And a brief tale of a beheaded martyr who crossed.a river carrying his head before he died.
Continue reading1000 Year-Old Church of Saint-Dalmas-du-Plan in Valdeblore – Notebook and 17 Images
NYT: How Heat Affects the Brain – Gift Link
This week’s NYT Climate Forward newsletter surveys recent research into how brain function changes when temperatures rise.
A growing body of research has shown that our brains work differently when temperatures spike. Test scores fall and drivers honk more often. The good news is that we’re learning a lot more about how heat affects the brain. In fact, hundreds of peer-reviewed papers on the connection between heat and health have been published in recent years.
But there are longer-term effects of exposure to heat to consider, too. Recent research has found that hotter weather may make the brain more vulnerable to air pollution, increasing the risk for dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
And this, on the impacts of the air pollution and heat combination:
Exposure to particulate air pollution, known as PM 2.5, is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in older adults, they wrote. It can also affect brain development in young people, increasing the risk of anxiety and depression. The report cited an estimate that one in four dementia deaths is attributable to air pollution.
Link.
France National Health Service Reports: France records 2,025 excess deaths from heatwave, but data remains incomplete.
Le Monde reports (subscription only):
A rapid-fire communication was aimed at quashing all speculation over deaths related to France’s record-breaking June heatwave, even if it meant presenting a partial picture that could get worse. In an update published on Friday, July 3, Santé publique France, the French national public health agency, estimated that 2,025 additional deaths were recorded between June 22 and June 28 compared to the previous week, an increase of 29.1%. While these figures should be interpreted with caution due to incomplete data, they offer a first snapshot of the fatal effects of the historic heatwave that swept across the country.
And from The Guardian’s report:
Public Health France said on Friday there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week”. It said the figure was probably an underestimate and “mortality will rise further”.
22 Wildflowers, Three Moths, Two Butterflies, and Four Insects in Saint-Dalmas (Valdeblore), France
39 photos from an early summer three-hour woodland hike near Saint Dalmas, in the Valdeblore commune in southeastern France.
Continue readingWatch ‘Only a Child’, Oscar-shortlisted Visual Poem Celebrating 12-year-old’s 1992 Rio Summit Speech
In case you missed it, this is ‘Only a Child’, the 2022 Oscar-shortlisted animated short directed by Simone Giampaolo who brings together 20 animation directors to give shape, color, vibrance and a renewed urgency to the powerful speech delivered by Severn Cullis-Suzuki at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. She was 12 at the time and her presentation garnered worldwide attention.
”I’m only a child, yet I know we are all part of a family — five billion strong; in fact, 30 million species strong — and borders and governments will never change that. I’m only a child, yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.”
Embouchure du Var Birding Report #5 – June 2026
A monthly review in 27 photos: Kentish Plovers, Eurasian Moorhen, Black-winged Stilts, a Mute Swan family and more.
Continue readingAt the Longhua Temple, Shanghai
One section of the 500 arhats at the Longhua Temple, considered the largest, most authentic and complete ancient temple complex in Shanghai.
Continue readingToday in Nice – 29 June 2026
The heatwave that has been baking Europe for the last week is creeping eastward, but it still hit 34C (93F) late this afternoon in Nice and 33C (91F) in Monaco. And the airconditioning on the crowded 18:06 train from Monaco between the two wasn’t working. One passenger measured the temperature at 42C (108F). I watched passengers whose breathing labored. It was stifling.
Continue readingA Crab in its Shell, San Blas
A snap of a Caribbean Land Hermit Crab in its shell just before it snapped at me.
Continue readingWorld Weather Attribution report: Fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in just a few decades.
A study by World Weather Attribution released on Friday (26 June) shows that the heatwave that is currently baking much of Europe is the continent’s worst so far, in terms of heat stress and temperatures, and that the recipe of conditions that created it would have been virtually just 50 years ago. Brought to you by fossil fuels.
Some of the major findings:
- Heatwaves cause more deaths in Europe than all other natural hazards combined
- Vulnerability to heat has shifted over time, from primarily elderly people living alone to populations facing socioeconomic disadvantage and chronic illness, including homeless people and migrants, highlighting the need for adaptive, equity-focused heat-health policies.
- In 1976, when some of the previous European records were set, the 2026 temperatures would have been virtually impossible to occur in June, while also highly unlikely at any time of the year. In 2003, the first major heatwave of this century, daytime heat like this would still have been very rare, about 10 times less likely than today, while nighttime temperatures such as this June would have been more than a hundred times less likely in 2003.
- Across large parts of Western Europe, June is warming faster than any other month. In addition, daily maximum temperatures are warming faster than night time temperatures, though both are warming much faster than global warming. The hottest daily temperatures are warming at about triple the rate of global warming and night time temperatures at about twice the rate. Many capital cities are experiencing not only their hottest June 3-day period but also the hottest three-day period since 1950, according to the ERA5 dataset. However, due to global warming these temperatures are now no longer unusual during the summer months in many capitals.
- This means that a similar heatwave in June would have been about 3.5°C cooler during the day in 1976 and about 2°C cooler in 2003. The nighttime temperatures would have been about 2.4°C cooler in June 1976 and about 1.3°C cooler in June 2003.
- This June 2026 heatwave occurred under a circulation pattern broadly similar to historical analogues – Southerly Flow. However, a similar circulation pattern now produces significantly hotter temperatures than it did in the mid-20th century because the climate baseline has warmed.
And
- This summer shows that at 1.4°C of global warming, extreme heat is already reaching the limits of our societies’ ability to cope. Our analysis here shows that intense heat is increasing rapidly even in living memory, with such events tens to hundreds of times more likely since only 2003 and virtually impossible just 50 years ago. A rapid phase-out of fossil fuels is critical if we are to avoid even higher temperatures and their consequences in the future.
Beachcombing in the San Blas Islands
Shells, trees and trash.
That’s primarily what you’ll find if you spend any time beachcombing on any of the 370 small islands that make up the San Blas Islands, or Guna Yala, the archipelago off of Panama’s Caribbean coast. Lots of the former and too much of the latter.
Continue readingParc Naturel Departemental du Lac du Broc – Notebook and Images
My favorite butterfly loop of 2026. (So far.)
Continue readingA London Climate Action Week event scheduled for today at the London School of Economics was cancelled due to record high heat.
The UK recorded its highest June day, with temperature of 36.1C recorded in Hampshire. France recorded its hottest day ever, breaking the record set the day before. The country’s national heat index, an average of the day- and night-time highs measured at 30 weather stations across France, hit 30C (86F).
Copernicus Image of the Day: Heatwave affecting Western Europe in the third decade of June 2026
Today’s Image of the Day from the European Union’s Earth Observation programme. That’s a lot of red.
From the image description:
A severe heatwave is currently affecting western Europe, France and Spain being the most affected countries. According to the French Meteorological Agency Météo France, Tuesday 23 June was reported the hottest day recorded since measurements began in 1947. In Spain, the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) issued a red alert for above average temperatures in several areas in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, including Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Cantabria cities.
This data visualisation, based on data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites acquired on 23 June 2026 at 09:54 UTC, shows the Land Surface Temperatures (LST) across central and southern France, and northern Spain. Extensive red and purple areas are visible, indicating peaks of the LST exceeding 50°C. It should be noted that LST values reflect ground surface temperature rather than air temperature. Although the two are broadly correlated, they can differ significantly.
Link.
‘The world should laugh more. But after eating.’
This made me laugh, even though I hadn’t eaten yet.
Continue readingJon Stewart’s sit-down with Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan will likely be the best interview with the authors about their new book, ‘Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump’.
Insightful, smart, entertaining and funny. Because sometimes you just have to laugh. Even at the story about the time when Trump boasted that he’ll be bigger than Mao, Stalin or Hitler.
From the show notes:
New York Times reporters and authors of the new book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, sit down with Jon Stewart to discuss the surprising revelations they uncovered about the Trump administration, like the president being absent from the room when his own team discussed the Epstein files, as well as the motivation behind controversial moves like the tariff policy rollout and the Iran war. They also speak to how Trump controls the terms when reporters reach him on his cell phone and compare his first term to his second, which they describe as a story of hubris, built on gut feelings and belief from his cabinet that he is someone of destiny – because who else can survive four indictments and two assassination attempts to win the presidency a second time?
Guardian: How India’s heatwaves are shutting schools – and pushing women out of the workforce
Arsalan Bukhari and Naila Tabbasum report from Delhi:
Outside, the temperature has passed 41C (105.8F). Inside Sakshi Katyal’s city apartment, the air conditioner is blasting but it does little to relieve the stress of balancing housework and helping her five-year-old log in on a laptop to online classes. Her daughter’s school closed in May and Katyal is not clear when it will reopen. Probably not till the autumn.
Schools across Delhi and in about half of India’s 28 states have been ordered to close from mid-May until the end of June, when in many places the summer break starts. There is no official record of closures in past years but the Guardian has spoken to school officials who say the number of days schools are shut for because of the heat has risen sharply. The impact on families, especially on working women, has been huge.
And
India is facing increasingly intense spells of extreme heat, with this year’s heatwaves beginning as early as April. Hundreds of thousands of parents in India are struggling with managing jobs and children as lives are disrupted by prolonged school closures linked to the high temperatures. And as childcare disproportionately falls to women, it is women who are bearing the brunt.
Link.
The Cotacachi Volcano and the Promise of Love
A tale, short and sweet, related to the mythology of this Ecuadorean volcano that pierces the sky nearly 5,000 meters above a village that bears its name.
Continue readingSeven Photos of Venanson, and the Upper Vésubie River Valley
Peeking through the veil of mist is Venanson, population 200.
Continue readingLe Monde: France issues red heatwave alert on Sunday for third of country.
The red alert impacts 26 million people in 35 departments, more than a third of the country. Another 45 departments are on orange alert. From the report:
France issued a red heatwave alert across more than a third of the country for Sunday, June 21, as a ferocious heatwave dug in and the government banned the consumption of alcohol in public spaces in departments under this alert during the annual Fête de la Musique festivities.
The prolonged heatwave, which began earlier this week, has disrupted the country, forcing the cancellation of dozens of trains and the suspension of classes.
Link.