Warning shots from nature
In this blog post, CEO of the Partnership Lizzi Testani reflects on the summer of heatwaves and the impacts this has had on everyday lives, infrastructure and services, and the economy. This is ahead of our Partnership gathering Weathering it together: climate resilience in the West of England taking place on 6 October.
As I write this, Bristol is in the midst of yet another extreme heatwave, during a summer in which record temperatures have been broken in May, June and July. Climate change has officially landed on UK shores – validating the climate predictions scientists have been making for decades.
Despite these predictions and warnings, even in Bristol, a city in which the climate crisis and nature loss is taken seriously, this summer is demonstrating how profoundly climate change impacts every area of our lives in ways that we are not yet prepared for.
The scale of the disruption is being felt nationally too. On 12 August Prime Minister Andy Burnham chaired a Cobra meeting on extreme heat, as the ‘cascading crises’ described in the People’s Emergency Briefing roll in faster than we are able to prepare for or respond to.
We are seeing the heatwaves simultaneously challenge our emergency services (such fire, healthcare and the police force), as well as our society, wellbeing and quality of life, food system and the economy.
In this region we have supported a rapid review of impacts alongside partners from across the One City Partnership. Examples of those in Bristol include:
Healthcare
- Increase in A&E admissions (including from things like severe sunburn) and excess deaths
- Critical incidents declared in healthcare settings due to increased demand, reducing staffing capacity and the impact of extreme weather itself (RUH Bath saw the collapse of two ceilings due to rainstorms accompanying one of the heatwaves)
Families, communities and quality of life
- School closures
- Sleep disruption due to homes overheating
- Heat stress and increase in violent behaviour across all ages
- Inequality of exposure to climate risks, for example lack of access to staying cool / cool spaces during heatwaves for people experiencing poverty, deprivation, marginalisation and homelessness
- Disproportionate impact on women as carers
Infrastructure
- Infrastructure failing during the heat – with Cumberland Bridge needing to be cooled by fire crews and M5 closures due to overhead cables affected by heat
- Outdoor workers being affected as there is currently no upper legal limit for safe working temperatures
- Disruption due to urgent adaptation measures needing to be implemented at short notice
Economy
- Businesses closing to protect staff and customers, or remaining open but having to operate with widespread staff absence, with hospitality facing the particular challenge of widespread cancellations compounding existing pressures on the sector
- Reduced city centre footfall
For much of the summer, mainstream media was slow to connect these impacts to climate change. But that’s beginning to shift. For example, on 13 July, Hillfields Community Centre was featured on Channel 4 news for having opened for free cool play sessions when schools closed and families had no other access to cool spaces within a special edition titled ‘Emergency on Planet Earth’ covering climate impacts across the whole of Europe and its causes.
It’s been a scary summer, and whilst we hope (but cannot be certain) that autumn will herald milder weather, it will be extremely important that we take time to reflect and learn from the experience.
These heatwaves – ‘warning shots from nature’ – illuminate many opportunities for collective action to adapt to and mitigate climate change and nature loss – thereby increasing our city and region’s climate resilience and delivering a future for our city and region that is full of opportunity and life.
The conversations we need to have are now impossible to ignore and the time to act on them is now. On 6 October we’re bringing together businesses, communities and decision-makers to do just that: explore what our region’s climate will look like in the near and longer term, and what we can do about it together. We’d love you to be part of that conversation. Book your place here.
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