the average June temperature recorded between the years 1991 and 2020.
00:20Those scorching temperatures across Europe helped make this the world's second warmest June on record.
00:26The oceans recorded their warmest June sea surface temperatures ever.
00:31The extreme heat also claimed lives, with more than 4,700 excess deaths across France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands.
00:41And Germany has recorded an estimated 5,120 heat-related deaths so far this year,
00:48with most taking place late June, when the weekly average temperatures climbed above 20 degrees Celsius.
00:54Well, Malcolm Mistry is the assistant professor in climate and geospatial modelling
01:00at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
01:03Malcolm, welcome back. Good to see you.
01:05What does all of this tell us about the pace of climate change in Western Europe and beyond?
01:12Thank you for having me back.
01:14I think the recent back-to-back heat waves in Europe that we are experiencing now,
01:20more than anything, provide us with more evidence of the accelerating pace of climate change across this region,
01:27which happens to be the second fastest warming region after the Arctic.
01:32And it's also the fastest warming continent with the global average.
01:39It's twice as fast and warming as compared to the global average.
01:43So these heat waves are essentially illustrating what it means now from a one-off rare event occurring once every
01:53few years
01:54to what we are seeing back-to-back events and on a more regular basis across Europe.
02:01And I think this is, in a way, what the climate scientists have been wanting for the last several years
02:10would happen thanks to human activities.
02:13So really, I mean, to what extent can these extremes now be categorically attributed
02:18to human-induced climate change?
02:24The short answer is a lot.
02:26There are several studies pinpointing the increase in the frequency magnitude
02:33as well as duration of the heat waves to human-induced climate change.
02:40And I think from evidence, we have a lot of data spanning back several years.
02:46But if we just look at the recent decades itself, we can already see sort of a shift in this
02:53one-off events
02:55happening on a more regular basis.
02:58And this is attributed to human-induced climate change,
03:03not only the specific heat waves that we are seeing right now in Europe,
03:08but several others globally as well.
03:11Copernicus, this is the group of climate scientists.
03:14Copernicus says the climate system is continuing to accumulate heat with land and ocean temperatures
03:21reaching exceptional levels, in their words.
03:24Just help us with why are unusually warm oceans such a concern?
03:32So the oceans, in a way, absorb almost 90% of the atmospheric heat.
03:39And with this back-to-back heat waves right now, in a way, the oceans, the sea surface temperatures
03:44are not getting enough time to lower, to become colder.
03:49Now, this is, in a way, intensifying the weather system, not to forget the other extreme events,
03:58such as thunderstorms, also affecting the marine life.
04:03So these are some of the repercussions of a warmer ocean.
04:07And there is an element of natural climate system, but when you think of it,
04:13we are adding more energy to it, and we are intensifying this warming much more faster
04:18and also at a much more dangerous level.
04:23Malcolm, good to see you, and thank you once again for your time.
04:25Malcolm Mistry, the Assistant Professor in Climate and Geospatial Modeling
04:29at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
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