In this episode we examine North America’s extraordinary early‑summer heat, floods, fires, and cascading impacts. From Ottawa’s record rainfall and basement‑flooding storm to northern Canada’s boreal forest ablaze, they connect local disasters to global climate dynamics and jet stream disruptions.
This video was recorded on July 8th, 2026, and published on June 12th, 2026, and represents the opinions of the discussion participants.
Peter lays out why the United States and Mexico are now deeply vulnerable to extreme heat and drought, including a southwest “mega‑drought” that is the driest in 1,200 years and expanding heat domes pushing triple‑digit heat indexes onto tens of millions of people. Paul explains the science behind persistent atmospheric patterns, shares practical resilience measures like basement flood protection, and highlights trustworthy data sources and tools for tracking the crisis.
Herb explores the “cognitive dissonance on steroids” of living through worsening climate impacts while governments and media largely fail to respond, urging viewers to act to protect their homes and communities and to push for political and economic change. The episode closes with “Climate 3” — three fast stories from a heat‑stricken climate supercomputer, new research on stratospheric aerosol injection and marine heatwaves, and the shocking mass death of chickens in Europe as cooling systems fail in intensifying heat.
Europe’s Heatwave‑Driven Food Security Emergency (CEF Video)
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Meteorologists warn week ahead in US will have dangerous temps: ‘Heat is not to be played with’
Data center housing UK’s Dawn supercomputer suffers heatwave-related outage - report
Climate Intervention through Stratospheric Aersol Injection may partially mitigate heatwaves
Dr. Peter Carter - MD, Expert IPCC Reviewer and the director of the Climate Emergency Institute.
Paul Beckwith - Climate Systems Scientist. Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Paleoclimatology Laboratory as well as at Carleton University.
Herb Simmens - Author, Co-founder of the Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC), Climate Emergency Board Member and former college instructor.
Charles Gregoire - Electrical Engineer, Webmaster and IT prime for FacingFuture.Earth & the Climate Emergency Forum; Climate Reality Leader
Heidi Brault - Climate Reality Leader, BA(Psychology), Library & Information Technician Diploma - Video production and website assistant - Organizer and convener, Metadata technician, COP Team Lead for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum.
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