Its Summer, according to the calendar. As with every season, the media, however, never seems to have experienced one before, and so has to report it, in apocalyptic terms, using its normal range of superlatives. So, day after day, we have reports of a killer heatwave, linked to climate change. Of course, that is a bit of a sick joke, here, in Brexit Britain. Its been so cold and miserable for days. Yesterday, my wife and I managed to get out for a few hundred yards, on our daily walk, before being caught in a rainstorm that caused us to return home like drowned rats, and, today, although we did manage our normal walk, it was so cold that I wished I'd taken gloves. Back in the house, its so cold, made worse by the miserable wet weather, and grey sky outside that I even considered putting the heating on.
Of course, its this thoroughly miserable weather, even in Summer, in Britain that led millions of people to go to Spain, Italy, Greece and other warmer climes for their holidays in the first place, though the idiocy of Brexit has made that, now, much, much harder, whether its delays at ports and airports, or the restrictions of 90 days in 180, for the retired who, previously used to be able to enjoy long stay holidays. The media have little to say about the appalling weather in Britain, instead complaining and catastrophising the hot weather in Europe that most British people have always looked forward to as a respite from the British Summer.
Is their climate change? Undoubtedly, as nearly all the scientific evidence suggests. Is it largely caused by the effects of carbon emissions from industrialised societies, again, almost certainly yes, according to all the science. Does that explain or justify the catastrophising, and apocalyptic reporting of the hot Summer weather in the Northern hemisphere, in those countries lucky enough to usually get decent weather? No.
As the scientists have always said there is a difference between climate change, as along-term phenomenon, as against, what the weather might do, in any country, on this or that day, week or month. People, have always gone to the Mediterranean countries in the Summer for their holidays, to get that decent hot weather. Its Summer, and that is what you expect, at least if you don't live in miserable Brexit Britain. Most of us have been in Spain, or Greece, or Italy, when the Summer temperature is frequently above 40 degrees. Its what we go for! If you look at the media reports, its as though this decent hot, sunny weather is not what you'd expect.
Of course, the media report the record temperatures, but those record highs, are usually only at most 1 degree higher than the previous record high temperature in the same locations. For most of us, we would not even notice the difference. You'd certainly notice the difference with the miserable, cold, damp weather, in Brexit Britain, but, again, that's why millions of Britons gave up on it, and went for the sun in Europe.
The reports also infantilise people talking about the danger from the extreme heat, but, extreme heat that is usually only a degree higher than the usual temperatures in those countries, at this time of year. Noel Coward sang about "Mad Dogs and Englishman Go Out In The Mid-day Sun", and the ridiculous thing is that the media reports about this killer heat, in various places, sees video of people out in the open, exposing themselves to the full glare of the heat! Its like running news stories about the danger of being run over by a bus, and showing video of it of people playing chicken, to back it up.
Anyone with a modicum of sense, is able to enjoy the hot weather without risking death. The people who live in the Mediterranean countries have always organised their lives accordingly. But, the media as with everything else have a narrative of climate change, and so have to make even a bit of hot weather into a saga, and new apocalypse, just as last year, a few hot days in Britain, that amounted to the whole of Summer, was accompanied by similar superlatives, talk of drought, and so on, which within a couple of days, was dropped from the news, as the normal, miserable wet British Summer weather returned.
The world needs to address the long-term issue of climate change, which will require a lot of investment, particularly in poorer countries, and which is unlikely to happen so long as capitalism exists. The answer does not lie in a Malthusian catastrophism, and anti-industrialism, however. But, the media's attempts to catastrophise the weather, acts to undermine the actual narrative about that climate change as a long-term phenomenon.
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