This extreme heat is just the beginning. We should be scared – and channel this emotion into action
- Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and a climate activist.
There’s no getting around it, the UK’s once equable climate is falling apart. We are now firmly on course for hothouse Britain and the signs are all around us. Just three years ago, the mercury hit 38.7C (101.7F) in Cambridge – then an all-time record. A year later, meteorologists at the UK Met Office mocked-up a weather forecast for 2050, showing 40C-plus temperatures across much of the UK.
But the speed of climate breakdown is such that this future is already upon us. On Monday, the Met Office’s first ever red extreme heat warning comes into force for much of England, as ferocious 40C-plus temperatures threaten to overwhelm ambulance services and A&E departments, and potentially bring about thousands of deaths.
Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and a climate activist. His latest book, Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant’s Guide is published on 4 August
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