This would cause a range of disastrous environmental consequences, including heatwaves, sea level rise, species extinctions and spread of disease.
The heatwave was bound to cause an outbreak of conditionitis, and The Independent was not immune.
In The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, the disappearance of a local woman, Mrs Creasy, causes a small community already suffering a heatwave almost to combust from pure nosiness.
The extreme heatwave, which caused a severe drought and wildfires in Russia, might be over, but both officials and consumers are now busy calculating its cost and trying to work out its consequences.
He recently caused a stir with the publication of a paper that says heatwaves are becoming more common due to climate change.
After a year in which droughts caused a vegetable shortage in shops, scorching temperatures fuelled major moorland fires, hospitals treated record numbers of patients during the heatwave and floods caused unprecedented havoc, the ramifications of rising extreme weather are becoming ever too apparent.
As temperatures remained high for a long time, the soil moisture evaporated, causing an additional feedback and worsening the heatwave.
It can cause droughts, heatwaves and fires in south-east Asia and Australia, while on the eastern edge of the Pacific, it may trigger warmer, wetter weather and flooding.
More patients and sicker patients (as determined by the increase in the average number and relative risk of presentation in high acuity categories) attend EDs during heatwaves and hot days, causing an extra workload for the emergency health system which is already under stress.
The Heat-health watch, which is the source of the warning, was launched in the wake of the 2003 heatwave where a hot ten days in August caused an estimated 2,000 deaths.
