To worry that the planet is heating faster than we have been led to expect and whether we can cope?

[100thingstoknowaboutspace]

I understand that extreme weather events, including spikes in temperatures and longer heatwaves, are a result of smaller incremental rises in global temperature. But the rate of heat records and large jumps in the temperatures during those spikes and heatwaves that we have experienced during the last 10 years feels off the scale for me, and I am wondering how we can actually cope if it continues at this pace? Climate experts talk about 2 degrees warming by mid century, but if we experience heatwaves that are 5 or more degrees hotter or go on longer than this one, I genuinely don't understand how we will cope. At the moment my flat is only just tolerable - with every measure of cooling I could think of. A few degrees more, and survival is literally threatened. Whereas humans may be able to cope with 5, 10 etc degrees lower, as it is easier to heat up, it seems we are reaching the edge of survivability in terms of being able to stay cool enough to maintain life. Not only here in the UK obviously.

I do believe there is still action that we as individuals and as a country (which in turn may impact other countries) can take, but I am scared that things are worse than even experts, in their carefully hedged or caveated statements and predictions, cause us to believe. I am worried I won't be able to keep my child safe as they grow up.

Grateful if anyone can talk me down from this climate anxiety - and also, grateful for insight about what might be most effective for us to do.

These countries are rich, they can provide their citizens with comfortable life, subsidized AC units, and food and water they will import. The governments of these countries can build domes on enormous scale to grow food, if necessary.
But Pakistan, Bangladesh and the like will go bankrupt with civil wars erupting. Their citizens will be running away and trying to get to other better places they can survive in.

Solar panels produce zero direct carbon emissions while generating electricity. However, they do have a minor carbon footprint from their lifecycle—primarily during raw material extraction, manufacturing, and transport. According to data harmonized by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), solar panels contribute roughly 40 to 43 grams of CO₂ equivalent per kilowatt-hour (gCO₂eq/kWh) over their lifetime.

The biggest thing you can do to reduce carbon emissions?

Not have children.

Maybe Mumsnet isn't the best place for this discussion lol.

Things don’t happen overnight

i I think that’s part of the difficulty - people find it difficult to understand that the inflation we have seen in coffee and chocolate is a direct result of climate change

people struggle to understand that crop yields will on average decline even if we still have crops - and that means higher prices next year

until it goes really bad and a high humidity/temperature leads to people dying in the street

we don’t yet know how many people in the uk have died as a direct result of this exceptional heatwave and because it’s reported months later , and it’s not your mother or child , the distance from the cause makes it easier to minimise everything

I'm really worried that people haven't actually understood properly what global warming means.

They hear '2%C rise in global temps' and think 'ooh that sounds lovely, we could do with warmer summers'

What it actually means in reality is that 2%C rise knocks the worlds temperature regulation streams completely out of whack, like a spinning plate wildly oscillating on a pole. It means sudden lurches from one extreme to the other, cold air colliding with hot air creating powerful supercell storms, and sudden vast releases of condensed water in torrential downpours and flash floods. It means airstreams being blocked and compressed causing huge build ups of heat and pressure (like right now in Europe) which move very slowly and create a humid greenhouse for the countries underneath. It could mean the failure of the gulf stream, the jet stream or the AMOC - each of which has a completely different effect on Europe. We could freeze or burn. We don't yet know which will win.

No-one knows exactly what we are about to experience. It's unpredictable, dangerous and therefore very hard to prep for.
But one thing is agreed upon: it's begun and is more extreme, and accelerating more quickly than anyone imagined.

I think you would be wrong about being able to import food, and the same goes for us in the UK. We know we cannot produce enough to feed our population and if global warming reduces food production in places like Pakistan or South Africa there won’t be anything to import. Countries will stop exports to enable them to feed their own population.

Food security or lack of is an area that had been neglected. We use farming land to build on or for solar farms.

It requires an intensive amount of energy to produce solar panels and they only last for about 20 years, and can't be recycled.

That claim that they're great for the environment?

It was made by the solar industry who learnt so much from the tobacco, plastic and oil industries.

I'd love to go back to the 70s or 90s lifestyle!

This isn't quite right.

It's not too late, the solutions exist, but we do need to act fast.

You're right that the planet has always changed climate. However the rate of change is quicker than it's been in the past and it's entirely caused by humans this time. We can stop it and save a lot of suffering for our children and grandchildren. It is scary though so I understand why people choose to be misinformed. I often wish I knew less about it!

The planet only matters if humans get to live on it apparently!!!

Humans are the cause and they won’t be the solution!!! We are just making it WORSE with our greed and overconsumption!!!!

I find it amusing that only a couple of weeks ago a poster was posting as fact that we’re in for an ice age in the next ten years and hundreds of posters jumped on to panic agree with her. And now we’re on the same trajectory with heatwaves.

You'd be surprised! This is said A LOT on Mumsnet! There was one poster called Linsey 91 or something who was on here (she may have left now). She said this all the time. I began to wonder if it was her full time job 😂

It said on the news that UK temperatures are expected to reach 40C by 2050. The way things are going I assume they mean in the winter.

I was re-roomed from my classroom today as it recorded 35 degrees at 10 am - how can anyone learn in those conditions? And before anyone suggests ice lollies and shade, I had Year 10. If this is going to the 'norm', schools need to be invested in.

The west has outsourced most of its manufacturing to China, so in fact, most of China's CO2 outputs are due to us. And China is int he process of transitioning to green energy. Forget the US, they are loons. As a developed country, it's really on us to set an example, so we can't really ask India - their C02 per capital is much lower than ours anyway. The UK could actually be leaders in green energy - wave and tidal technology, and this would be of both environmental and economic benefit.

It's clear though that our most difficult task is education.

An answer to climate change would be if we all used less of everything.
But no commercial enterprise has a vested interest in getting us to do that.

I would say that you are being completely unreasonable because you’re only bothered about this because of the current heat wave. The climate crisis has been discussed and publicised for decades.

The problem is not being addressed because people are only bothered when it directly affects them and something out of the ordinary happens under their noses.

In the 1970s the accepted science was that we would have an ice age by about 2010.

By about 1995 it was accepted that most of the planet would be under water by about 2025.

It's all a load of nonsense.

I'm afraid I think it's too late, although I do understand why people rail against this because it is a concept so genuinely terrifying it is very difficult reconcile in our heads.

Where I would disagree though, is that we weren't warned. I feel I have heard about this increasingly whole life (I'm in my 40s) and we (as a global society) neglected to implement the measures required at every stage, even though early on they would have been far more manageable.

I'm not sure about this. I care about it all the time and act accordingly but feel especially panicked this week, it's hard to get it off your mind!

Thank you OP for raising this. The only way to change things is to educate people and to work together. Talking about it is helpful!

We are ALL going to die. Is it ethical to have children, if you know they’re going to suffer?

Except in 2003 (38.5°C), 2018 (35.6°C), 2019 (38.7°C), and 2022, in which year over 40.2°C was recorded in London and 40.3°C in Lincolnshire. 2025 wasn't as blazing hot on any one day, but went over 35°C for longer, and did it four times, so it's "the hottest year on record".

It got as high as 35.1°C on 26th May this year, I am told. But it's got to 37.1°C this week and is probably still rising, though not expected to go over 39°C

In 1976 the hottest temperature recorded was 35.9°C in Cheltenham in July, so it held the record until 2003.

Fun times trying to import food when half the planet is screaming for it, driving up prices and even resulting in military action.

And building giant domes…

Or we moonshot the energy transition as fast as we can. With everything we’ve got. The first countries out of the oil age will be the winners in the 22nd century.

So many people ignore it until the asteroid is literally about to hit. This data has been shared for a long time but most people ignore it or share conspiracies. There is nothing whatsoever unexpected about these extreme events given the scientific data we have. Sadly it will get worse unless we make wholesale changes which is unlikely.

Stop having children then
One of my children is a scientist and because they know the fate that will be awaiting their grandchild if they had a child they’re not having a child