From WNYC Studios, it's Brian Lair, a daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday, July 19th.

Now to our climate story of the week. We're looking to Europe this time where an unprecedented heat wave is rolling across

the continent. Today, 40 million Americans are under heat wave warnings, but within the last week,

regions of Portugal, Spain, Wales, Ireland, and England have set record high temperatures.

I mentioned it's 100 degrees in London right now. I think that's their

hottest temperature ever. Our guests will tell us. And this heat wave in Europe has led to a reported

1,000 deaths in Spain and Portugal and has ignited wildfires that are still raging across

southwestern France, forcing thousands of people to flee their

homes. The New York Times reports that even a French zoo has been forced to evacuate its animals

due to the very unusual threats there of smoke and fire. Across the English Channel,

officials in the UK have declared a state of emergency.

Train lines in London were forced to reduce speeds or altogether cancel services due to concerns

that the rails could buckle in the heat.

And London's airport was forced to cancel flights after a stretch of tarmac may have melted.

They obviously don't build for this heat over there like we do over here.

And despite the blistering few days, Britain's Meteorological Society warned the temperatures

were expected to continue climbing before this heat wave is over and hit nearly 42 degrees

Celsius today in some places. That would be 108 degrees, more or less

Fahrenheit, 108 degrees. We're going to start by taking a call that has come in from Switzerland.

Mari in Switzerland, you're on WNYC. Hi, Mari, thanks for calling in. Oh, thank you so much for taking my call.

I think this is such an important topic.

I was just hiking in the Alps today.

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