Farmers are Struggling as yet Another Heatwave Bakes Western Europe

Recently, European nations sent firefighting teams to assist France in battling a "monster" wildfire, while forest fires raged in Spain and Portugal, and the head of the European Space Agency urged immediate action to combat climate change.

More than 1,000 firefighters, aided by water-bombing planes, fought a fire that has forced thousands of people from their homes and scorched thousands of hectares of forest in France's southwestern Gironde region for the third day.

Heatwaves, floods, and crumbling glaciers have heightened concerns about climate change and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world in recent weeks. According to Josef Aschbacher, the head of the European Space Agency, rising land temperatures and shrinking rivers as measured from space leave no doubt about the impact of climate change on agriculture and other industries.

In recent weeks, the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite series recorded "extreme" land surface temperatures of more than 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the United Kingdom, 50 degrees Celsius in France, and 60 degrees Celsius in Spain.

Greenpeace activists protested on the parched banks of the Danube in Romania, where record temperatures and drought have drained rivers of water, to draw attention to global warming and urge the government to reduce emissions.

With Europe experiencing consecutive heatwaves, searing temperatures, and unprecedented droughts this summer, a renewed focus has been placed on climate change risks to agriculture, industry, and livelihoods.

Severe drought is expected to reduce the European Union's maize harvest by 15%, bringing it to a 15-year low, just as Europeans face higher food prices due to lower-than-average grain exports from Russia and Ukraine.

Swiss army helicopters have been called into airlift water to thirsty cows, pigs, and goats in the country's Alpine meadows. Trucks are delivering water to dozens of villages where taps have run dry in France, nuclear power plants have received waivers to continue pumping hot discharge water into rivers, and farmers warn that a fodder shortage could lead to milk shortages.

In Germany, the lack of rain this summer has drained the Rhine, the country's commercial artery, impeding shipping and driving up freight costs.

However, as Europe braces for another heatwave, one group of workers is forced to sweat it out: gig-economy food couriers, who frequently fall through the cracks of labour regulations. The Met Office in the United Kingdom issued a four-day "extreme heat" warning for parts of England and Wales on Thursday.