Europe Extreme Heat 'We Were Warned' WHO Chief - 1300 Dead from Climate - Driven Heatwave 🔥

[appalachiablue]

''We Were Warned,' Says WHO Chief as More Than 1,300+ Dead Across Europe From Climate-Driven Heat Wave, By Jon Qually, Common Dreams, June 28, 2026. Ed.

“It’s time to turn the heat on the fossil fuel giants that caused this heatwave but are doing nothing to cover the costs.”
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The head of the World Health Organization on Sunday said the deadly heat wave now boiling across Europe—which French authorities say caused more than 1,000 deaths last week alone—is the predicted and horrifying result that climate scientists and human rights advocates have been warning about for decades.

In a social post Sunday, WHO secretary-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Driven by climate change and global warming, the phenomenon of the ‘once-in-a-generation’ heatwave is now occurring nearly annual. We were warned." Citing over 1,300 excess deaths across Europe in the last week—as temperatures broke records in nation after nation—Tedros added that “heat stress is often called the ‘silent killer’— and European homes, workplaces and schools were not built for these temperatures.”

“Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average,” he said. “Right now 150 million people are living under extreme heat, hundreds have died, schools are shut, grids are buckling.” According to the Associated Press: Germany marked a new record for the third day in a row with 41.7 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) in Neißemünde, near the border with Poland. The Czech Republic also experienced its hottest day ever with 41.1 C (106.4 F).

A new study from the World Weather Attribution, a Europe-based collaboration of scientists, reported Friday that the record-breaking heat and humidity in Europe this past week would not have been possible without climate change. The rapid study found that the heat would have been virtually impossible just five decades ago, and is 200 times more likely today than it would have been 20 years ago..

The threat of extreme heat related to the climate crisis is not only in Europe.

In 2024, a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that heat-related deaths in the U.S. rose 117% between 1999 and 2023...

More,
https://www.commondreams.org/news/europe-heat-wave

[NNadir]

1. Yes, but FUKUSHIMA!

It's not like the collapse of the planetary atmosphere is worse than the thought that someone may still die from radiation exposure at Fukushima.

In Germany this evening any air conditioners running will be powered by coal.

[appalachiablue]

2. Thanks for posting. Leaders better act, thousands of lives lost from heat horror can't continue

[Brenda]

3. And the true numbers are alway higher.

I remember a report about Phoenix a few years ago. Instead of labelling the cause of death of hundreds of people as Heat or AGW, they only listed what the person had or immediately died from: COPD, diabetes, CHF, heart attack, etc.

So we really don't have accurate numbers of global warming caused deaths anywhere, but especially not in Chumpland.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. The part of the story that's not making the news is that the heat is coming North from Africa

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/06/23/the-omega-block-bringing-saharan-heat-to-britain/

The killer ‘omega block’ heat dome heading for Britain
Europe is trapped under a ‘pressure-cooker lid’ weather system shaped like the Greek letter

Henry Samuel
Paris Correspondent

Published 23 June 2026 4:22pm BST

Europe is simmering under an “omega block” heat dome, a massive ridge of high pressure that has locked itself over the Continent.

The weather system traps hot Saharan air beneath it like a lid on a pressure cooker.

…

“Underneath that heat dome, where the air is trapped and the heat builds, so does pollution, and particularly ozone pollution... So not only have you got health issues because of the heat, you also have a health impact because of increased air pollution.”

She said “thousands” would die because of excess heat in the UK, and “probably tens of thousands across France” but noted that the deaths would not be reported in real time because the statistics would not appear “until maybe a month or a few months after the event, and so we call heat the silent killer”.

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Are there deaths in Africa? Did you hear crickets?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d44148-026-00147-3

10 June 2026
North Africa’s heatwaves are lasting longer, hitting harder
Scientists warn that extreme heat is increasingly colliding with drought, water stress and fragile urban systems.
By Mohammed El-Said

When Morocco issued an orange-level heat alert in late May 2026, temperatures were forecast to reach 44°C across parts of the country, including Laayoune, Dakhla, Smara, Tata, Tarfaya and Tan-Tan. Egypt had already endured its own early-season heat episode weeks earlier, with temperatures climbing above 40°C in several regions.

For scientists, these events signal a wider shift as the region is now experiencing hotter baselines, longer warm seasons, warmer nights and more persistent heatwaves, interacting with drought, water scarcity, urban growth and fragile health systems.

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The hidden toll of heat
The human consequences of the new normal are severe and often underestimated. Heat can kill directly through heatstroke, but it also exacerbatess cardiovascular, respiratory, kidney and metabolic diseases. Older people, infants, pregnant women, people with chronic illnesses, outdoor workers and residents of poorly ventilated or informal housing are especially vulnerable.

The World Health Organization warns that prolonged hot days and warm nights increase physiological stress, while heat can reduce labour productivity and interact with air pollution. Yet, many heat-related deaths are recorded under underlying diseases rather than heat itself, making the actual toll difficult to measure.

…