Reader Q&A live: we answer your questions about Europe’s hellish week of heat

Our European environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan answers your questions on the climate after reporting on the shocking heatwave that continues to scorch its way across Europe, covering everything from the lack of preparation to ways to deal with the heatTaketheL asks: Given the heatwaves impacting Europe this year, I am concerned that far right political figures will hijack and shift the blame of climate meltdown on immigrants. How do you think the far right will use the issues of climate warming to embolden further anti-immigration sentiment?So far there has been fairly little evidence of this happening. Far-right parties talk a lot about migrants and climate, but almost exclusively as separate issues. One recent exception is Switzerland, where a referendum this month on capping the country’s population at 10 million people linked the impact of migration on the Alpine nation’s natural resources, but the link here was more about environmental degradation than climate breakdown.Some data suggests migrants tend to pollute about as much as the native-born population - flying more but driving less - so there is no obvious avenue by which they would hold foreigners responsible for increased temperatures. What seems more likely is that, as temperatures rise to intolerable levels in North Africa and the Middle East, increased migration to Europe will force far-right parties to confront the paradox that the migration they want to stop will be exacerbated by the fossil fuel pollution they support.Many journalists – including my brilliant Guardian colleagues – have done, and continue to do, exactly this. We are also not alone: excellent climate journalism that holds politicians accountable can be found everywhere from big financial outlets such as Bloomberg to niche publications such as Carbon Brief and Climate Home News. If you find sources of news you trust and value, supporting them can help them do more.But I take your broader point that the public would be better informed if politicians were pressed more on climate costs – particularly, in my view, in primetime TV broadcasts and radio bulletins. There are some structural explanations for this - the journalists interviewing politicians are typically political experts rather than subject specialists, for one – but much could be improved if the industry simply demanded higher standards of scrutiny around the claims that politicians make. Continue reading...