HOW hot do you want it? That鈥檚 the question facing world leaders this week as heat records were broken, forests burned, economies were disrupted and people died. The lethal heat should act as a wake-up call for politicians about the urgency of acting on carbon emissions, not least leaders in the UK, which provisionally hit a previously unthinkable 40.3掳C as 快猫短视频 went to press (see Temperature hits 40掳C on the UK鈥檚 hottest day on record).
You might imagine the response would be an emergency political mobilisation like the one triggered by the covid-19 pandemic. Yet there was no breakthrough announcement from 40 countries at the held in Berlin this week. Climate action has barely been mentioned by politicians competing to be the new leader of the Conservative party and next UK prime minister, despite the country hosting the COP26 climate summit just eight months ago. Germany is reactivating coal plants in response to a Russian squeeze on gas. And across the Atlantic, a multibillion-dollar US plan to curb its carbon footprint by a single politician, Joe Manchin.
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The heat has exposed the UK as being woefully ill-adapted to climate change
The heat has exposed the UK, one of the richest countries in the world, as being woefully ill-adapted to climate change. Schools closed. Hospitals creaked. Flights were halted. Unfortunately, the UK isn鈥檛 alone: most adaptation globally has been fragmentary and incremental. This episode should be a reminder of what scientists have already warned: there are limits to adaptation.
All this is happening at 1.1掳C above pre-industrial levels. The world is on track for 3.2掳C of warming by 2100 at the high end, or 1.9掳C of peak warming in the most optimistic analysis. If we allow such global warming to happen, today鈥檚 heatwaves will seem modest. Much more deadly extremes will become possible.
The glimmer of good news is we can still do something. As science report after science report reminds us, we have the tools to rapidly cut emissions. This week鈥檚 deadly heat should give political leaders the mandate they need to use them.
