As heat waves hit U.S. and Europe, leaders split on climate change

As summer temperatures spiked in Oklahoma — heading toward at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday — the city of Tulsa pondered what to do about its 36-hole municipal golf course. Should it replace the fescue turf with Bermuda grass that’s resistant to heat and drought? The cost of showering it nightly with 1 million gallons of water had gotten pricey, at $5,000 a pop.

“There is a point where we may have to start prioritizing tees and greens and fairways and not as much on the rough,” said Randy Heckenkemper, a golf course architect based in the city, in an interview.

But for now, officials were lavishing water on the city’s Page Belcher course, as Oklahoma baked in a massive heat wave that is also scorching parts of Texas, Kansas and South Dakota. Residents are cranking up their air conditioners, putting pressure on the power grid, and farmers are using more water at a time when the region could slide into drought.

But across the Atlantic, as the same weather pattern broke centuries-old records in Europe, political leaders seized on the heat wave as a call to action.