This is it - climate change is really beginning to bite

[Wowwee1234]

We know the climate is changing and it is us. This particular heat wave feels like the next step up after a winter of devastating storms.

YABU - It's just too hot
YANBU - This is the taste of things to come.

Why not use our homegrown oil&gas reserves? No need to sell into the international market, just use it domestically?

Hopefully if it is normal for today's children then they will adapt and cope - not like the idiots who think that a few hot days mean the end of the world is nigh!!

I'm not denying climate change by the way, but honestly, you need to get a grip. If you think it's hot how do you think people are coping in areas where it is much hotter, for a longer length of time.

Typical Brits, over-dramatic and not willing to do anything to help themselves.

I'm not in Britain and I'm not a Brit. Where I live we've had the 4th extreme weather event in 2 months. This month only we've had all the rain we normally would get in a year. But hey, we just need to get used to a bit more water, right?

I'm just glad I chose not to have children. Your childrrn will have to get used to the worst human migration event ever witnessed due to many areas in the world becoming uninhabitable, and it won't be a peaceful migration. Good luck to them. When they ask you why you did nothing to prevent this, you can explain to them that you thought they'd just get used to warmer summers.

Job’s comforter has joined the chat.

Our oil and gas reserves were mostly used up in the 1980s, and the small amount we have left has been sold to international companies who sell it to us at the going international rate!

It was all privatised in the 1980s, and since then North Sea oil is not reserved for domestic use. It's extracted by private companies who then sell it on the global market to the highest bidder. It doesn't stay in the UK, and it's not priced for UK customers.

The UK can't refine and manufacture the amount of oil-based products it uses. Overall refinery capacity in the UK has fallen by around 30% since 2010. This means we rely on other countries to produce the products we need.

You are more like to flood than be burgled in England.

Traditional flood defences can not protect homes from flooding due to intense rainfall (surface water flooding) which is incredibly difficult to predict and even more difficult to mitigate for!

£4 billion will not reduce the number of properties at risk overall with a greater then 2c increase in mean temperatures, and rising sea levels.

Surface water drainage infrastructure hasn’t been improved since privatisation in the 1980s, much of it is still Victorian era infrastructure. Intense rainfall causes it to flood in relatively frequent storms.

Surface water flooding is often mixed with raw sewage as we use combined sewers so the resulting flooding is hazardous to health.

@SouthernNights59

"However, people do have those conditions in other parts of the world".

Correct - and very high temperatures also kill vulnerable people with those conditions in those parts of the world too.

"As I just said, people in the UK need to learn to adapt to the weather and act accordingly."

You adapt to those conditions by installing air conditioning in private and public spaces - but this is extremely costly in energy terms and not accessible for many of the most vulnerable people, who also tend to be the poorest, and live in the worst housing.

Honestly - I appreciate you've taken a line on this issue which is something along the lines of 'Vulnerable people dying in heatwaves! Get over yourselves! Stop making a fuss!' It wouldn't kill you to just acknowledge that extreme weather events arising from climate change are taking lives, and that for people who aren't sociopaths, this is concerning.

We also had the same conversations about 1976 in 2022 when we had so little rain that the trees started dropping their drought-stressed leaves in August. It was shit scary. That’s happening again this year but its only July. We’re worrying about fires.
The point is we’re having the same conversations about 1976 more frequently. It’s getting hotter and drier and for longer. You’ll know that if you try to grow anything. It’s almost cooking some of my plants.

Exactly. It’s like autumn in London at the moment, there are so many dry, dead leaves everywhere. All the grass is parched and dead as well, and it’s only early July.

Why people want to pretend weeks of unnaturally high temperatures with no rain is somehow normal for the uk, I have no idea.

MS affects the bodies ability to regulate temperature. And the bodies ability to detect when it's going wrong.

There will be a host of other conditions that have similar effects.

All of the mean a sufferer could become heat exhausted without warning (bearing in mind it can be difficult for someone unimpaired).

That is a fucktonne of people to be checking.

Because they got sold to foreign companies who sell them at market price.

If the UK wanted them (and the oil can't make petrol) then it would have to pay for them.

We're still sitting of 300 years of coal reserves. Possibly the only thing worth invading us for ....

Oh god. Even I'm not a fan of coal. People die due to the air pollution effects

Let me guess ... more experts 😀?

What do you mean?

Well @SouthernNights59 im doing plenty to help myself by dressing appropriately for the weather by wearing fuck all and i shall continue to do so including tomorrow when the contractors come.

Yes I mean, personally I like experts. If I have a problem, the first person I want on board is an expert in dealing with that problem.

Call me eccentric but I think I even prefer speaking to experts over biased and ignorant people!

Haven’t RTFT but any farmers with thoughts? I just read we’re in drought in several areas.

I actually had air conditioning installed in my home a few weeks ago because the last heatwave was unbearable! We extended our house a few years ago and the insulation (mandated by the government for building regulations) exacerbated the problem.

We are on a zero carbon energy tariff to offset the carbon emissions we generate but also recognise that the nation grid cannot cope with everyone getting air conditioning!

Also today a drought was declared for my region!

• Drought Declaration:
• The Environment Agency officially declared a drought in the West Midlands and East Midlands on July 15, 2025.

• Cause:
• The declaration is a result of the driest spring in 132 years, with river flows and groundwater levels significantly below average.

• Current Restrictions:
• No hosepipe ban is currently in place in the West Midlands.

• National Drought Group:
• The National Drought Group is actively involved in managing the situation and ensuring water companies implement their drought plans.

This isn’t normal!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/west-and-east-midlands-move-into-drought

Yorkshire is in drought too!

@envbeckyc I dont blame you If i could have proper air con installed i would. Insulation has exacerbated the problem in social housing too along with health and safety rules.

That says it's from 2014 and that it probably won't collapse at an increase of 1.8C. I think we're currently at 1.3-1.4C rise and it's increasing exponentially. Google says we're expected to hit 1.8 in the next few years.

It says it's likely to collapse at an increase of 4C, which could happen by the 2060s on a high emissions pathway. I think CO2 emissions are still increasing so we're on that 'pathway' (God I hate that word!).

if it's the driest spring in 132 years that means it was dryer 132 years ago.

So was that caused by global warming?

Great question by @LastTrainsEast - because it's not always intuitive!

I guess we could think of it this way. Regardless of underlying causes, extreme and rare events will very occasionally happen - but they're rare. (In the way that twins used to be rare but not unheard of, but are now much more common because how we have babies has changed.)

It's likely that the dry spring 132 years ago was that extreme, rare event - a memorable and unusual spring at a time when our great-great grandparents really could count on regular April showers.

But that unusual spring 32 years ago doesn’t mean we're not living through global warming right now. Just like one cold day doesn’t mean it isn't summer. We need to look at how overall patterns have changed.

This question has got me to shift my backside to look for a good visual that might help the thread along. I've found this chart from the Our World in Data website, which was set up by a problem-solver and optimist. The original numbers are from the Met Office. You can click on the link here to see it properly.

It looks as if there might be a slight upward change in the pattern after about 1920. In the late 1970s, things really take off.

And the last three dots - for 2023, 2024 and 2025 - really are high up compared with the rest. The highest dots before that are 2016 and 2020, still very recent.

If you click on the link you can look at each one properly and also see a cool time-lapse version - really helpful.

Not sure why the visual isn't showing but I'm no good at these things! Trying again 😂

Temperature change over generational time

Oh dear. Still not getting trends and averages, are you