This summer, Europe endured heat, drought, and wildfires like never before. This caused serious health problems and death for both people and animals, damaged entire ecosystems, and triggered economic crises, all of which hit working-class people hardest.
Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their hometowns in Spain and France due to the wildfires, leading Spain to declare a national emergency on July 23. Since then, more wildfires have proliferated as far north as Norway and as far east as Romania.
As a result of the heat and smoke, the continent had a surge in respiratory and cardiovascular problems, kidney failure, infectious disease, and other ailments. In the poorest regions of Europe, mortality rates spiked dramatically to nearly 80% higher than normal.
While the true number of deaths will never be known, The Guardian estimates that as of late August, at least 35,000 people succumbed to heat related fatalities across the continent. The death toll for both wild animals and farm animals is also enormous.
Many of Europe’s wildfires became so intense that they generated lightning storms, which started even more fires; so far this year more than 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of land burned across Europe.
Part of a worsening global climate crisis
Europe is warming at nearly twice the global average. Ironically, strict sulfate emission laws render the atmosphere less reflective of sunlight, and more prone to warming.
Still, all continents on Earth are being affected by climate change. In 2026, extreme heatwaves also hit places such as India, China, and the U.S. The polar regions, which act as the planet’s primary cooling system, are experiencing alarming warming, with the Antarctic Peninsula reaching a record-breaking temperature of 18°C (65°F).
Earth’s atmosphere is a complex, interconnected, highly sensitive, and precariously balanced system. Crossing certain temperature thresholds could trigger runaway disasters that we simply do not have the power to control, potentially leading to the next mass extinction.
Inadequate response
Commonly referred to as “greenwashing,” governments and their corporate masters promote false “solutions,” designed to allow corporate polluters to keep burning fossil fuels while superficially improving their public image. For example, carbon capture, a favorite topic at international climate discussions, is only able to remove about a few seconds worth of a whole year’s emissions at most.
And each year, Europe exports millions of tons of waste, much of it toxic, to non E.U. countries. Most of it ends up in Asia and the Global South.
The Paris Agreement of 2015 gathered together most of the world’s nations in order to pledge reduction of carbon emissions. While the sentiment is good, it does nothing to stop the climate-destroying actions of imperialism; like the U.S. and Russia’s expansionist wars or China’s extractivist mining operations on which Europe heavily relies.
NOW is the time to act!
Capitalism will always prioritize profit at the expense of life and the environment. Its so-called solutions are not real; its pledges are empty. Actually implementing what is necessary to save the climate would affect the bottom line of economically and politically powerful fossil-fuel-promoting corporations.
To avert a catastrophic level of climate crisis which might not be reversible, the activity that is causing global warming must be eliminated as soon as possible. This will require overthrowing the capitalist system and replacing it with an international ecosocialism.
European workers have been fighting for climate justice for decades, with militant actions organized by youth, farmers, trade unionists, Indigenous people, migrants, women, and people with disabilities. Guided by climate science and led by the hardest hit, these movements must be expanded and united globally.
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