Global Warming’s Not Just for the Summer

22 August 2026

 

Here in England we’ve had some cooler weather and even some rain: just enough to save the garden, if not to replenish the aquifers, rivers and reservoirs.

It feels pleasant.

And it’s probably going to continue to feel nice and normal over the next month or so, until El Niño and autumn have chucked a lot of rain at us and we start to moan and feel we need respite from it.

No doubt as winter approaches, people will want to put on their heating and have hotter showers or baths.

How many of us have ensured we buy our electricity through companies that use only renewable sources to produce it?  At the risk of sounding smug, I recently changed my supplier for just that reason, and I’m saving nearly £100 a month!  I must admit I had been progressively accumulating credit with my former supplier, so I was being charged for more than I used, which will account for some of the savings.

But even if we’re using eco-friendly electricity, many of us are stuck with gas-fired central heating.  The obvious thing would be to change to electric boilers, but it’s not easy.  It will most likely mean a new dedicated electric feed, and a few other changes.  According to Gemini, it will be more expensive, at least while we transition, and if you can afford the capital outlay, an air pump will run more cheaply and efficiently.

Personally, I have my eye on some of those nice new electric radiators that you can get in all sorts of colours, and you can control each individual room’s temperature via your phone.  There’s a German make that is particularly appealing.  But, of course, they aren’t cheap.

I’ve been trying to get a quote for air-conditioning, but the companies who supply it are so busy that even a quote will have to wait.  I’m not sure if they make units that both heat and cool.  That sounds useful, but I don’t know how effective such things are.  I haven’t a clue, in fact.  And if they’re any good, no doubt they will again be expensive.

But I’m determined to live in an ecologically sound house or at least work towards it.  I keep reminding myself that it should add value to the property.  Then I think about how I may have to get it done on credit, so I think of my children’s happy little faces when they sell up because I’ve snuffed it.  They might benefit financially even if I don’t!  Yes, they are adults.

But from now until April or May, will many people be thinking about what they need to do to keep cool next summer?  We must.  And we have to think about the welfare of others, too.  In fact, we have to think about what will happen next year to everyone.  It’s a global problem.  And we don’t know who is going to be the recipient of a particularly heavy cloud drifting by and breaking up, or who stays in the dry with the ground around us baking and becoming more and more infertile.

We have to be prepared for the heat, and probably in England for drought, but we could get floods.

If we think about the inhabitants of Planet Earth as a whole, all the flora and fauna, and work together to stop the heating, that’s how we’ll stand a chance of ending the dreadful and deadly weather.  That’s something we need to continue to do even when it all seems hunky dory where we are.  We must reduce, preferably stop, pumping greenhouse gases into the air.  Yes, it’s inconvenient, but if we don’t, we’ll be suffocating under a blanket of heat-trapping gases.

So that’s what we need to do for long-term survival.

The other thing we need to do is prepare for the symptoms of global warming and climate change which make our lives hard to cope with.  This is where we must plan ahead for air conditioning, or buying fans when they are available, putting up awnings as well as curtains and blinds to keep the hot sun from coming through the windows.  I’ve even thought about using that white stuff you can paint on greenhouses (to stop plants overheating in a normal summer), but I haven’t tried it yet.  It’s an idea, and we’ll need plenty of those.

Okay, I hear you clamouring; what should we do?

Let’s take the first problem, the underlying existence of climate change.  Shall we give it a name?  What about Mara (surname Lago)?

In Norse/Slavic folklore, and other mythologies, Mara is a spirit associated with nightmares, tragedy and death.

I apologise to anyone who actually has the name Mara, of course.

So, we need to put our Mara back in her box or blast her into space in millions of tiny parts, never to reform again, metaphorically speaking.  In practical terms, we need to stop burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, power transport (cars, planes, ships) and heat buildings.

Mara needs to change her diet.  She must quit cooked oil, gas and coal. She’s emitting vast quantities of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

She’s also got to give up munching on cattle and sheep, and their products: milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt.  The digestion of these animals belches out large amounts of methane (CH₄), and their manure gives off nitrous oxide (N₂O).

In my town we’re about to be given containers for food waste, and some have speculated what is wrong with dumping it in with the ordinary waste.  Of course, some get their brownie points by composting it, and then they can grow better plants, and that creates a positive upward spiral.  But that’s beside the point.  The thing is, when organic waste decomposes in landfills, it generates even more methane.

Back to Mara.  She’s also got to avoid synthetic fertilisers, which also emit nitrous oxide (N₂O).

And Mara will have to give up her hobby of manufacturing cement, steel, aluminium, plastics, fridges and electronics because they give off other gases (HFCs, PFCs, SF₆).  I don’t actually know what they are, but I have it on good authority that they are created with the wanted stuff.  Mara will have to take up crochet or something instead.

Of course, as I’m sure you all know, Mara must stop cutting down forests.  While they’re still there, they absorb CO₂; get rid of them and you still have it in the atmosphere.  Cleared vegetation also releases stored carbon.  Double whammy.

Actually, chopping down trees and stuff is a triple whammy.  While the living vegetation is mopping up CO₂, it’s also releasing Oxygen (O₂), which you and I, your family and friends, neighbours, immigrants and emigrants, humans all over the world, your pets, all the wild animals, and those poor little stray cats you sometimes see – all animal life needs O₂ to live.  Without it we’re dead.  Okay, so there’s a question mark against some life forms that live in some of the deep and mysterious parts of the oceans, but I don’t think they want greenhouse gases.

So our problematic Mara will have to change her habits.  That’s essential, for the reasons given.  But the more Mara causes the bad outcomes, those outcomes in turn make it worse.

Take, for example, the fact that warmer air holds more water vapour.  The vapour then joins with the rest and acts as a greenhouse gas, and our atmosphere becomes even warmer, causing more…  You get the picture.

As the planet heats up, the polar ice melts and exposes land and ocean, which are darker.  When there’s nice shiny white snow, it reflects sunlight back into space.  Darker surfaces absorb light and heat.  And that causes more melting, etc.

As the permafrost melts, it allows for the release of ancient, trapped methane and CO₂.  Making the planet warmer, which causes more melting.

Of course, the tremendous heat that occurred in the summer of 2026 dried out the land and aided wildfires, however they were triggered.  The resultant flames and smoke made the greenhouse effect worse, causing more fires to burn rampantly.

 

Let’s step aside from how we’ve caused global warming, and nature has augmented the problem.

Mara also has to stop having bloody (meant literally and as a swear word) wars.  You can thank Messrs Trump, Netanyahu and Putin for a huge increase in the amount of CO₂, methane, nitrous oxide and black soot, fine particulates, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and other volatile organic compounds and toxins.  Believe me, they are not helping us regain control of our climate.

 

I’ve waffled on long enough.  You wouldn’t be reading this if you were still convinced we’re doing nothing to make the planet hotter.

The main point I want to get across is that, even when we’re experiencing pleasant weather and our gardens, parks and countryside are green and lush, all we’re experiencing is a ceasefire, a relief between bouts of the almost unbearable.  Perhaps the word ‘almost’ shouldn’t be there.  Studies published in major medical journals like The Lancet estimate that over 480,000 to 500,000 deaths occur annually due to extreme heat. Researchers attribute roughly 37% (or 180,000) of these directly to human-induced climate change.

We have to act to stop these deaths, and others caused by failed harvests, etc, all year round.  Don’t just wait until it’s too hot again.  Keep up the good and necessary work even when you’re cold.

Of course that means quitting the burning of fossil fuels but also ending the consumption of beef and dairy.  There are so many really tasty alternatives.

But we must also prepare for what the crisis chucks at us in terms of droughts and floods.  To me that means networks everywhere for flood water to drain out to the sea, and for desalinated water to be pumped to where crops and other plants essential to a healthy ecosystem are growing.  Plus, those all-essential desalination plants themselves have to be built.  If you’d like to find out about the many desalination plants already in use, have a look on YouTube.

In our community groups, we could get together to dig appropriate irrigation trenches.  You’ll know what needs to be done in your area.  Please do it.

Other little things to remember: water for the birds and other creatures.  Ponds should have stones or the like inside so anything that falls in but can't swim (eg a hedgehog) can climb back out.  A washing-up bowl works well for wildlife.

Don’t forget the bees and other pollinating insects.  They need flowers to feed from and, of course, water.

We need cool centres for the spring and summer, just as we need warm banks when the weather is particularly cold.  Speak to your councillors about where people can gather and benefit from air-conditioning, such as your local library or village hall.

And remember to share tips far and wide on how to keep cool when the temperature is high.