Record-breaking heatwave put Flintshire binmen at risk, council worker says

BBC News reports that a Flintshire council manager says the summer heatwave was one of several reasons for missed bin collections, because the heat put crews at risk. The report attributes his account clearly and keeps his point that heat was only one factor. It describes record heat, drought across Wales and devastating wildfires but never says that warming makes such extremes more frequent or severe. That is a small gap in a story mainly about waste services.

1. Leaves out the climate link

   Minor

   “drought was declared in all of Wales and wildfires caused devastation in parts of the country”

   Why this matters

   These words set out a summer of drought across all of Wales and devastating wildfires, alongside the 'record-breaking hot weather' in S2. No word in the article links them to the warming climate.

   The impression it gives

   A reader is told of record heat, nationwide drought and wildfires as a run of bad weather, with nothing to say these extremes are part of a pattern.

   The context

   Human-caused warming has made hot extremes, drought and fire weather more frequent or more severe. The article is mainly about bin collections and recycling targets, so the missing link is a small gap and does not mislead about the council story itself.

   How we know

   • On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
   • Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.
   • Elsewhere in the article“during the UK's record-breaking hot weather”