To be fed up of hearing 'just get on with it'?

[glitterpaperchain]

This kind of 'just get on with it' RE the heat is all over Facebook. People talking about the heat in 1976 and saying 'we just got on with it' or 'we muddled through' (as if people didn't die as a result of that heatwave)

My issue is - shouldn't we as a society be aiming higher than just getting on with things and muddling through? We should be campaigning for better infrastructure, better working practices.

I just think we have all this technology, we're supposed to be a rich country, let's fight to make things better rather than just managing. What happened to the spirit of the first union workers who demanded better conditions and rights? I want to see that spirit back.

A few days every half century? I don't know where you're getting your information from,but heatwaves are most certainly not a few days every half century any more! Last year alone,in the south east,there were 4 separate spells of 2 weeks of hot weather. I'm talking about temperatures of 30 degrees plus. The 10 hottest years on record? The last ten years,2016 -2025. And heatwaves are going to become more and more common according to the experts. It is reckoned that by 2040, summer temperatures will routinely hit 40, degrees plus. And not just for a few days,it will be weeks at a time.

Exactly what I've just posted about!

The last few days I walked to the station, got on the train. It was hot. I went to work, got the train home. It was really hot.
I don’t want to diminish anyone suffering but I really really don’t see the problem. And whilst I agree this is not an every twenty five years issue, even for one week a year I do actually think ‘we can get on with it’ We have sooo many other things to worry about, heat that is deeply uncomfortable,
but not impossible, for a tiny percentage every year is not really one of them.

It's a valid point. Most people I see only have 1 or 2 children (and as the other person said, the UK now has a low birth rate). This is undoubtedly a good thing.

But I don't see how it's invalid for me to point out that some families have far too many children, and some men are fathering far too many children, and that's causing issues. That's a perfectly legitimate point.

It's not going to be one week every year. Have you heard of global warming?

My main concern is my health. This heat affects my medication, my symptoms and my ability to walk. So no I carnt just got on with it

You have a very short memory if you think we haven’t had any extreme heatwaves between1976 and now. We hit 40c (higher than today by over 3c) in July 2022 for instance.

Hiwever. days like today still only occur one day in 500 or so, so it doesn’t merit spending the hundreds of billions that it would cost to fully insulate us from the heat and turn us into a Dubai, so I think we don’t have to adjust for the few days it’s like this.

Global temperatures have risen by 1.5-2c…. That means that 32c becomes 34c… hotter certainly, but it was hot before on some days. By Sunday this heat will have gone…

Having a birth rate that a well below replacement levels as is currently the case is the opposite of being “undoubtably a good thing”. It’s madness you think this is the case.

Rather It’s a catastrophic thing that will lead to the collapse of society in decades if not reversed. A top heavy population pyramid with far more 80 year olds than 20!year olds would be a disaster!

I’m not arguing for population explosion, just population equilibrium.

Well yes, we don’t generally have more than 4 days of extreme hot temperatures a year…. Yes, that may increase, but we don’t have months of temperatures about 35c

What ridiculous rose tinted spectacles are you wearing

It's hard to correct someone who ignores facts. This week was the hottest June temperature ever. June. Not overall. The hottest overall temp was 40, in 2022.

1976 was a long, hot summer. That was a particular weather event. But climate change means that normal summer days are significantly hotter than ever before. There is a bbc article explaining that with our new climate, a weather event like 1976 woul lead to temps in the mid 40s instead of peaking at 36.

Temperaturrs over 36 and nights over 21 are becoming normal. This is climate change. It's not a "once in 50 years" ecent.

That isn't how it works unfortunately. There will be more extreme weather events including more heatwaves which could be longer with high humidity.

Oh dear...no that's not what that means

It's an average, with much colder winters and much hotter summers. If you're going to take such a selfish point at least don't be ignorant of the facts

You got a train? Well done you! But many people literally die during heatwaves

This is not just incorrect, it’s displays baffling amnesia of recent years. For instance, last year was the hottest summer on record!

The top temperature in 1976 was 35.9c. The reason it’s so seared into the national
consciousness is because it was so unusual for the time.

In the past ten years alone, we have had hotter temperatures than that in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2025, and now in 2026, with 2022 topping 40c!

It also got above that 35.9c, or within a fraction of a degree of it, on various other occasions in the 90s and 2000s, with 1990 and 2003 being notable examples.

The summer of 1976 was undoubtedly a very hot one, with prolonged heat as well as individual days with high temperatures, but since 2000, we’ve had no less than five hotter summers based on average temperatures for the whole season: 2003, 2006, 2018, 2022 and 2025.

Hopefully this slightly nerdy post has quashed once and for all that 1976 was somehow unique and what we have currently is our first comparable summer since then.

No, we’re not getting “much colder winters”. If you’re going to accuse others of being ignorant of the facts then you need to ensure you don’t follow up with something that’s completely incorrect!

As the link shows “The average UK winter has become around 1C warmer and 15% wetter over the past century” and “Six of the 10 warmest winters on record were in the 21st century”.

www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-how-uk-winters-are-getting-warmer-and-wetter/

It’s true that if warming continues then there’s a risk of the North Atlantic ocean currents being disrupted…. Yes, European winters would then be much colder, but we haven’t had that yet.

My point was that we are undoubtedly experiencing hotter weather due to climate change, and this is serious and needs addressing, but we also shouldn’t over-exaggerate it.

If you are that bothered just get aircon

It's exactly this kind of comment that shows a lack of any thought for others.
@Justveryveryangry , I have questioned myself on the rose tinted spectacles. Post war and pre Thatcher there was less emphasis on the self. The Church still had a big influence, people were consuming far, far less. Infrastructure was in place and social mobility was an option.

There were no food banks in the 70's

Again, I think you don't understand how averages work

I realise the heat is a huge problem for some people. However, for the majority of people it is just a bit uncomfortable for a few days and they just want to get on with their lives.

but your posts are suggesting that other people sort the problems out, can’t you see that? To fix a problem someone had to start somewhere and if this is bothering you so much be the catalyst instead of moaning about hyper individualism.

They're not suggesting other people sort the problems out

I'm wondering about the trend I've seen in society that people just shrug and say 'just get on with it'. And wondering where the spirit to fight back has gone.

It's possible to talk about general trends without just making everything about myself, although many MNetters seem to struggle with that concept

"their lives" without a care for anybody else.

Explain how I don’t understand how averages work…

I have explained, with evidence, that we are not getting “much colder winters”’ that offset “much hotter summers”, and the facts demonstrate the complete opposite, and that we’re in fact getting hotter summers and milder winters!

To follow up with more facts, this time from the Met Office:

”British summers are warming at a rate of roughly 0.25°C per decade since the 1980s. The UK's meteorological baseline sits at an average mean summer temperature of 14.59°C (1991–2020), which is a distinct increase from the 13.78°C recorded during the 1961–1990 baseline.”

This demonstrates summers are indeed getting hotter, and actually shows that my example was exaggerated rather than underplaying warming!

You seem to be similar to climate-change deniers who base their views on feelings not facts, taking individual pieces of data and extrapolating to false conclusions.

Whereas a climate-change denier will take a cold spell and conclude “look how cold it is - how can people claim there’s global warming when all this snow!”…. failing to see this an increasingly rare event, you appear to be opposite, and are taking an extreme event which is becoming more
common, and then over-exaggerating it!

Neither of you are basing your positions on a proper consideration of the facts in context, but are using particular events as confirmation bias to support a particular narrative that you’ve decided is correct, but which doesn’t fit the facts.

I’m agreeing with you that climate change is real, and that it is impacting our society, but over-exaggerating the position doesn’t help, will lead to inefficient use of resources, and give ammunition to climate change deniers.

That is an quite a selfish attitude. A lot of people rely on me and my colleagues being at work.

I had a google and the night time temps seemed much cooler in the 76 hestwave. Something to do with it being dry so the hot air escaped at night. I think this is the bit I struggle with. If my house could just cool to 20 degrees at night id feel so much better.

I also found that where I live has increased its average by more than the average increase for the UK.