By: Andruw Lin

Last week, there was a record-breaking heatwave in Europe caused by hot air from Africa. The rising temperature was most likely caused by climate change and global warming. This affected Europeans since air conditioning is not common in Europe.

The heat wave is a result of the climate change and global warming that has been happening across the globe over recent years. “On Friday, dozens of weather stations in France recorded their hottest June temperatures on record, and two locations observed their hottest-ever day on record: the town of Pissos in southwestern France hit 107 degrees (41.7 Celsius), while Revel hit 104 degrees (40.2 Celsius),” cites an article from the Washington Post.

Air conditioning is also not as common in the European countries as the US, so many of them do not have air conditioning or other ways to cool down. According to the same Washington Post article, “both France and Germany are reported to have roughly 5 percent or fewer residential homes with air conditioning. In contrast, more than 90 percent of people in the United States have access to air conditioning at home.”

In addition to not having air conditioning, some European governments have asked citizens to not set the air conditioning too high to reduce the amount of demand for electricity and stop the reliance on Russian natural gas. Some birds in Spain are dying because of the heat waves. The birds often build nests in the cavities of the buildings, which are made from metal or concrete. The nests are like ovens that are cooking the birds inside. In some places, there are dedicated places that cool down people called “cooling centers” during these times of extreme heat. Some places also have dedicated apps for finding these places.

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