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.

How many private corporations are going to eat into their profits to improve conditions for employees voluntarily?

The drought was bad in 1976. We had a lot of days without rainfall and inadequate water infrastructure hence all the government advice to share bathwater etc.

However, a) it was nothing like as hot as it has been today, and b) the UK's heat was a global outlier that year. Now, we are just part of a whole world climate system getting hotter and hotter.

(Pic 1 shows 1976, Pic 2 shows 2025)

Ones that want to recruit and retain good staff.

They don't need to with the employment crisis going on.

Some will good ones, also those who bother to check staff productivity.

The nhs? Never. Local councils? Not a chance.

Again it’s common sense happy healthy staff work best. Hot sweaty grumpy moody staff not so much.

I’ve a few friends who are really enjoying working in supermarkets right now as it’s nice and cool. Office staff are not doing so well apart from a few who have air con.

Exactly. So it needs legislation.

I thought technology and being rich is what causes climate change in the first place.

Well, they do. The best employees will cluster in the best employers.

It's the way technology is used that causes climate change. There are plenty of ways it can be used positively. Look into solarpunk

YANBU
Choose wisely who to vote for
Join a union
Join campaigns for change both for infrastructure and guidance (maximum working temperatures, flexible working, when to close schools (potentially keeping provision for children of keyworkers), regulations for new builds re:solar panels and ventilation systems, planting more trees etc etc

We also need to do better with controlling spread of infectious diseases and preparing for the next pandemic (which will happen). Ventilation upgrades will help with both!

In the meantime doing what you can as an individual is also worthwhile - in particular trying to reduce carbon emissions - buy green energy, shop carefully, reduce car and plane journeys, follow and support the organisations campaigning for this, amplify their voices. At the moment the 1976 lot are shouting louder although I suspect a lot of them may be bots.
If affordable/practical consider installing solar panels, getting an electric car etc.
If a parent see how you can support your child's school with ventilation upgrades. If this can include air filtration too that will mean you all get ill less too (bonus!). Perhaps schools would be open to crowdfunding for this. Nature gardens and planting trees are also good to get involved with, perhaps schools would be open to this too.

Thanks for posting on this OP it's a very important issue.

Isn't it the same when it snows and the airports can't cope, the roads aren't gritted ? Or when it floods and the roads and railways are underwater? The investment needed to cover all these weather extremes must be immense.

A lot of schools don’t have any fields at all-they were sold off by previous councils for housing. The buildings and grounds have no trees for shade and nowhere to plant them, classroom windows that don’t open more than an inch or two (for safety) and are largely glass which means they heat up like a greenhouse,

I like hot weather and was on a thread whinging about the unseasonally cold/miserable weather in May and June! That feels like forever ago now. At the beginning of June I did a (running) race and it was so rainy, windy and chilly people were wearing dry robes at the start!

There were several weeks in May/june when it was about 12° and dull, rainy etc.and people said "well its better than a heatwave" ....as if there is no "in between" weather....except there actually wasnt in the last few weeks. The temperature has varied wildly!

I havent changed any plans, im lucky to travel on trains with air con and have air con at work. But when its breaking records for heat not everyone can just get on with it. The red warning means it could be a health threat to the general population not just vulnerable , ill or elderly.

Next time you give birth, don't expect any choices, and they can do what they like to you. You won't be allowed a birth partner. Just get on with it. They did in 1976.
Most of the people who say just get on with it have no health issues (and nor have their children) and work somewhere reasonably cool.

This would be included in max temp

On to personal responsibility again. See people
who turn their gardens into concrete Astro turfed sun traps then moan it’s too hot. Also add it floods.

While us “messy” more natural gardens have shade and breeze rustling though as well as wildlife.

Too hot inside I can go sit under the tree or by the bushes in the shade. Can also snaffle some fresh raspberries off the canes while I’m there in my case.

Lack of trees and that heat up the area around you. As well as being bad for wildlife. It’s been lovely seeing the bats at the bottom of the garden out for the dinner.

One of my children’s school is like that as a brand new build. It’s crazy.

My other two have huge fenced fields but zero trees.

The thing is “better working practice” is a) subjective and b) expensive.

Air Con might be lovely but you are literally doing the thing that got us to climate change in the first place.

No. The burning of fossil fuels is what has got us to anthropic climate change. This is established science.

There's nothing evil about air conditioning, any more than there's something evil about central heating.

We just need to power it sustainably.

Hyper individuality tends to occur during a Conservative government and then a more collective approach during Labour. Rather than oscillating between the two, a centre position could be held. Unfortunately the current Labour approach is not massively for the collective either so there is a predominance of more individual thinking.

Yes I'm seeing this more and more, a very 'every man for himself' kind of attitude. It's very sad to see

Yes, it will be, but we'll have to do it.

It's why people who bleat about "the cost of net zero" are nuts.

Well quite!

But @glitterpaperchain you should be grateful if they’re just saying “get on with it” - at least they aren’t using the awful expression “crack on”. Very used on here and very irritating even if in essence you agree with the person.

FWIW I think both positions have merit. This country grinds to a halt in heat and cold.

I was not aware we were in an extended period of heat and a drought.