AFP – General ‘Climate change is killing’, says Spain’s president 20/07/2022 13:43 after record temperature

Western Europe assessed the damage left by an overwhelming heat wave accompanied by massive fires, many of which are still active, while Spain on Wednesday reported more than 500 deaths linked to extreme temperatures.

According to AEMET spokesperson Beatriz Hervella, this heatwave, which lasted from 9 to 18 July, was the “greatest abnormality” temperature recorded in the country since the start of the historic series in 1975.

Spanish Government President Pedro Sánchez warned the public that “climate change is killing” during his visit to the Aragon region on Wednesday.

“During this heatwave, more than 500 people died due to the high temperatures on record,” Sánchez said, referring to a death estimate conducted by a public health institute.

This Wednesday, the fire that worries him the most broke out in Calatayud (Aragon), where the flames affected an area of ​​14,000 hectares, evacuated 1,700 people and even disrupted the circulation of high-speed trains between Madrid and Barcelona.

The death toll Sánchez cited refers to estimates made by the public institute Carlos III, which makes a statistical calculation of the increase in deaths from precise causes, such as an increase in temperature, and compares these numbers with historical statistical series.

In fact, according to provisional data from the State Meteorological Agency, the latest heatwave to hit Spain was the most extreme temperature recorded in the country and will be the third longest in duration, followed by another in 2015 (26 days) and 2003. (16).

This was Europe’s second heat wave in just one month. According to scientists, the increase in these phenomena is a direct result of the climate crisis as greenhouse gas emissions increase in intensity, duration and frequency.

This latest wave hit mainly Spain, Portugal, France and the United Kingdom, where historic temperatures were reached.

get better in france

Fires in France since 12 July have burned more than 20,000 hectares of vegetation in the Gironde region in the southwestern part of the country.

This Wednesday, the fire seemed to be moving with less intensity. With only 300 hectares of land damaged in the last few hours, the “balance is more positive”, although the flames have not yet been extinguished, firefighter spokesman Arnaud Mendousse said.

President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda includes a visit this Wednesday to La Teste-de-Buch, a tourist town in the region 40km south of Bordeaux, and a “meeting with firefighters, civil defense personnel, law enforcement, officials and the entire group”. took. personnel were mobilized”, according to Eliseu.

There was no need to evacuate more people during the night. Shortly after the fires started, more than 36,000 people were preemptively forced to flee their homes.

The fire has affected other parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom, where a fire was reported in a city east of London on Tuesday. The flames, whose source has not been identified, spread to about 40 hectares, where they burned houses, farms and garages 30km from the center of the British capital.

record temperatures

After a tough night in Greece, aircraft began to take control of the flames that spread at the foot of Mount Pentelikus in the north of Athens.

Nearly 500 firefighters, 120 vehicles and 19 aircraft were used to extinguish the fire, which affected many suburbs, where around 90,000 people live.

Tuesday’s heat wave broke many records in Europe. According to the Met Office weather agency, thermometers in the UK have reached unprecedented levels: 40.2°C at Heathrow Airport in West London and 40.3°C in Coningsby, the village of Coningsby in the northwest of England.

The record was also surpassed in Scotland at 34.8°C, while France recorded new maximum temperatures in more than sixty locations, more than 40°C in some cities.