\n<\/p>\n
E<\/span>very time you think the idiocy has hit rock bottom, it discovers a new level. It turns out there\u2019s an even deeper hole you can dig for yourself than climate-science denial: heat-stress denial. Across the billionaire press last week, columnists and leader writers minimised the health impacts of the heatwave, particularly in schools. Expect more of this next week, when temperatures are forecast to soar again.<\/p>\n An editorial in the Telegraph (which represents the newspaper\u2019s view) titled \u201cHot weather alarmism treats the public like children\u201d maintained that \u201cunlike in the seventies, when people were largely trusted to look after themselves, officialdom now feels the need to lecture the public about the risks of hot weather at every opportunity\u201d. Extreme heat warnings are issued and weather maps are \u201cpainted in an alarming red\u201d. Outrageous! Instead of issuing warnings, the government should just trust people to \u201ctake the appropriate precautions\u201d. We should all \u201clearn to live\u201d with it. Quite right too: whatever happened to the bulldog spirit of ignorance and needless death? Cricket, warm beer, excess mortality: these are the markers of national character.<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: The Telegraph<\/p>\n Also in the Telegraph, under the headline \u201cHeatwave hysterics wouldn\u2019t have lasted a day in 1976\u201d, the columnist Ysenda Maxtone Graham insisted that during the heatwave that year \u2013 which she remembers as \u201ctwo months of blissful messing about\u201d \u2013 \u201ccommon sense was applied by most without the need for nannying intervention\u201d. Now, however, \u201chealth messages range from the patronising \u2013 tube announcements imploring travellers to carry a bottle of water \u2013 to the preposterous, as if a healthy adult is liable to drop dead from a little bit of sun exposure\u201d. Never mind the unhealthy adults. Or disabled people, or elderly people, or children, all of whom are likely to be more vulnerable. She claimed that in 1976, \u201cschools didn\u2019t close because of the heat\u201d, and that children and teachers heroically \u201csweltered in 30-degree classrooms\u201d.<\/p>\n Maxtone Graham\u2019s column was remarkably similar to Jane Moore\u2019s in the Sun, titled: \u201cWhy on earth do schools need to CLOSE in hot weather? Forget today\u2019s nannying, alarmist state \u2013 let\u2019s go back to \u201976.\u201d Moore remembers 1976 as \u201cthe best summer of my life\u201d. Apparently <\/strong>there was a \u201cgung-ho spirit\u201d that \u201cshould be used as a standard benchmark for common sense\u201d.<\/p>\n The Daily Mail ran an article whose subheading claimed \u201cin 1976 \u2026 the schools DID stay open\u201d. In fact, as Leo Hickman of Carbon Brief points out, schools DID at least close early during the 1976 heatwave, even though June temperatures never reached the records set last week. And in 1976 the heat was dry, whereas last week humidity was high, compounding the health risks. But as soon as such a hole is dug, the entire rightwing media seems obliged to jump into it. It\u2019s often said that the left preaches solidarity and fights like cats in a sack. But the right preaches individualism while reciting daft and unevidenced claims in unison.<\/p>\n There is a powerful body of evidence showing that warnings and advice save lives. The Red Cross discovered in 2023 that there\u2019s a strikingly poor understanding of the health risks of heatwaves in the UK, where they used to be rare. A survey reported in the journal Energy Research & Social Science last year found that 49% of participants had \u201clittle to no knowledge on how to cope with extreme heat\u201d. Nevertheless, government warnings, doubtless to the delight of the Telegraph, remain vague, hard to interpret and unsupported by effective action. Let the bodies pile high.<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: The Sun<\/p>\n Fondly recalling the halcyon days of your youth is never a great basis for empirical comparison. But what accentuates this issue are the unacknowledged class politics. There\u2019s nothing new about feather-bedded columnists in nice homes in leafy streets or air-conditioned offices instructing other people to tough it out. But the class disparity in heat shielding is especially acute in Britain, where homes and public buildings are woefully unsuited to extremes.<\/p>\n The paper I mentioned above also found that 82% of households reported difficulty in keeping at least one room cool during the summer. The rate of overheating for the poorest half \u201cwas twice that of householders in the top half of higher-income earners\u201d. Many other studies have produced similar findings. Steady temperatures are the preserve of the rich.<\/p>\n Extreme heat hits children \u2013 who have higher metabolisms and lower sweating rates \u2013 harder than most adults. Their thermal comfort levels are, on average, 1.9-2.8C lower. There are many reports of children vomiting and losing consciousness in class during heatwaves. Temperatures above 25C limit their cognitive performance. The government\u2019s Climate Change Committee finds that \u201ctaking an exam on a 32C day leads to around a 10% lower likelihood of passing compared to a 22C day\u201d. Yet another advantage for private schools, which can generally afford better buildings and air-conditioned exam rooms.<\/p>\n But, as the government confirms to me, it sets no maximum temperature limit for schools. Otherwise it might have to do something. Instead, it advises schools to open and close doors and windows and minimise heat from equipment: advice that leaves teachers with sealed windows and impossible heat loads in despair.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Matters of Opinion<\/span><\/p>\n Guardian columnists and writers on what they\u2019ve been debating, thinking about, reading, and more<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n A new study of schools in Hampshire finds that 66% of classrooms present a \u201ccognitive impairment risk\u201d. If action isn\u2019t taken, this will rise to 92% by 2050. Already, \u201cheat strain\u201d \u2013 physiologically dangerous temperature levels \u2013 afflicts 6% of classrooms. Many school buildings, especially the \u201clightweight, overglazed, single-sided\u201d models favoured from the 1950s onwards, are grossly ill-suited to hot summers.<\/p>\n Thanks to years of austerity, many classrooms are in a terrible state. School buildings that should have been replaced decades ago are still in use. It is unlikely to have escaped the Conservative architects of the programme that declining public provision further privileges their class. No wonder they fetishised competition, which they so blatantly rigged in their favour.<\/p>\n So now, as ever, the rich lecture the poor, and demand the removal of the feeble protections that might enhance and defend their lives. Their claim that \u201cwe need to be tough\u201d seems always to translate into \u201cthey<\/em> need to be tough\u201d, while our<\/em> lives become only cushier. Performative ignorance is the default state of such journalism. But I can\u2019t help wondering whether there\u2019s also an element of gleeful, snobbish cruelty: I\u2019m all right, so let the great unwashed get what they deserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every time you think the idiocy has hit rock bottom, it discovers a new level. It turns out there\u2019s an even deeper hole you can dig for yourself than climate-science denial: heat-stress denial. Across the billionaire press last week, columnists and leader writers minimised the health impacts of the heatwave, particularly in schools. Expect more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[343,1066,2376,1072,5117,3948,5354,736,1933],"class_list":{"0":"post-50807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-childrens","9":"tag-danger","10":"tag-denies","11":"tag-george","12":"tag-heatwaves","13":"tag-lives","14":"tag-monbiot","15":"tag-risk","16":"tag-true"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}