This Might Be the Climate Wake-Up Call We’ve Been Waiting For

Teaching summer school in humid New York City in July, when many of my friends and relatives are Instagramming from the beach, I stave off vacation envy by daydreaming of future summer idylls. Lobster rolls and rocky beaches in New England as soon as next month? Summer 2026 in sunny Spain, eating tapas and wandering through fourteenth-century mosques and churches?

Maybe—but also maybe not. Sadly, climate change is taking a toll on both vacation and its delicious anticipation, by wrecking some of the world’s most delightful destinations.

“Climate change is changing Europe into a summer paradise lost,” The New York Times reported in a grim dispatch from Barcelona this week. “Across Spain, Italy, Greece, France and beyond, sand-devouring storms, rising seas, asphyxiating temperatures, deadly floods and horrific wildfires have year after year turned some of the continent’s most desired getaways into miserable locales to get away from.”

Near-perfect weather is part of what makes a summer paradise, and in sweltering heat, even the cultural attractions aren’t quite as inviting. For events such as the Avignon Festival, a destination for theater fans in southern France, temperatures surpassing 100 degrees are becoming “an existential threat.” “But Spain,” the Times added, “has become the least fun in the sun destination.” Temperatures in some southern locales there have reached 115 degrees lately, and efforts to escape the heat by going to the beach are complicated by the fact that erosion and coastal flooding are, in some places, devouring tens of thousands of square miles of sand.

Mind you, ruined vacations are among the least of the problems caused by climate change; officials in Spain estimate that heatwaves have caused 1,180 deaths over the last two months. But given the prevalence of climate denialism in the United States, and the challenge for activists, scientists, and policymakers of connecting global warming’s impact on people’s everyday lives, the damage that it’s wreaking on our treasured—and stingily provided—vacation time could be a decisive factor in swinging public opinion toward urgent action.