A severe heatwave is ongoing in Europe. Temperature records broken in France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

On 11 July 2023, the Land Surface Temperature (LST) in some areas of Extremadura (Spain) exceeded 60°C, as highlighted in this data visualisation derived from measurements from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) instrument. The ongoing heatwave in Spain this week is resulting in a total of 13 autonomous communities, being at extreme risk (red alert), significant risk (orange alert), and risk (yellow alert) due to maximum temperatures that, in some cases, will exceed 40°C and reach a maximum of 43°C.

For reference, “in areas where vegetation is dense, the land surface temperature never rises above 35°C. The hottest land surface temperatures on Earth are in plant-free desert landscapes.”

  • pizzahoe@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The world is burning but no one gives a shit… i don’t think anyone will until literally their house is on fire.

    • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not even then sometimes. In Germany, there was a small village buried under a mudslide from a flashflood that was a direct consequence of extreme weather patterns created by climate change. That same village overwhelmingly voted for conservative politicians that don’t care about doing anything about climate change the very next year.

      • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        For a while now, the question of democracy has been haunting the climate change issue. In the west, at least, it has shown itself ill-suited to the task of handling climate change. Of course, seriously proposing older forms of government would be dangerous and perhaps even insane. But the tension is there, and when we look back on all of this, democracy, or the form we have, is likely not going to look good.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Democracy just means the number of people getting kickbacks is a number above 1. The higher the number the more democratic.

          The trick is to make it so that the people who profit from fixing climate change are big enough to be in the group that gets kickbacks.

          As evil as Nixon was he wasn’t an idiot. You can get environmental rules passed as long as someone is getting their palm’s greased.

    • xuxebiko@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Northern India saw intense heatwaves just a few weeks back and now is being drowned. Indians are used to heatwaves and floods, but this year the intensity and scale both are frightening.

      • cynar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This was the reason it changed from “Global Warming” to “Climate Change”. More energy is being dumped into the weather system. This makes everything more extreme. The heating is almost incidental to it. The extra energy is the killer.

    • Arin@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Your comment signals lighting government official’s houses on fire nonstop so they start doing something

  • Darkard@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    When the crops are dead and the water dried up. Then people will start to take notice. But by then, it’s already too late.

    • LeberechtReinhold@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Both of those progressing nicely in Spain, and the result was… a rise of the right, that has doubled down on destroying the aquifers in the south, the most affected region.

      So the worse things become, the more people turn a blind eye to the issue.

    • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      The world is 70% water.

      Edit.

      Another fact, water is wet.

      Water is not going to dry up… What a weird comment, climate change means more rain, not less

          • Jaded@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            Do you think 100% of our population and agriculture lives by the coast? Sure we have elaborate and resource intensive solutions to the problem, we could eventually just move the whole population(what’s left) into domed cities by the coast, but it be better to just not fuck up our environment constantly and hold those that do accountable.

            Not sure what point your trying to make her but it’s not a good one.

            • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              I work in agtech, there’s plenty of solutions, vertical farming, genetic engineering for drought resistance.

              Point I’m making is that the water is not going to dry up because it covers 70% of the earth’s surface, not sure why that’s a contentious issue when it’s a basic fact that rain is increasing.

              It’s a salt issue, and desalination would also enable lithium and other rare earth metal mining without destroying habitats

              • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                Of course there are solutions. Everyone knows solutions exist. We could, for example, work to stop global warming.

                It’s having affordable solutions that don’t have massive side effects and that people are willing to do that’s the problem.

                • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  Lots of organisations are already working to stop climate change

                  My problem is with the moaners who do nothing but use fossil fuels and plastics to moan about fossil fuels and plastics.

              • gmtom@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                This is the most “I work for a tech bro startup that has existed for 6 months, and has done nothing but beg investors for funding” comment I’ve ever seen.

                • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  8 years and have grown ups with plant science masters degrees and such, and no, funding round is closed. IPO next.

                  UK equities are cheap right now, lots of money looking at snapping up bargains, good times ahead :)

              • prole@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                Oh cool, and how much energy does that desalination cost? And how do we generate that power?

            • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              If it makes you happy, sure. But not really, climate change means warmer air and more rain as a result.

              Controlled environment agriculture reduces water use by 95%…and we don’t need to use anywhere near all the seawater, obviously

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Stupidest fucking comment I’ve ever read in my life. Water doesn’t dry up? Have you never seen a dry river bed? Or how about salt flats?

        This is why we are doomed to die to climate change. People like you who are completely unwilling to even begin to understand the thing they refuse to accept.

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Lmao, please drink nothing but sea water for a few days then get back to me

  • lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I know this is a world community but I’m just going to throw the conversion out there for anyone who needs it to understand how hot that is, that is 140F.

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I feel like my toaster oven doesn’t get much hotter than that when I set it to reheat leftovers.

      We are truly fucked…

    • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The hottest I’ve had to endure is somewhere around 112°F with lots of humidity. I would (figuratively) die in 140°F weather.

    • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ah, I see you’re one of these people that will dismiss such claim because of “surface temperature”. Well, as someone that:

      • currently lives in an area with a long-lasting heatwave
      • can’t levitate above the ground
      • need to breath air

      I can tell you that surface temperature, even if they make “bigger numbers”, are extremely relevant to the degradation of the situation, no matter how misleading you think it is. The ground didn’t “suddenly” get hotter with everything else staying the same; and everything getting hotter also have dire consequences. It’s just a metric, it might not be the best one, but people should stop dismissing these, because it’s by having a hot frying pan that the content gets cooked.

      • Galluf@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Nope, not at all. You completely misunderstood my point.

        I’m not saying the ground suddenly got hotter and everything else stayed the same. In this case, it’s just a metric that’s quoted because it has a misleading high value especially by people who are just scrolling through.

        It’s click bait.

      • tcj@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        But we don’t live directly on top of the ground; we live 5 or 6 feet above the ground, and thus air temperature is much more important to understanding heat impacts to human health and well-being.

        Here’s an article talking about the types of temperature measurements. If LST is high, odds are air temperature will be high to, and air temp is much more relevant to our life as a human, whether we’re going to die, and easy to compare to how hot it is locally.

    • tcj@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, it’s confusing and unhelpful. People should standardize on reporting air temperature unless there’s a very specific and compelling reason not to.

      • Galluf@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yep. Unless you’re trying to cook eggs on the ground, then you can start letting people know when it finally gets hot enough to do that.

    • Chee_Koala@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If it’s explicitly and specifically noted like in this post, it’s fine. It even names airtemps further down.

      • Galluf@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s not fine if it’s what’s used in the title. It’s fine to include it as part of the post, but only including the surface temp in the title is misleading.

        • BillyTheSkidMark@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          You guys are arguing over degrees, ironically. Yes, it’s misleading, but it’s not AS misleading as saying “Temperature reaches 60C” without stating “surface” as well.

    • Woland@lemm.eeOP
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      1 year ago

      Extremadura is not a plant-free desert landscape. Not yet, anyway.

  • frippa@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’m on vacation in a place that is regularly 20c on summer, it’s 35c right now. Real sad since I wanted to escape the 40c city

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s only gonna get worse as global warming takes hold.

    Soon, Britain, Ireland and the Nordics are going to be prime summer holiday destinations because Southern Europe will be too damn hot to even inhabit.

    • damnYouSun@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      It’s going to be absolute hell because homes in these countries are designed to retain heat, have no air conditioning, and typically are built with large windows to let as much light in as possible.

      • johnlsullivan2@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Heat pumps for everyone until they are underwater from rising oceans. I thought the jet stream was going to make it much colder in the isles so maybe it’ll balance out lol.

  • Tautvydaxx@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Get ready for new eco bans, we will have to stop using plastic milk containers and factories will produce more junk to put the milk in to. Like with the plastic straws and bags, good idea on papper, poor execution irl.

    • anakaine@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Maybe you’re being funny, maybe not, but plastic bag pollution and straws etc are not the driving force behind temperature swings like this. Atmospheric gasses such as CO2, CH4, etc are the issue that causes climate change, and thus the instability accompanying things like greater peak temps, more disasters, etc.

      The bags and straws discussion is about environmental care. Eg not letting sea turtles eat plastic bags because they think they are jelly fish.

      • Tautvydaxx@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What iam saying that the average person will get the short stick, and the big polluters like factories will not see any new anti pollution regulations. Like do we need 100s of key chain factories, we lived without useless plastic trinkets before, ban those things because thry have no use.

      • Ronno@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah indeed, the paper bags are more polluting to produce than its plastic equivalent. The many problem with plastics is that it does more damage when it ends up in nature, but it is recyclable though.

        We should stop blaming the people/consumers and start blaming the large corporations that dump PFAS in our drink water supply, like they did here in The Netherlands and Belgium. That does lore harm than the plastic straws ever did

        • Akulagr@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Out of curiosity, how are paper bags more polluting than plastic ones?

          Also, from what I have been reading, the problem with plastic is that it’s actually marketed as widely recyclable, but nobody actually recycles plastic as it is too expensive (water bottles, plastic packaging, etc…). Its actually cheaper to produce more plastic than to recycle.

          • JanoRis@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            in germany most plastic bottles are reused several times through a deposit system and after reaching a limit they are almost completely recycled. Always wonder why other countries can’t seem to be able to use a similar system

            • Akulagr@lemmy.world
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              Is this audited in any way by authorities? How do you know what has been recycled and what is “virgin” plastic?

              That’s definitely the way forward in my opinion. Do people get any incentive to use the deposit system or it’s already ingrained in the culture?

  • PottedPlant@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If we are starting to get alarmed over surface temps, here’s my patio furniture temp right now in Arizona

    Air temp is currently 43.8C

    • Raltoid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I always hate these comments, and this is a whole new level.

      Acclimatization or acclimatisation (also called acclimation or acclimatation) is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH), allowing it to maintain fitness across a range of environmental conditions.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acclimatization

      TL;DR: You’d probably freeze to death if the local temperature suddenly became -30C.

      • BillyTheSkidMark@lemm.ee
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        I’m not sure if the OP edited it or not, but it sounds like you’re assuming they’re saying something more than they are. They never said “we’re all going to die”. They’re just pointing out that it’s also a very high surface temp in Arizona, which is nearly exactly the surface temp the title states in Spain.