How a record-breaking heatwave in Europe is changing everyone’s lives.
Heatwaves are quickly sweeping across Europe. People across the continent have been bearing the heat since June. With temperatures reaching 40-degree Celsius or even above, this could be caused by an extreme levels of climate change in Europe.
Children and adults were both affected by the heatwave.
Adults have been changing their routine to cool off from the heatwave.
Some children told the BBC that they were taking ice-cold showers every night and sleeping on the sofa instead of their bedroom. At local shopping centers, adults some were even swimming in public fountains to cool off.
Students in school were only allowed indoor recess and could not go outside. This makes their recess less fun and also limits them from getting more fresh air. Besides losing outdoor recess, a summer fair was cancelled since it was an outdoor activity. They told the BBC, “Our summer fair has sadly been cancelled because we can’t be outside.”
The heatwave is also causing some problems for the continent’s environment as a whole.
In Western Europe, many have been without power, and there have been many forest fires as well. The German government has also been asking people to use water sparingly and not to host barbecues.
This record-breaking heatwave in Europe forced many people to find any source to cool down, including air conditioning and ice-cold showers. To make things worse, most people do not have air conditioning equipped in their homes. Only 20% of homes have air conditioning equipped. So, this disadvantage means that to survive this heatwave, people must find any other ways to cool down. And because they need to ration on water, the best way to survive the heatwave is probably taking ice-cold showers.