Is Paris Burning?

Yes.  And so are Madrid, Berlin and Prague.

For the past week, the first full week of summer, Europe has been baking in record-breaking heat caused by hot air coming up from northern Africa.  A high-pressure system has been parked over the continent all of this time.  This has all led to temperatures as hot as 104 degrees Fahrenheit in Spain and up to 114 degrees Fahrenheit in the South of France.

The cause?  Climate change, of course.

Bear in mind that Europe has always had a much more temperate climate than the United States, and some European countries, like Germany, are mostly north of the 49th parallel (which comprises a good deal of the continental U.S.'s northern border), so it shouldn't be so hot that German autobahns melt.  The heat in Europe has proven to be dangerous to be very old and the very young, and as climate change is only beginning to wreck havoc on the planet, it's going to get worse before it gets even worse.

And to think I could have experienced this.  As I mentioned earlier on this blog, I was looking at going to Paris this year to visit a friend there, and this past week was the earliest week I had off.  My friend told me that the best time to go to Paris during the summer is late June or July, before it gets too hot.  Too late.  Only I didn't go, because, after having wasted time looking at other times to go, I didn't think I could book my trip in time for early summer, what with all the visas and airline tickets and everything.  Of course, having lost a job, I can't afford to go anyway, and having waited three decades to go to Europe, I now have to wait even longer.

I just hope there's something left of Europe to see after global warming has had its way with it.

What's happening in Europe, California and other places makes it more imperative to get noted climate-change denier Donald Trump out of office next November.  But after everything I've heard about the first pairs of Democratic debates (God, do I have to talk about that next?), I think it's safe to say that Trump is a shoo-in for re-election and that the human race is a shoo-in for extinction. :-(