Climate scientist: 'Europe's heatwave has a large climate change component'

As Europe endures another extreme heatwave, attention has turned to why the continent keeps breaking temperature records, and what it means for people's health. CGTN spoke to Peter Thorne, director of the ICARUS Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University in Ireland, for expert analysis on the science and the risks involved.

Speaking about how unusual the current heatwave is, Thorne was careful to frame it within a broader pattern. 

"All extremes are by their nature unusual, but it is becoming increasingly common for this type of weather to occur across Europe at this time of year," he said. He also highlighted the problem beyond the cheerful images often associated with hot weather. 

"There will be pictures of people frolicking on the beach, but the hidden cost to people who are medically vulnerable, to the very old, to the very young, cannot be overstated," said Thorne.

The climate researcher also explained how several overlapping factors have contributed to Europe's reputation as the world's fastest-warming continent. 

"The heatwave will have a very large climate change component. How large will undoubtedly be looked over forensically by experts in event attribution studies over the coming days and weeks," he said. "But fundamentally Europe is warming the fastest in the world. 

"That's partly because the Arctic is warming very fast, partly because we've removed the atmospheric particulates that were causing pollution which acted as a weak parasol on Europe, and partly because these types of dynamic events appear to be becoming much more frequent in Europe. These heat domes, these high pressures that get stuck and just generate more and more heat day by day."

While daytime temperatures tend to dominate headlines, Thorne stressed that the inability to cool down at night poses a particular danger. 

"The human body needs time to recover, and that recovery time is at night when we're sleeping," he explained. "If it's not cool enough at night, the body does not get that opportunity to recover, and that's when it gets really quite dangerous, particularly for the medically vulnerable, the very elderly, the very young who are very vulnerable to these heat health impacts."

Thorne offered practical advice on staying safe, it is guidance that runs counter to instinct. 

"During the day, counterintuitively maybe, it's about keeping shutters closed, curtains closed, windows closed, and then opening them up at night when it's that little bit cooler," he said. "It's about finding cool areas to be — the library, the gym, wherever it is, a coffee shop that has air conditioning. It's about finding that relief, even if for a short period of time. That really matters; that gives your body the chance to recover.

However, he acknowledged that such options are not available to everyone: "For some people this isn't possible, particularly some of the most vulnerable in society."