Climate change turns up the heat on deniers

Beijing endured its hottest day this summer on Thursday with the temperature reaching 39 degrees Celsius. But more than the temperature it was the unusually hot gust in the evening, when normally the city experiences a relatively cool and at times lilting breeze that brings respite from the daytime heat. Extremely high temperatures, drought-like conditions and floods have again marked this summer of extreme weather in China. And, as if those extremities were enough of an omen of the horrid weather ahead, a rare tornado hit Liaoning province on Wednesday causing deaths and devastation.

Extreme weather, however, is indiscriminate in its choice. Large parts of Europe are reeling under the impact of an intense heat wave. Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic have recorded their hottest-ever temperatures for June. The worst hit has been France, which experienced its hottest day on record on June 28, when the mercury reached 45.9 C in Gallargues-le-Montueux near Montpellier in the southern Gard region. And Girona, in the Catalan region of Spain, saw the temperature rise to 43.9 C.

In certain parts of Europe temperatures have exceeded the catastrophic 2003 European heat wave - Europe's hottest summer since at least 1540.