But this is just one unnerving aspect of Europe’s horror summer.

The other is that it is biting just as the fragile global consensus that had emerged on tackling climate change is fraying.

In January 2021, when the new Democratic administration began, the US immediately rejoined the Paris Agreement and US President Joe Biden threw the weight of the US State Department, perhaps still the world’s most powerful diplomatic machine, into driving the global effort forward.

By the time climate talks in Glasgow began last November the UK, the EU and the US, which is to say the economies most responsible for climate change due to their historical emissions, had set goals enshrined to cut emissions in half by 2030.

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They led an effort that saw the rest of the world sign up to emission reduction targets, and helped forge an agreement that would see wealthier nations assist emerging economies to pay for a rapid transition.

There was - is - a strong argument that the commitments were too little, too late to keep the world from warming to 1.5 degrees, as was the stated goal, but diplomatic consensus was significant.

Now, seven dismal months into 2022, Glasgow looks increasingly like a high point.

Earlier this month the European Parliament backed an EU plan to classify gas a climate friendly energy source rather than the dangerous warming agent that it is, so desperate is the region to replace Russian gas supplies.

The purpose is to reduce finance costs for new gas developments. The effect will be to prolong gas use in the region and make its emission reduction targets harder to meet.

Meanwhile, in the US the recalcitrant Democratic senator Joe Manchin - a man whose personal and political fortune rests upon coal - has finally torpedoed what little hope Biden had of passing the bulk of his own ambitious climate measures, ending 18 months of negotiations for his crucial vote.

“We are not going to meet our targets, period,” environmental scientist Leah Stokes, who has advised congressional Democrats on climate legislation, told The New York Times on Friday of Manchin’s position. “I honestly don’t know how he is going to look his own grandchildren in the eyes.”

Manchin’s spokesman told The Washington Post that his boss believed the White House needed to adjust its vision to new economic realities.

Maybe. But what about climate realities? The climate crisis may have been over a century in the making and its solution will take generations of concerted effort, but its impacts are now even more plainly immediate.

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