London Climate Action Week thwarted by extreme heat

London Climate Action The week was supposed to be a conference to figure out how to cut emissions. Instead, it is a typical example of how the world is increasingly being forced to adapt Extreme heat.

“London is not just calling, it is cooking,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday, while delivering a keynote speech at the event.

The UK Met Office expects temperatures to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, a mark that would break the June record and come close to the highest temperature ever recorded in the country. The UK is not alone: ​​a deadly heatwave is sweeping across Europe, with countries closing schools and nuclear plants and rail operators scaling back operations to avoid overheating tracks.

“Our infrastructure is not set up to withstand this temperature,” says Katie Glaze, director of sustainability at infrastructure consultancy Brookbanks. I dropped out of about nine sessions on how to adapt buildings to the harsh climate because of transportation issues. She adds: “The irony is that in many of the conferences that I would attend, the topic of discussion was what is happening now.” “It’s all about forward-thinking, but we have a situation now where we’re not addressing it fast enough.”

Europe is currently surrounded by an area of ​​slow-moving high-pressure air. This traps warm air as a “Lid on pot“It creates a ‘heat dome’ that prevents other weather fronts, such as clouds and rain, from moving through it. The air becomes hotter and hotter while the Earth also warms, loses moisture, and becomes more easily heated. The initial warming amid global warming has intensified the effect.”

In London, organizers canceled Tuesday It happened In extreme heat because the library where it will be hosted does not have air conditioning. ‘Extremely unpleasant’ indoor conditions and hot journeys to the conference venue would have posed a safety risk for speakers and guests, as Zurich Climate Resilience Coalition is hosting He says.

Meanwhile, Europe’s Earth observation program has been cancelled Events “For families to explore local wildlife at Hammersmith Park, in a development no one wanted, but the irony of which everyone can appreciate,” the charity wrote in a Facebook post.

The festival was expected to attract 75,000 people across more than 1,000 events over nine days. But some attendees chose to stay away due to heat-related health concerns. London, like most cities, traps more heat than rural areas due to the high density of heat-absorbing materials such as concrete and tarmac and the lack of cooling vegetation.

Climate Majority Project co-director Robert Read decided not to go to London for the event because he suffers from a heart condition, which can be exacerbated by the heat. His organization moved the events online.

“It’s unbelievable that it has come to this,” he says, adding that London Climate Action Week will continue “with a very real sense of danger hanging over it, because this is the reality now. It is climate collapse in effect.”

The UK government has to caution A heat wave will strain public health systems and increase the risk of disease or even death. Last year the government counting High temperatures caused the death of more than 1,500 people across the country, and the elderly were the age group most at risk.

Charlotte Baker, who runs her own environmental and public health consultancy and lives outside London, also canceled her plans to attend a conference on making cities more livable this week because she suffers from severe asthma caused by pollen and air pollution. She was hospitalized for an asthma attack three years ago in high temperatures and doesn’t want to risk a repeat given the forecast that hot, stagnant air will trap air pollution.