How the European heatwave fucked me up

CW: reference to bodily processes, broad discussion of illness This year’s “once in a generation” weather Last week was brutally hot across Europe, with multiple countries recording their hottest ever temperatures. Others, including the UK repeatedly smashed their record for the month of June. While climate change is a global problem, it affects different regions in different ways, and Europe is disproportionately affected by hotter temperatures and heatwaves. The “Chicory House” we’re currently living in has terrible thermal characteristics, so we took the advice of wiser folks about staying cool. We created a “cold zone” in the living room with a portable air conditioner and for a few days I lived, worked, ate and slept mostly out of that one room (along with the children when they were trapped home because their schools had been shut down). Among the reasons described for Europe’s faster warming than other parts of the world is that we’ve improved our air quality so much. Maybe we…