Here in Madrid, I have just been through the longest, hottest heatwave of my life. For more than a week, temperatures hovered near or at 40C. (For comparison: Britain’s all-time highest temperature is 38.7C.) At night we’d sleep with the fans on and windows open, choosing street noise over suffocation. The city became less productive and less fun: 10-minute journeys felt too long, the kids’ school closed in the afternoons and their football matches were cancelled. Vulnerable people died. Heatwaves in Spain now kill as many as 1,500 to 1,700 people every year.
在西班牙馬德里，我剛剛經歷了人生中最漫長、最炎熱的一波熱浪。一週多以來，這裏的氣溫一直徘徊在40攝氏度左右。（相較而言，英國歷史最高氣溫才38.7攝氏度。）晚上睡覺，我們會開著風扇和窗戶，寧願忍受街道噪音也不想熱到窒息。這座城市的效率變低了，娛樂也變少了：10分鐘的路程都覺得太遠了，孩子們的學校下午就關門了，足球比賽也取消了。同時，還有承受不住高溫的人羣因此而死。如今，西班牙每年因熱浪而喪生的人數多達1500至1700人。