‘A sardine can in the Sahara': In London, the heat is on

The Age

19-07-2025

Climate change is one of the stories. The discomfort in a London bus is only worth mentioning because it is a small part of a big shift. The Met Office, the UK government's meteorological agency, says the past three years have been among the country's five warmest on record. Parts of England are in drought.
The Royal Meteorological Society has just found that the United Kingdom has warmed about 0.25 degrees Celsius each decade since the 1980s. It says recent warming has exceeded any temperatures observed in central England in 300 years.
Now there is a much sharper focus on heat as a silent killer. Scientists at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine worked with colleagues at Imperial College London to examine historical records and compare them to the heatwave across Europe from June 23 to July 2 this year.
Their conclusion? Around 2300 people may have died as a result of the extreme temperatures across 12 major cities. This included 263 deaths in London.
So London has to brace for the heat. At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a few stops on the line from where I live, the curator of living collections, Simon Toomer, says they are changing the way they garden to conserve water and save plants.
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When I ask about adapting to hotter summers, he mentions choosing different species. 'Plants from warmer, drier areas of the world with climates similar to Kew's future conditions are being collected and planted to replace failing species,' he says. As the climate changes, so will the plants at Kew.
There are some intractable debates ahead – and not just about climate targets. Britain is so unready for the heat that some people want the country to accept air conditioning as a solution. London is full of Victorian housing fitted with radiators for winter and nothing for summer, because summers used to be milder.
Air con is intensely resisted by those who believe it will only add to electricity use and carbon emissions. The advocates, however, say solar and wind power will make it viable and ethical. You can tell the argument will only intensify with every heatwave.
It rained last night, finally. But here are words I never thought I'd write in England: it did not rain enough. Parts of London are so parched they look familiar to me. The grass on the nearby football field is as brown and crunchy as a Canberra oval at Christmas. The Thames near Brentford would be a comforting sight for anyone homesick for Lake Burley Griffin, with its weeds and muddy water.
Not that I'm homesick for the lake. There is just too much to do.
A final note. If you were a reader when I was covering federal politics in Canberra, thank you. I meant to write a final column to say farewell, but ran out of time while packing up the house. If you are a new reader now that I am in the World pages, welcome aboard – it will be a fascinating ride. But let's not take the bus just yet.