Can Europe’s historic cities survive a warming climate?

This week was London Climate Action Week, an international event that brought researchers, leaders and activists to the British capital to discuss climate change. As delegates gathered in the city, they experienced the nature of the problem first-hand: temperatures in parts of the United Kingdom topped 36 degrees Celsius (97F), and London itself sweltered. The city clearly struggled to cope, as exemplified by an event scheduled to discuss extreme heat being cancelled because of the extreme heat . A heatwave has engulfed Europe. The physical phenomenon is well understood. The jet stream dips to the west, allowing hot air from North Africa to make its way over the continent. An area of high pressure then strengthens, staying in place for days, creating a dome that traps hot air and suppresses cloud formation. Temperatures increase. Europe is turning into an oven. And the fact that it is consistently breaking records is a strong indication that the long-term warming of Europe —the continent that is warming the fastest — is having an effect. Such weather patterns have happened before, of course, but they are now becoming deeper and more frequent. They are no longer occasional, extreme events, but a new normality. And they are also revealing the structural inadequacy of Europe’s built environment: not insulated enough to keep the heat out, nor uniformly air-conditioned enough to keep it cool. …