In the newsletter: From avoiding flights to checking on vulnerable neighbours, there are steps we can all take to fight the effects of extreme heat• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereFrom the comfort of a friend’s air-conditioned car last weekend, I watched a dozen sweaty men on a “beer bike tour” chug booze while pedalling through Berlin, as the city broke its temperature record with 39.2C heat. Few wore hats, and their tender pink necks showed signs of sunburn.A few days later, I visited Coschen, the eastern German village that provisionally recorded the hottest temperature the country had ever seen, in a district where nearly every other voter backs a far-right party that denies basic climate science. One man who lives down the road from the station that reached the national record-breaking 41.7C high calmly told me “it was also warm” when he was young. Continue reading...