Human activity implicated in Europe's 2003 heat wave

Abstract

Man-made pollution during the past century doubled the chances of the heat wave that hit Europe last summer, say climatologists. It's the first time that a study has estimated how much human activity increased the risk of a specific weather event. The sweltering temperatures of August 2003 left many people, particularly the elderly, struggling to cope. The heat wave caused many thousands of extra deaths, while forest fires ravaged large areas of land, causing $1.6 billion worth of damage in Portugal, for example.