Careful what you wish for: I left Australia days ago in search of warmer temperatures in which to temporarily implant my “digital nomad” freelance lifestyle.
I’ve landed in Europe at a time of record-breaking heat. Infrastructure is groaning and people are moaning. Homes, schools, hospitals, businesses and transport systems are being brought to the brink.
Specifically, I’ve returned to my hometown in Kent, in the UK, as heat records for June have been smashed, with parts of the country tipping over 36 degrees Celsius. Nearby France during the week recorded its hottest day since records began: 44.3 degrees. And it isn’t even yet the height of summer.
The irony is, the UK is a country known for its predominantly cold, grey and grim weather with the stereotype being this leads to cold people, the notorious “stiff upper lip”. This time, though, the country is not keeping calm and carrying on.
Chilly, drizzly weather is why I emigrated to Australia. I vowed to return to the UK after two years. That was almost 15 years ago.
My home country’s inhabitants spend all year moaning it’s too cold and unsunny, then whinging even more over extreme heat. It’s either too cold or too hot; rarely just right. We’re never happy.
Part of the complaint – complaining, here, is a national pastime – isn’t just the heat, but its impact on a country wholly unsuited and unprepared for it. One upside is it has very briefly distracted Brits from complaining about the current chaotic state of their politics.
In fairness, the complaints are, this time, pretty warranted. Warnings the world is warming have abounded for years, yet a UK heatwave rarely fails to throw the country into chaos and conniptions. It dominates newspaper front pages, radio talk shows and every conversation, during which it’s mandatory to state the bleeding obvious with the rhetorical question: “Isn’t it hot?”
There’s a serious side, though. As I travelled from London Heathrow, every train to my hometown was cancelled. Which is exactly what you want to hear after seven minutes of poor quality sleep on one of the world’s longest flights. I wasn’t alone: by 5pm on Wednesday, 2600 rail services had been cancelled or delayed. Do-not-travel warnings were issued for much of the week. I cancelled my plans to visit London, where almost every tube service was experiencing severe delays. You absolutely do not want to be severely delayed on an oven-like tube, where only 40 per cent of the network is air-conditioned.
Lack of aircon is part of the problem. While not every Australian home or school has it, in the UK aircon units are rarer than a ripe avocado in Coles. The resulting advice is counterintuitive: close curtains and shut windows.
Brits are accustomed to opening them to cool their houses. Mum and I decide to head to a local pool but it’s by reservation only and completely booked out. Kids haven’t even broken up for summer yet. My sister is one of the staff at one of the more than 1000 nurseries and schools closing early due to extreme heat.
The three of us head, instead, to the beach on the Kent coast which, also, isn’t straightforward. Police and beach security guards roam and check bags, cracking down on underage and excessive drinking.
South Eastern Water reports interruptions for properties in Kent, meaning some hairdressers have closed. In one hospital, chiller units broke down, impacting theatres and labs. A fire engine caught fire. Ten people were hospitalised after getting stuck in a traffic jam on the M25. Most catastrophically of all, Greggs, which sells ludicrously cheap baked bean bakes, has closed stores.
Our famed dark British sense of humour, however, will get us only so far. Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair recently suggested the nation abandon net-zero targets and, while the government pushed back, the leader of its rising far-right party Reform describes net zero as “lunacy”. Meanwhile, rising global heat kills one person a minute worldwide.
The UK needs to be far better prepared than this for extreme heat as it becomes a new norm for the cold country. The Met office predicts June 2056 could reach temperatures of 45 degrees.
Australia can offer valuable lessons here: from refreshing old UK rail infrastructure so tracks don’t overheat and buckle and trains don’t derail, to city cooling techniques and public service excellence, such as air-conditioned libraries and more public pools.
Tomorrow is set to be even hotter. I left heat-resilient Australia only days ago; I already miss it longingly.
Gary Nunn is a contributor to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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