MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In the American West, it's wildfires. In Europe, it's record-breaking heat. Europe is heating faster than any other continent, and it's experiencing a heat wave that has already killed dozens of people, with a peak expected today or tomorrow. We wanted to understand how human-caused climate change is influencing this extreme heat. So we've called Jennifer Francis. She's a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. It's based in Massachusetts, and it's a climate think tank and scientific research institution. Good morning, Jennifer Francis. Thanks for joining us.
JENNIFER FRANCIS: Good morning. Happy to be here.
MARTIN: So what's causing such frequent heat emergencies across Europe?
FRANCIS: Yeah. So it's an interesting situation over there. You really have to look at the oceans to understand why it's warming so fast in Europe. If you look at the water surrounding Western Europe right now, and that includes the Mediterranean, the eastern Atlantic off of Spain and France and even in the Arctic up near Svalbard and Scandinavia, you'll see that the ocean temperatures are way above normal. So that's kind of the most local effect. That very warm water there is sort of priming the system for having heat waves during the summertime. And just overall warming in the globe is also shifting temperature ranges everywhere to warmer. And that just increases the likelihood of also seeing extreme warm temperatures.
MARTIN: But why is Europe warming faster than any other continent?
FRANCIS: Yeah. We're also seeing this area of colder ocean temperatures just south of Greenland. And to understand how this is affecting Europe, you have to talk about the jet stream. The jet stream is this river of wind high over our heads that runs from west to east, and it is dependent on changes in temperature from one place to another. When we have this cold water right up against the warm water, it tends to make the jet stream bulge first southward near Greenland and then up northward, up over Europe. We get one of these bulges in the jet stream like that, it allows the warm tropical air from the south to penetrate much farther north, and that really transports that warm, even moist air up into Europe. And we're seeing this pattern happen over and over again because these ocean temperature patterns are very persistent. And we're seeing this type of bulging heat dome, as we call it, in the jet stream happening more and more frequently.
MARTIN: What can Europeans do to adapt to rising temperatures?
FRANCIS: Yeah. It's a challenge. Europe is not used to having these kinds of heat waves, so they're generally not - they don't tend to have air conditioning in their homes and buildings. So this is going to have to be a shift for them to stay cool. And people - not everyone can afford that, obviously. But, you know, this is just something that is a reality. People are going to have to try to work outdoors when it's not at the peak of the heat during the day and kind of shift the way they go about life.
MARTIN: You know, a lot of Americans travel to Europe in the summer, so I think a lot of people - just anecdotally, I'm hearing they're aware of this because, you know, they're taking their vacations in Europe. They're going. They're realizing how hot it is. They're realizing that, you know, a lot of places they stay don't have air conditioning, and they're coming back and talking about it. But if you don't have that kind of experience of this firsthand, are there lessons that Americans should be taking away from the current situation in Europe?
FRANCIS: Yes. Well, the message is the same for all of us. I mean, the Earth is warming. We're going to see more and more of these record-breaking heat waves breaking out, whether it's in Europe, or right now, we're also seeing very warm temperatures in the Pacific Northwest. We just heard in the previous segment about the wildfires that are being fueled by the very dry and extremely warm conditions that have existed out in the Western states all winter, even. So this is something we're going to see happen over and over again. More frequently, the heat waves are going to be more extreme. They're going to last longer. So we need to adapt. We need to insulate our homes better. If we can afford air conditioning, put that in, and look for more energy-efficient ways to do it as well.
MARTIN: Before we let you go - we only have about sort of 30 seconds here - what's the most important thing people could do right now?
FRANCIS: Right now, we have to focus with a laser on reducing the amount of emissions of carbon gases that we're putting in the atmosphere. This is treating the disease, the underlying disease. And of course, those emissions are mainly from burning fossil fuels, but it's also from cutting down forests. So this is really where we need to focus to long term treat this disease.
MARTIN: That's Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. Thank you so much.
FRANCIS: You're welcome. Thank you, too.
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