Climate change is changing everyday life and the UK just broke temperature records. It is not hot enough to worry some climate deniers.
It was the first time in Britain that the temperature went over 40 degrees. Multiple websites recorded readings above or very close to 40 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, making it a record-setting day throughout the country.
The daily highs are not the only highs there are. According to the country's Met Office, the minimum daily temperature held at 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius) overnight in various parts of the country, compared to the previous highest daily minimum of 75 degrees Fahrenheit (23.9 degrees Celsius).
Europe is in the middle of a dangerous heat wave that has killed up to a thousand people in Spain and Portugal and caused fires in other countries. The second heat wave of the summer follows a particularly hot and dry spring.
The Chief of Science and Technology at the Met Office said in a video that he wasn't expecting to see it in his career. It is virtually impossible for the UK to experience 40 degrees C in an un disrupted climate, according to research conducted at the Met Office. Climate change caused by greenhouse gasses has made these extreme temperatures possible.
Climate deniers don't care about the temperatures. A graphic depicting a peaceful beach contrasted with a burning hellscape of a city was posted by a right-wing commentator in Britain. Grimes has been adamant that he is not a denier but a climate realist, because he says he accepts climate change is happening, but still continues to send things like this that fly in the face of science.
Bjorn Lomborg, a prominent climate contrarian, used cherry picked figures to argue that the heat in Spain wasn't that serious. In a column in the New York Post, he called the response to last year's bombshell report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a reaction of the "hypervenilating media" and misleadingly claimed that climate change was helping to decrease deaths from extreme cold. Some of the scientists whose studies Lomborg cited as evidence have publicly denounced his use of their work and said that his interpretations are incorrect; by the looks of Lomborg's thread, it seems he didn't get that memo. He echoed some of the rhetoric of Lomborg when he said that more people die from the cold than the heat.
Climate denier territory is that the media is getting tired, that a heat wave is not worth all the bother, and that we will be fine in the face of this new reality. A little tugging on the strings helps them all fall apart.
A trip to the beach in Australia is more important than a 40- degree day. During the hot season in Australia, people are used to the heat, but life in the summer in the UK is much cooler. Estimates range from under 1% to under 5% for the number of homes with air conditioning in the UK. 75% of Australian households have an air conditioning unit. It is easier to keep cool in an urbanized area than in a crowded one.
Kurt Shickman, the director of Extreme Heat Initiatives, said that the UK is built for cold weather because they have had to do it for centuries. If you aren't used to dealing with the heat, you may not know what to do in hot weather. If you've been living in one place for a long time, you may not be familiar with some of the basics. There is a certain amount of behavior change that needs to be done in the UK but not in Phoenix.
The high nighttime temperatures can affect the way homes are designed. Nights are becoming even hotter in the UK and the U.S., which is bad news for human health, as hotter nighttime temperatures can cause heat stress to accumulate, providing little relief for exhausted bodies and putting people at risk of heat. Many people in the UK, including those for whom high temperatures may be deadly, may not have access to a home that can keep them cool at night.
Shickman said that a heat wave doesn't hit a place. Pregnant women, the elderly, children, people dealing with drug addiction, and people who have to be outside are the most vulnerable. Everybody is negatively affected by heat if you look at the research. People in their late 20s, early 30s are more likely to go to the emergency departments in the U.S. People are going to face increased heat and not have access to the kind of cooling he takes for granted with that message.
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