View from THE BACK

Nicola Methven says what you’re thinking

2022-08-22 -

IT’S NOW OR NEVER

The heatwaves we’ve had this summer are going to become the norm within a few decades, according to experts. By the time our children are grown-up, it’s predicted that the stifling 40-plus temperatures we endured last month will be entirely commonplace across much of the

UK during July and August.

Cooler conditions further north will become a big property selling point. But we can’t all up sticks for Scotland or Northumbria, so that isn’t going to help the majority who live further south.

In addition, Sir John Armitt, chair of the UK’S National Infrastructure Commission, warns that the UK’S water supply systems won’t cope with the impact of climate change. It will take around £20 billion to upgrade them over the next decade to avoid a future where households are forced to queue for bottled water during these heatwaves.

If you think all this is doom-mongering, a team from Cambridge University has just produced a shock report warning global warming could become ‘catastrophic’ for humanity if temperatures rise by more than predicted or spark chain reactions we haven’t foreseen. Horror scenarios range from the loss of 10% of the world’s population to the end of all human life. Which is cheery stuff.

Climate hazard professor Bill Mcguire of UCL says that while hothouse Britain is inevitable with longer summers, storms and flooding, plus crop failures and problems for health services and transport, all is not lost. ‘Now should be the time for massive government investment in resilient infrastructure – but there is little sign of this,’ he sighs. ‘Be scared, but don’t let this feed inertia. Channel the emotion and use it to launch your contribution to tackling the climate emergency.’

Here’s what we can do. If you’re changing your car, go electric. Use public transport, walk more. Invest in solar panels and insulate your home. Consume less.

Bill says, ‘Working together, we still have the time to stop a dangerous future becoming a cataclysmic one.’ Let’s do it.

Poles ap-art

Journalist and author Mary Ann Sieghart (inset) says the gender pay gap in the art world is more of a gaping chasm. ‘For every £1 a man makes, a woman makes just 10p. It’s shocking that in the supposedly modern, progressive, forward-thinking art world, such bias can still exist.’ It certainly is.

Gran set him straight!

Male supermodel David Gandy’s pride and joy growing up was his England 1990 World Cup shell suit. The football fan loved nothing better than cladding himself head-to-toe in the shiny, man-made fibres. But his dream ended abruptly when his grandmother ironed it. Bet the melted polyester ruined her iron, too.

✱ Nicola Methven is TV Editor of the Daily Mirror

Thanks for the memory

Finally some good news about our reliance on smartphones. Boffins say phone prompts can actually boost people’s memory skills. Rather than making us lazy or forgetful, they say they’re good because they free up our brains to remember other things (like feeding the cat!). The University College London team says using a phone as an external memory not only helps people remember what’s stored in the device, it helps them remember unsaved information too. Hooray!