This picture was taken as the sun went down at Ovingdean near Brighton. It was towards the end of a long hot day by the coast, one of a great many long hot days.
Long hot summers, like a white Christmas, are not a British thing. The normal pattern is of a few hot days followed by some rain. The climate in the UK has gradually changed. Prolonged periods of hot weather and drought are much more likely and occur more frequently.
Despite the gradual shift, there has been little preparation for the change. On several days this year, train services have either been cancelled or been forced to run at much slower speeds because of the risk of rails deforming in the heat. This is a solvable engineering issue. Rails laid in hotter countries are made in a different way, so that they do not expand so much in the heat. Despite many predictions that temperatures in the UK would rise with climate change, Network Rail has chosen to not apply such measures here. A few days disruption is seen as preferable to the multi-million pound investment required to heat-proof the rails.
There is a similar picture with water supplies. Despite an increasing population and widely predicted changes in rain patterns, there has been little investment in more resilient water supplies. Consequently, we are now in an official drought. Families are experiencing the “inconvenience” of a hose-pipe. Farmers are seeing the harvest wither in the fields as they cannot irrigate their crops. Potatoes are particularly at risk from dry conditions and it is likely much of this years crop will be lost.
There is a pattern of too little, too late.
This applies to the UK’s whole response to climate change. A climate emergency was declared in 2019 (in response to pressure from Extinction Rebellion and other climate campaign groups) but very little has been done. COP26 was widely seen as a failure. There is a Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill before parliament, but it is continually delayed.
The predictions that the climate would change first became widely known in the 1980s. Robust action then could have made a real difference and by now solutions could be in place. But that action did not happen, too-little too-late won the day and as a result all of humanity face an uncertain future.
This is why XR is a rebellion. The existing system of government and regulation has failed us and we should no longer accept it.
If these words ring true with you, come and join us. Starting on Saturday 10th September, Extinction Rebellion are staging the Festival of Resistance in London. We are taking to streets to demand change. Find out more here https://extinctionrebellion.uk/next-uk-rebellion/
The only thing that will avert a climate disaster is a mass demand from the people for change. Come and be part of that demand.