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People swim in the sea during a hot summer day in Barcelona, Spain. Emilio Morenatti via PA Images

Two dead in Spain as Europe wilts under record heatwave

With almost no rainfall since May, Sweden has experienced its hottest July in more than 250 years.

TWO MEN HAVE died from heatstroke in Spain as Europe swelters in a record heatwave, with temperatures hitting a scorching 45 degrees Celsius in some areas and meteorologists saying only scant relief is in sight in the coming days.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Europe was 48 degrees in Athens in 1977, closely followed by 47.3 in Amareleja, Portugal in 2003 as well as in Montoro, Spain last year.

Here is a roundup:

Spain: two dead 

Two men – a road worker in his 40s and a 78-year-old pensioner – died from heatstroke as Spain is set to experience one of its hottest days this summer today, with temperatures expected to top 44 degrees Celsius in Badajos on the border with Portugal, 42 degrees in Seville and 40 in Madrid.

Portugal: record 45 degrees 

In Portugal, temperatures topped a record 45 degrees in Alvega, 150 kilometres north of Lisbon, on Thursday. The heatwave is expected to reach its peak on Saturday, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).

While no “substantial” wildfires have been reported so far, the emergency services say they remain on maximum alert and Interior Minister Eduardo Cabrita declared a policy of “zero tolerance” towards risky activity, such as barbecues.

Germany: tourists head north 

Tourism operators, such as Thomas Cook and Alltours, were quoted by German news agency DPA as saying that last-minute bookings for the Mediterranean are down, as holidaymakers seek out cooler temperatures on the North Sea and Baltic coastlines.

Netherlands: water shortages 

In the Netherlands, where the current heatwave is the longest-ever recorded – with temperatures set to reach 35 degrees today – people are beginning to experience water shortages, even if drinking supplies remain unaffected for now.

Sweden: hottest July in 250 years

With almost no rainfall since May, Sweden experienced its hottest July in more than 250 years, with the drought and high temperatures sparking wildfires across the country, even as far north as the Arctic Circle. The fires have largely abated.

A glacier on Sweden’s Kebnekaise mountain has melted so much that it is no longer the country’s highest point, raising concerns about the rapid pace of climate change.

But relief may be on the way: meteorologists are forecasting cooler temperatures and thundershowers across the country on Saturday.

Heatwave - Hospitals are saturated - Paris The elderly are the most affected in Paris as hospitals are saturated. Apaydin Alain / ABACA via PA Images Apaydin Alain / ABACA via PA Images / ABACA via PA Images

France: health alert

Temperatures passed 40 degrees Celsius in France for the first time this summer today as millions hit the roads for August vacations, with sweltering conditions forecast to persist into next week.

Wide swathes of the country have been placed on heatwave alert with the health ministry rolling out a TV and radio campaign alerting people to the dangers of what is expected to be the most intense heatwave since 2006.

However national weather service Meteo France said conditions were not as severe as in August 2003, when several days of scorching heat caused more than 11,000 deaths.

A daycare centre in Strasbourg, northeast France, turned to toys to keep youngsters cool. “The youngest are wearing only diapers and every once in a while we spray them with water toys,” its deputy director Carol Hebbel told AFP.

Britain: retail sales down

In Britain, the heatwave has hit retail sales, which were down 1.1% in July, according to accountancy firm BDO.

“While the sunshine and buzz around England’s World Cup run was a boost for pubs and supermarkets, the scorching conditions did not encourage physical shopping and only hindered footfall in shops,” said BDO’s Sophie Michael.

“While temperatures may have been rising, retailers are being frozen out. Summer is proving to be something of a disaster for shops.”

Belgium: more road accidents

The Belgian road safety authority VIAS reported an increase in the number of road accidents as a result of the heatwave.

“The daily average number of accidents is 15% higher during a heatwave. And the accidents are more serious,” VIAS spokesman, Stef Willems, was quoted by Belgian media as saying.

Poland: drownings

As many in Poland look for a cool respite from the scorching weather, the police said nearly 250 people had drowned since the beginning of April, including 75 in July alone. Police blamed alcohol-fuelled swims in unsupervised areas.

Italy: free bottles of water 

In the Italian capital, already well-equipped with free drinking water fountains, the authorities are handing out bottles of water to tourists.

The national farmers’ union, Coldiretti, said that milk production was down 15% as cows suffered from the heat. At the same time, ice cream consumption was up 30% over the past week, the union said.

© AFP 2018 

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    Mute Michael Ahern
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 4:45 PM

    Our politicians need to act on initiatives expected to counteract climate change. Acting after the horse has bolted not an option.

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    Mute Harry Whitehead
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 4:57 PM

    @Michael Ahern: “Climate change is faaaaake noooz”

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    Mute Reuben Gray
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 4:58 PM

    @Michael Ahern: Ireland’s own impact on speeding up the natural warming cycle the earth is in is negligible. It’s the larger countries that need to step up. We should be leading by example though.
    We can’t stop the earth warming, we are still coming out of the last ice age but we can help decrease our own impace.

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    Mute James_665
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:12 PM

    @Michael Ahern: think it too late, by about 40 years

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    Mute Chucky Arlaw
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:14 PM

    @Reuben Gray: ‘negligible’ is subjective… Oskar Schindler’s actions were negligible, he only saved 600 Jews when six million were killed… It was still the right thing to do

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:25 PM

    @Chucky Arlaw:
    1,600.

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    Mute Walt Jabsco
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:09 PM

    @Reuben Gray:
    Only because we’re a small country. Per capita we’re one of the worst offenders due to agricultural methane emissions.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:39 PM

    @Walt Jabsco: Other countries have no cows?

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    Mute Walt Jabsco
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:44 PM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald:
    Generally not as many per capita as we do, no.

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    Mute Niall Brew
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 11:34 PM

    @Walt Jabsco: well new zealand and uruguay do. Similar size

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    Mute Walt Jabsco
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    Aug 4th 2018, 8:15 AM

    @Niall Brew:
    They have high methane emissions too.

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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:31 AM

    @Michael Ahern: Indeed. Every country needs to act as a matter of huge urgency. Consider that there is a 50-year time lag between emissions and their effect in the atmosphere.
    If we stopped all emissions tomorrow, we would still have emissions building up for another 50 years, with likely appalling consequences. Cutting emissions dramatically now will mean the difference between a very difficult situation for life on earth and an end to life on earth.
    Ireland has very high per capita emissions, and we are the climate change laggards when it comes to action in a European context. We must do our bit – how can you look your children in the eye otherwise?

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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:47 AM

    @Reuben Gray: Our current warming is NOTHING to do with coming out of an ice age. It is proven beyond doubt to be caused by our emissions. What is more, paleoclimatology clearly demonstrates that the earth has never warmed at such a pace going back millions of years – and when it has (through natural disasters), it has led to mass extinctions.
    Our impact as a country is NOT negligible. We have among the highest per capita emissions on the planet and our emissions are rising. Given that we know this threatens literally to end the conditions for most life on earth, and that cleaner energy would be healthier and less polluting anyway, what is the goddam problem with playing our part? It is now hugely urgent that we do so.

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    Mute Ennui Kenny
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:15 PM

    Sure this whole global warming thing is a myth, isn’t it? I really can’t understand that despite all of the evidence that the earth’s climate is changing there are still people who think that it is all a hoax. The simple fact is that if this keeps up there will be a massive upheaval all over the world. Already the “dust line” in the US is expanding. That is the area between the desert like zones and temperate zones. In Ireland the agriculture sector will have to have a major rethink on the crops that we grow.

    What is more important is how populations are going to shift. People are going to want to move from areas that are uninhabitable to other areas. That is going to cause major conflicts everywhere. People wanting to move to major cities will find those cities at bursting point, they might even be underwater the way things are going. By 2100 there will be an extra 4 billion people on the planet and where will they go? https://www.newsweek.com/these-countries-are-predicted-have-worlds-biggest-populations-end-century-1051116

    If people think that we have immigration crisis now they are only starting to see the barest trickle of what is to come. When deserts start expanding, floods become more common, land becomes unproductive and crops start failing then those people living there will have to go somewhere. It could i reality lead to massive conflicts as people fight over resources, water and land space. The future isn’t too bright for the children being born today of for their children in the future.

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    Mute Toby Thedogk
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:26 PM

    @Ennui Kenny: no fear, a natural disaster will fix that.

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    Mute John Horan
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:51 PM

    @Ennui Kenny: but Sweden was hotter 250 years ago, before the industrial revolution.

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    Mute Ennui Kenny
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:54 PM

    @Toby Thedogk: I do remember a programme a few years back about the Spanish Flu and the effects that it had on world population. At the time it was spread worldwide by the shipping home of soldiers in WW1 and the increase of people traveling worldwide by train and boat. The flu spread but at a relatively slow rate due to transport times.

    A few weeks later there was another programme about bird flu. The scenario was a woman contracts a highly contagious airborne strain bird flu in Hong Kong, it incubates and becomes active and she becomes a vector. Patient Zero. She gets on a large airliner and travels to Heathrow with 500 other people. They contract the flu through recirculated air. The passengers spread through London and to other cities as onward travellers. They use public transport and so on. The upshot was that within 48 hours you had 500 carriers in cities of millions of people spreading a highly contagious disease without knowing it.Within 2 weeks the disease had gone global and affected millions everyday. The whole thing scared the shite out of me.

    The ironic thing was that while people in developed countries might think that they were fine because they had good health systems, in fact the opposite might be true. People in developed countries might actually be at greater risk in an outbreak scenario because we are building up a resistance to antibiotics. Now antibiotics won’t beat a flu as it is a virus but they can combat secondary symptoms which might cause more damage than the virus itself. It’s people who don’t have access to regular healthcare and as a result haven’t built up an immunity to antibiotics who may well have a better chance of survival assuming they can get access to those drugs in the first place.

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    Mute Paraic
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:22 PM

    @John Horan: Stop being such a dope. Your comment is basically the same as saying “There’s no such thing as poverty because I once knew a man who won the Lotto”. Are you so stupid that you don’t understand the difference between a single data point and a trend? The global annual mean temperature has increased by 1.5 degrees since 250 years ago. Aside from your ridiculous logic, Sweden just had an all time record hottest May and July. https://www.thelocal.se/20180731/sweden-had-its-hottest-ever-july-breaking-several-weather-records
    The country’s highest peak, a glacial formation, melted last week. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/world/europe/sweden-kebnekaise-heat-wave.html
    And all of the highest temperatures recorded in Sweden have been in thee last 100 years. Do you always just lie?

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    Mute Walt Jabsco
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:24 PM

    @John Horan:
    On average or on one particular date?

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    Mute Walt Jabsco
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:27 PM

    @Ennui Kenny:
    It’s not humans that become resistant to antibiotics – it’s the bacteria.

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    Mute Paraic
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:32 PM

    @Walt Jabsco: It wasn’t hotter 250 years ago. He just made it up. All of Sweden’s records have been recorded since 1901. A lot of them have now been broken this summer. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Sweden#Highest_temperatures_ever_recorded_in_Sweden

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    Mute Ennui Kenny
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:35 PM

    @Walt Jabsco: Ah well we are all OK then just so long as we don’t get infected with any bacteria!

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    Mute John Horan
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:43 PM

    @Walt Jabsco: read the article….hottest July in 250 years.

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    Mute John Horan
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:46 PM

    @Paraic: sorry the the article is incorrect…clearly states hottest July in 250 years…whole month not a single data point. So sometime before 1768 Sweden was hotter in July

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    Mute Walt Jabsco
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:50 PM

    @Ennui Kenny:
    It means that from that point of view we’re no more at risk than anyone else though.
    In the ‘sterile west’ we may have weaker natural immune systems, but that’s another issue.

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    Mute Jonathan Whelan
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 7:07 PM

    @Ennui Kenny: ironic that thr countries with the fastest expanding population are also the biggest polutters in most cases.

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    Mute Paraic
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 7:27 PM

    @John Horan: The reason it says ‘in 250 years” is because that’s the span of their accurate temperature measurement archive. It doesn’t mean that 250 years ago was the hottest year in Sweden.

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    Mute John Horan
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 7:47 PM

    @Paraic: July July….read the article.

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    Mute Paraic
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 8:40 PM

    @John Horan: I did John, Did you read my comment? The article has omitted that this was also the hottest May ever recorded in Sweden. In several locations in Sweden all time records were broken for hottest temperature ever recorded in any year. What’s your point though?

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    Mute Philip Mc dermott
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 10:50 PM

    @John Horan: pr oui ck

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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:27 AM

    @John Horan: No! The 250 years means that that is when reliable records began in that country!

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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:32 AM

    @Ennui Kenny: The fact is that none of us will escape. Our ecosystem and world order will break down. There will be no food. There will be war and conflict. It is not going to be pretty and it is completely avoidable. Tell your TDs we need to do our bit.

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    Mute Gerard McConnell
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:57 PM

    In Seville at the moment, most of the street signs today are registering 46 or 47, the weather app is 43. I know we Irish complain we don’t get enough sun, I’d never want this heat in Ireland, it’s just unreal. There’s nowhere to hide, except the bars for water and stuff. Loads of stuff.

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    Mute Toby Thedogk
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:53 PM

    @Gerard McConnell: See any cows there?

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    Mute Gerard McConnell
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 7:38 PM

    @Toby Thedogk: Few up on the walls of restaurants, Spanish plaques saying what terrors they were, poor that I thought. Mind you I’d not face one of these mad cows with a cape, I’d reckon they’d have me for sure. So medium rare it is please Manuel.

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    Mute Paul Devlin
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:04 PM

    Whilst roads obviously need maintained, surely roadworkers should not have to work in the mid 40s. Road surfaces would push the temperature there into the 50s. Crazy

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    Mute Doz
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:30 PM

    It should be pointed out that sun spots are at a very low level at the moment, so correspondingly solar flux density is also low! Pushes the global warming debate very much towards the anthropogenic argument.

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    Mute Jimmy Coltrane
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:43 PM

    Wha?

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    Mute Aidan Byrne
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:44 PM

    @Doz: Too true!

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    Mute Patrick J. O'Rourke
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:15 PM

    @Doz: That’s interesting actually as many people were pointing at that earlier in the year saying it could bring on major heatwaves. Someone posted here saying that we could get a summer like 1976 and was firmly ridiculed by the usual suspects.

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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:28 AM

    @Doz: Indeed, the sun has been in a cool phase for years now – solar experts say it is definitely not the sun that is causing our undeniable global warming. But hey, it’s no longer a debate that our warming is coming from our emissions – none of the different scientific disciplines would deny it.

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    Mute Life is short enjoy it
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:47 PM

    Like humans and animals we have our own ageing clock. The earth is the same weather is part of ageing. We can help mother earth by not adding to it but if you really look at it we are small drop. We need to replant more trees , let more rivers flow ,

    25
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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:35 AM

    @Life is short enjoy it: What we are doing is destroying the conditions for life to continue on this planet. Let’s be clear about that. Climate has been relatively stable on the planet for much of the time humans have been on the planet. We are pushing things to the limit and there is no need for it. We have all the solutions we need at hand. The only thing that has stopped action is lobbying and bribes from the fossil fuel industry to politicians, and the deliberate sowing of doubt by them about the causes of climate change.

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    Mute Philip Wilson
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:08 PM

    Might want to fact check that France stat……11,000 deaths? I’m pretty sure that would have been bigger news.

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    Mute
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:44 PM

    @Philip Wilson: thank you. I thought Id developed amnesia for a second

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    Mute David McShite
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 7:36 PM

    @Philip Wilson: It was a huge story at the time. Goes to show how little we actually retain when the news cycle moves on.

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    Mute Football in the Groin
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 8:40 PM

    @Philip Wilson: According to this article it was over 14,000 with 35,000 dying across Europe: https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.newscientist.com/article/dn4259-european-heatwave-caused-35000-deaths/amp/

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    Mute Gerard Heery
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:06 PM

    Bring it on a bit nice warm weather ,lets call it a decent summer at long last, and long may it last,

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    Mute A Right Pair Of King's !
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 5:12 PM

    Climate change !

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    Mute Owen Lynch
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 7:20 PM

    Danny Healy Rea seen in Seville today just checking it out.

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    Mute lelookcoco
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 6:41 PM
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    Mute Jennifer Hayden
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 7:31 PM

    just because Ireland is a small country does not mean one has to leave it all to the other nations to reduce the impact on the environment ,climate change , its smart ideas that Ireland can put in place that can help other nations .Ireland first brought in no more plastic shopping bags putting charge on them … that it is now standard policy in rest of world .
    Peat moss was removed from garden centers and in turn it would help the bog lands of Ireland yet in recent months capitalism has raised its ugly head in promoting Peat to be used for bedding down material in large cattle sheds , thus this time there using the excuse that because the weather has reduced the hay and fodder crop the price in the next couple of months will sky rocket so lets use \Peat instead ,,Ireland and its citizens cannot hide away from climate change , its a nation that depends on emigration hence Dublin airport has expanded plus all the new roads in Ireland these do not reduce the nations impact…. might be case that one needs to really look at Ireland impact its not as carbon neutral as it thinks it is .

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    Mute purple rain
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 10:35 PM

    Definitely a concern that can only be solved by taxing the people. That will teach the sun.

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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:39 AM

    @purple rain: Why would you want to tax people? There are more creative solutions to playing our part in literally saving a liveable planet for our children and their children.
    We could provide free home insulation and solar panels to every home in the land. We could have free public transport. We could make it the law that every building must have solar and that you can feed excess into the grid and benefit from that. We can have rules that business must be energy-efficient. We can stop subsidising power stations that burn peat (you’re paying a tariff on your energy bill to subsidise polluting energy production in Ireland). We can invest instead in offshore wind.

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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:40 AM

    @purple rain: Plus – it’s not the sun. Solar experts have been saying for years that our current undeniable global warming is NOT caused by the son, which has been in a cool phase for years. If it’s the sun, then why is it only the lower layers of the atmosphere that have heated up?

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    Mute Micheál
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    Aug 3rd 2018, 11:15 PM

    Capitalism is the root of the problem; people have no say in what is produced. Anarchy of production must be ended by the working class and people if humanity is to survive

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    Mute Dainéil Ó hÍobhair
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    Aug 4th 2018, 12:42 AM

    @Micheál: Well I don’t think Socialism/Communism isn’t the solution either. It has been tried many times and has ended up horribly with tyrannical and oppressive regimes with millions dead and imprisoned. I’m not saying that Capitalism is the solution either but it’s foolish to think these two political ideologies are our only choices.

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    Mute Little Diddy No
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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:57 AM

    We have a climate crisis and, given the 50-year time lag between emissions and their effect in the atmosphere, we need to act with the greatest urgency to save a liveable planet for our children and their children. Is it not tragic to look them in the eye and realise we did not do enough. By the time they are grown it will be too late – if it is not already.
    We have thousands of domino effects and vicious cycles already starting – for example
    —dry forests and fields burning, creating more emissions, creating more warming, leading to even more forests burning;
    —soot now covering ice in the poles, so it’s no longer serving the purpose of a huge white space reflecting back the sun’s heat – leading to more warming, leading to more soot and so on;
    —oceans absorbing carbon, causing acidity that is already starting to affect the ability of plankton to grow their alkaline shells – they provide HALF of all the air we breathe on this planet, and are the bottom of the oceanic food chain;
    —pollinators dying off and others starting to emerge at a different time to the plants they pollinate – threatening our food production around the planet.
    —drought and water shortages – huge ice packs that feed rivers are disappearing – water tables becoming exhausted – there will literally be less water available to everybody
    —More violent hurricanes everywhere – as warm air and warm water feeds storms.
    —Mass migration as more areas of the earth become uninhabitable and unable to grow food – this has already started
    —Conflict and wars over resources
    There are millions more of earth’s complex interactions that are breaking down. That means there will be no escape just because we are not living in Africa or Southern Europe.

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    Aug 4th 2018, 9:43 AM

    We are in a situation where, through gross negligence, successive Irish governments have failed to take action on tackling our emissions (which are rising instead of falling) when it would have been easy to do so – and so we are in line for fines of around 600 million by 2020 – fines from agreements we signed up to along with every other country in the world, in order to do the right thing and save a liveable planet for our future generations.
    Imagine if the government had spent even a fraction of that on the actions that are easy to implement to reduce our emissions. Instead they have take actions they know will increase our emissions – for example the plan to increase our beef and dairy herds simply for export as beef and powdered milk.

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