Normally in June and July we are busy muttering about days of rain. Which is why it’s ironic that, at least until the downpours of the last few days, so many of us – including myself – had been complaining about the extended heat wave this summer.

Let me not appear ungrateful for the weeks of continuous sunshine we had before the weather finally broke. After all, the quality of the light and the soul-soothing effects of a flawless blue sky are not to be underestimated. Think how many childhood memories are of perfect summer days.

Nevertheless, there is a bigger story to the heatwave than the one we have experienced in the UK. Here, farmers are not in the main reporting significant crop losses, although animal feed costs have risen. Even though lawns and patches of grass grew brown and dusty, we did not face any climactic disasters. Touch wood, and especially since it rained, temperate Britain is staying relatively true to form.

The opposite is true, however, all over Europe and the world. Across much of the northern hemisphere, abnormally prolonged heatwaves have triggered disruption and devastation. Sweden, hardly famed for its sunny clime, has suffered uncontrollable forest fires around the Arctic Circle. And last week we witnessed the terrible tragedy in Greece where forest fires killed scores of people.

In addition, many of the temperatures have been record-breaking. A weather station at Ouargla, Algeria, in the Sahara desert, recorded a temperature of 51.3C: the highest reliable temperature ever recorded in that continent. Temperatures have reached more than 40C in Japan, with people urged to take steps to keep cool after the death toll reached 30 and thousands more sought hospital treatment for heat-related conditions. Power shortages have afflicted super-modern California due to the increased use of air conditioning units to counter the blistering conditions.

Scientists have expressed concerns that weather fronts – hot and cold – are being stopped or slowed more frequently due to climate change. This causes droughts and storms to linger, increasing the damage they cause.

Of course, people of a certain age will vividly recall the glorious heatwave of 1976. Very hot weather is not a new phenomenon nor automatically linked to climate change or humanity’s addiction to burning fossil fuels and spewing vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere.

However, Professor Tim Osborn, director of research at the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, has pointed out one key difference between 1976 and today: “Since 1976 we have had several decades of global warming – caused by rising carbon emissions – which has raised baseline global temperatures significantly.” In other words, climate change is making abnormality in the weather normal.

All of this matters deeply for agriculture and thus humanity’s ability to feed our swelling numbers. A spokeswoman for the EU’s Joint Research Centre, for example, is urging farmers to adapt to a warmer climate with “diversification or change of crop types and varieties, but also a more efficient use of water”. Much as I am enjoying the marvellous summer of 2018, I cannot help feeling the second hottest June on record should hold warnings for humanity.

As global carbon emissions continue to rise, predictions suggest the world will be unable to hold global temperature rises this century to below 2C above pre-industrial levels. As a result, scientists have warned widespread heatwaves are very likely to get worse and become more frequent.

The answer lies in all our hands. International responses to an international phenomenon are crucial, which is why America’s decision to walk away from the Paris climate change accords has been so disappointing.

We have to face an uncomfortable fact. Namely, we cannot as a species carry on expecting more travel, more consumer goods we don’t really value and rapidly dispose of, at the expense of the planet and its weather systems. In the great lottery of global heatwaves afflicting countries this summer, we have got very lucky in York. It would be wise to put pressure on our politicians for more far-reaching, active, effective green policies so we stay lucky in future years.