I’m writing this at 9am and it’s already decidedly uncomfortable and sweaty in my bedroom with my laptop overheating and it’s only going to get even more hectic as the day progresses to the hottest one ever recorded in the UK. What a time to be alive.
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Despite this, one professor wants to compound our misery by saying that this is probably just the first of many 40C days in the near future. Bill McGuire is the professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and recently wrote the following in an op-ed for the Guardian:
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When our children are our age, they will yearn for a summer as ‘cool’ as 2022, because long before the century’s end, 40C-plus heat will be nothing to write home about in the climate-mangled world they inherit.
The brutal truth is that dodging dangerous, all-pervasive, climate breakdown is now practically impossible.
Even if all the promises and pledges made at Cop26 were kept, we would still be lucky to stay below a 2C rise, and if tipping points are crossed and feedbacks kick in, the figure could be much higher.
So, hothouse Britain is a reality, and the sooner we face this fact, the better. And be very clear, this isn’t alarmist.
It isn’t what deniers are fond of calling ‘climate porn’. This is simply how things are.
Tell it like it is hey buddy? I’m sure some of us will hope that this guy is exaggerating or fear mongering, but it sounds as if he’s been studying the subject for most of his life so we should probably believe him and try and do something about it.
I doubt any of us will though because it’s so much more convenient to just pretend it isn’t happening, even when we’re recording the hottest days in the history of the planet. Just regular life huh?
For more of the same, check out all these roads melting in the UK last week. Completely normal, right?
