The stifling, sweltering, sticky heatwaves we’ve struggled through aren’t freak anymore, and are likely to get worse, with the fatal effects of the “silent killer” escalating.
England also had its warmest June on record, according to the Met Office. Temperatures recorded in the mid-30s like this week would have been unthinkable a few decades ago but, in the last 10 years half the years saw 35 degrees and above.
Fast forward another three decades, how unbearable and fatal will our summers become? Coupled with the rise of widespread floods and savage storms, we are increasingly at the mercy of nature.
And while people should be looking forward to escaping the UK for sun and heat abroad, Europe’s holiday areas are suffering lethal scorching temperatures, with widespread heat alerts.
With beyond record-breaking 45- degree heat in parts predicted to kill more than 4,000 people in southern Europe and worsening droughts hitting agriculture and other sectors, holidays in Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Croatia , Slovenia and Luxembourg are threatened because of the unbearable heat, wildfires raging in Greece along the coast near Athens and in Turkey, where 50,000 people have been evacuated causing air pollution .
We’re just not used to it – and don’t want to be, but it’s going to get hotter and hotter, with more health risks and deaths.
The UK isn’t set up to deal with the levels of heat were experiencing. Homes have been unbearable because air conditioning has been only for ‘hot countries and millions have struggled to find some relief from the oppressive heat.
Far from a freak of nature, we know this is a manmade phenomenon, the result so how we generations have treated the planet,
a kind of nature’s revenge.
The Met Office added its voice this week to scientists and the World Health Organisation blaming global warming for making heatwaves more frequent, intense and longer-lasting, with potentially dire consequences for people’s health.
Brace yourselves – sweltering, sizzling and sweating of the past few weeks will escalate, with the effects most stark in cities and urban areas with paved surfaces, buildings, traffic and heat sources, bringing on heat stress and deaths.
The World Health Organisation agrees with scientists that climate change will clead to more frequent, dangerous and intense heatwaves leading to more deaths and called for more action against climate change to prevent tens of thousands of “unnecessary and largely preventable deaths.”
“It’s no longer a question of if we will have a heat wave, but how many are we going to experience this year, and how long they will last,”
Heat is known as an indirect killer, with it contributing to pre-existing conditions.
Most at risk of heatstroke are farmers, builders, the homeless and anyone who works outside, as well as elderly people. Women are more likely to die from heat-related causes than men.
Global problems demand global agreement, and the UK waging war on climate change while coal is being burned more than ever and global demand for fossil fuel, is forecast to hit a record 8.77 billion tonnes feels futile and tokenistic.
But someone has to do something to try to effect change, despite China, the US, India, Russia and countless other countries continuing carbon heavy practices. One in every three tonnes of coal used worldwide is burned at a power plant in China to cope with the country’s enormous electricity demand , the International Energy Agency says, although China is forging ahead with clean power building two thirds of all new wind and solar in the world.
India is expected to consume more coal than the EU and US combined to meet demand.
Nations must be powered to function, and fossil fuels can’t be replaced overnight, so the chronic issue is just going to get worse.
And heat even effects power sources that keep nations functioning. In Switzerland, a nuclear reactor at a power plant had to be shut down because of the high temperature of river water used for cooling in the reactor.
While the heat soars, the economy takes a bashing too. Greggs warned this week that its annual profit could dip below last year’s as sales dropped in the hot weather.
The recent heatwave has been caused by a heat dome, intensified by climate change.
The genie is out of the bottle and there’s little we can do to turn the tide apart from adapt how we live to deal with the heat and, for our own sanity, try to make our own differences to save the planet, as futile as it might see, willing the huge nations to take responsibility for the crisis they have and continue to cause.
But the dilemma is no change comes fast, however strong a commitment. The world can’t just switch off fossil fuelled power. It would mean switching off full stop.
Nations’ industries must function, and people must live their lives.
In the meantime, the world hots up, swathes of land burns and people and wildlife die.
However much we want the world to fight against it, all we can do is learn to live with it and control and manage its effects on our own lives. And hope for the best for our grandchildren and their grandchildren.