We must take this heatwave seriously – even if the prime minister won’t

Unaccustomed as the British are to such hot weather, the heatwave will undoubtedly bring with it an unwelcome increase in sunstroke and heat exhaustion. It is only to be expected.

It is an unprecedented phenomenon in modern times (no doubt when dinosaurs roamed Surrey it was situation normal), and there’s a natural tendency to get out and enjoy it while it lasts. Before very much longer, of course, the inhabitants of the UK will be shivering in their poorly insulated Victorian terraces and inter-war mock Tudor semis in fear of the gas bill.

Like so many going lobster red in the sun, the prime minister does not seem worried about the heat wave. A man with little to lose, he has placed pleasure before duty, and skipped the Cobra meeting called to coordinate the response to the crisis – just as he did in the early stages of the pandemic.

As with his insouciance about SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid, Boris Johnson has proved once again that very little matters to him, and nothing matters very much. He is enjoying his weekend at Chequers to hold a summer fete for friends and family, which is stretching the purpose of the taxpayer-funded residence. Rishi Sunak probably will not be bringing a cake.

Although the point can be as overdone as a sunbather on Margate beach, the heat spike is an unavoidable reminder of the unpredictable effects of climate change. Putting on extra 999 handlers and urging people to stay home is all very well, but more structural changes will be necessary in our way of life.

New buildings, for example, will have to be made more resistant to subsidence, and there will be a greater demand for air conditioning, almost unknown in north European climes. Crops, husbandry and fisheries will have to adapt to the loss of temperate conditions. There will be more invasive “tropical” species, and existing ones, such as Japanese knotweed, will spread further north – and native flora and fauna will come under threat. More cheerfully, it might spark a modest revival in the British seaside, if it is going to be hotter in Weston-super-Mare than Marbella.

Hotter, drier weather in equatorial regions will provoke wars about water, and render large areas of sub-Saharan Africa inhospitable – all increasing emigration northwards to Europe.

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Working habits will need to change. For a brief high summer season, the British may give up and adopt the siesta, and curb their traditional consumption of alcohol whenever the sun has got his hat on and is coming out to play.

All the more reason, therefore, to double down on the effort to achieve net zero and constrain the rise in greenhouse gases. This is not easy when the public is facing such pressures because of a shortage of oil and gas, but subsidising fossil fuel energy bills is surely not the answer. The confusions that permeate the Tory leadership contest show how difficult it is for leaders to balance the cost of living and the cost of preserving life on Earth.

The climate change minister and Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, says he will quit if the next prime minister is “weak” on net zero; another front in the Tory civil war is about to open up.

It is an issue that Mr Johnson, apparently sincere about climate change and Cop26, might care to adopt after he leaves office; if he can be bothered in this sort of heat.