The recent heatwaves have emphasised how built environments are designed for a bygone climate. Adaptation will be disruptive, costly and essential
a moment when the penny drops. And in Britain this week the sound of dropping pennies was loud. Though Britons are by no means the worst affected by the heatwaves now sweeping the northern hemisphere, they have been in awe of a particular round number: 40°C. This is an air temperature never before recorded in the United Kingdom. But it was matched and exceeded in several places on July 19th.
Increased intensity and frequency is bad enough. Increased simultaneity may be worse. Heatwaves damage agriculture. Simultaneous disruption of plantings or harvests in different places could create crises that cannot be dealt with by moving produce around the globe, because there is little to move. In poor places, things will be worse—as, often, will be the degree of the initial problem, for poor countries tend to be near the equator, in zones where heatwaves can push temperatures to unsurvivable levels. Such places tend also to be those with high population growth, meaning more and more people will be affected.
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