Who’d have guessed that a 49.6°C temperature would be recorded somewhere in a normally frigid Canada? Now wildfires, caused by the extreme heat, have reduced its tiny town of Lytton to ash. To put things in perspective, the maximum temperature ever recorded in Delhi is 48°C.

For decades, scientists have warned that the climate crisis will increase the frequency and intensity of heatwaves. However, Canada is not one of the countries predicted to be severely impacted.

Instead, lethal heatwaves are projected to bring death and destruction across the Middle East, South Asia, and portions of Africa and China. The blistering heatwave in Canada, therefore, is a harbinger of things to come, for us.