Every time the calendar brings us closer to summer, we know what's coming: record-breaking temperatures, weather alerts, sweltering nights, wildfires, withering crops, boiling cities. Heat waves have become the seasonal soundtrack of a planet that, year after year, reminds us of the consequences of our stubborn dependence on fossil fuels.
In 2015, with big headlines and high hopes, world leaders signed the Paris Agreement, committing to limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Ten years have passed since that historic summit, and today, in 2025, scientific data confronts us with a harsh reality: if we continue on this path, that symbolic 1.5°C barrier will be surpassed before 2030. Some models even predict it much sooner, given the current rate of emissions.
Far from decreasing, concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases continue to rise in the atmosphere. Despite growing social awareness, reports from researchers, warnings from the UN and prestigious scientific institutions, global emissions have shown only slight fluctuations, but not a sustained decline. Energy transitions, although existing, are progressing too slowly, and the global economic system remains anchored to the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas.
Meanwhile, the planet is responding. And summer is the most visible stage of its consequences. Heat waves are not only more frequent, but also longer, more intense, and more dangerous. Extreme temperatures are breaking record after record. In cities across Europe, Asia, and North America, temperatures are reaching levels that would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago. This extreme heat is no accident; it's a direct result of global warming.
The BBC photo below shows how temperatures have risen in recent years:
The most disturbing thing is that most of the heat accumulated by excess greenhouse gases does not remain in the atmosphere, but is absorbed by the oceans. It is estimated that approximately 90% of the excess thermal energy is being stored in the seas.
The consequences are multiple: rising sea levels, loss of ice at the poles, acidification of the waters, alterations in ocean currents, and severe damage to marine ecosystems. Marine heat waves, a once rare phenomenon, have also become commonplace, affecting coral reefs, fisheries, and marine biodiversity.
Each scientific report that appears is more alarming than the last. But, paradoxically, society seems immune to fear. After the news of a new temperature record, superficial debates, passing complaints, and then the usual indifference follow. The economy continues to operate under the same logic as always: unlimited growth, rampant consumption, and a fossil fuel energy model that seems immutable.
We are, as one popularizer famously put it, “a civilization of the willfully blind.” We see what's happening, we know why it's happening, but we're unwilling to significantly change our habits. We prefer to think that someone, somewhere, will invent a life-saving technology that will allow us to continue as we are. This is the mirage of so-called “technoptimism,” which postulates that science and engineering will, sooner or later, solve the problems we ourselves create.
The cost of this passivity will be enormous. Because failure to act in time means that, later on, we will have to invest huge amounts of resources to try to mitigate damage that will already be consolidated. And, even more seriously, not everything can be repaired: many species will become extinct, millions of people will be forced to migrate due to climate-related causes, and extreme events (droughts, hurricanes, fires, floods) will become increasingly destructive.
Despite the growing hopelessness these projections generate, giving up is not an option. The only valid response is action: drastically reducing emissions, abandoning the era of fossil fuels, transforming our energy systems, promoting efficiency, and, above all, changing consumption patterns globally. Citizens, governments, businesses: we all have a responsibility.
The planet is sending us signals every summer. Heat waves are not just meteorological anecdotes; they are the symptoms of an increasingly destabilized climate system. We don't have an alternative planet to move to. This is our home, and we are setting it on fire.
The question hanging in the air is simple and brutal:
We don't have an alternative planet!!! Is that so difficult to understand?
The answer is no longer scientific, it's ethical. And time to act is running out.
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