Unless we act soon, this heatwave is just a taste of things to come | Andrea Dutton

It's not too late to avert the climate crisis from becoming even more deadly - but the window is closing

High temperature records are being obliterated across western Europe, some of which had been previously set during the heatwave in 2003 that is estimated to have left tens of thousands dead. Raging wildfires are displacing thousands of people, one of the many compounding impacts of the climate crisis. This heatwave is another reminder that we have already breached unsafe levels of global heating.

As our planet warms, these lethal heatwaves will become more frequent and more intense. In fact, we may look back on these years as some of the coolest, compared with what will come if we do not act now. Human life will encounter life-threatening impacts with increasing frequency and mounting consequences. Countless scientific reports have been conveying this reality for decades.

Andrea Dutton is an international expert on climate change and sea level rise who is a MacArthur Fellow and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison