The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Happy Friday, Friends.

In 1961, a film called The Day the Earth Caught Fire imagined a world descending into climate chaos.

The storyline was dramatic. The Earth’s orbit had been disturbed, bringing unbearable heat, choking fog and violent storms to places that had never experienced them before. London baked. Water became scarce. Society struggled to cope.

At the time it was science fiction.

Sixty-five years later, it feels rather less fictional.

This week alone we’ve watched catastrophic wildfires sweep across parts of Spain and France. Here in the UK, wild fires have broken out in the Cairngorms, Suffolk and even London.

Just think about that for 1 minute, the Cairngorms are on fire, the Cairngorms? That shouldn’t be happening in an area of outstanding natural beauty that is normally so green because of its normal damp climate.

Temperatures continue to challenge long-standing records. 4 heatwaves, and 31 days over 30 degrees this year. Infrastructure is creaking under pressure. Half of the UK is officially in drought with hosepipe bans in place across most area. Rivers are drying up. Agriculture is under increasing stress with crops being harvested early and farmer reporting record breaking poor yields.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) estimates 2,877 heat-associated deaths during the May and June heatwaves alone. That is already close to the previous record summer of 2022 (2,985 deaths), even before August has begun.

During the intense late June heatwave, more than 10,000 excess deaths were recorded across 27 European countries, with over 9,000 occurring in people aged 65 or older.

No, the Earth hasn’t been knocked off its orbit.

But climate change is steadily nudging us into a future that, only a generation ago, looked like Hollywood imagination.

And that’s the point. Climate change is no longer something that might affect our children or grandchildren. It’s happening now. So in my book, the conversation therefore has to evolve.

For years we’ve quite rightly focused on mitigation, reducing emissions, improving efficiency, switching to renewable energy and moving away from fossil fuels.

That work must continue, but if the events of this year don’t show clearly that we need to push on a bit faster right now, I don’t really know what will.

Governments, investors and policy-makers have an enormous responsibility to leave fossil carbon where it belongs, underground, and continue driving the transition towards cleaner energy systems.

But there’s another conversation we need to have. Climate Adaptation.

Because however successful we become at reducing emissions, some degree of climate change is now unavoidable. The climate of tomorrow simply isn’t going to look like the climate of yesterday. That means we need to become far better at building resilience. Take water.

Every summer we seem surprised when reservoirs begin running low, hosepipe bans are discussed and farmers worry about irrigation. Yet at the same time millions of litres of rainfall disappear into the sea during increasingly intense winter storms.

Surely we can do better than that. Perhaps it’s time to think much bigger.

More reservoirs. Smarter water storage. Better flood management. Greater rainwater harvesting. Improved interconnection between regions. Water companies held to task for inexcusable water losses.

Water resilience should become national infrastructure, not seasonal crisis management.

The same applies to our homes. For decades we’ve designed houses to keep heat in. Now many are becoming dangerously hot during prolonged heatwaves. Future homes will need to think differently.

Better insulation doesn’t just keep warmth inside during winter, it also helps keep excessive heat outside during summer. Natural ventilation. Green roofs. External shading. Tree planting. Passive cooling. Heat pumps capable of both heating and cooling.

Our homes need to become climate resilient rather than simply winter resilient.

The same challenge applies to businesses. Power resilience. Water resilience. Supply chain resilience. Infrastructure resilience.

Every organisation should now be asking one question:

“Will our business still operate effectively in the climate we’re likely to experience in 2040?”

If the answer is “I’m not sure,” then the planning probably should have started a long time before they asked that question.

The good news is that adaptation isn’t all about spending money. Some of it is simply better thinking. Plant more trees in urban areas. Design roads that cope with extreme heat.

Protect peatlands that naturally regulate water. Restore wetlands. Create greener towns and cities that are several degrees cooler during hot weather. Sometimes nature provides the cheapest engineering solution available.

And then, of course, there’s energy.

As many readers know, I spend much of my working life helping organisations reduce emissions with Syntech’s practical, immediately available, deployable today renewable fuel solution.

But I also recognise something that’s occasionally lost in the wider debate.

Transitions don’t happen overnight. They never have. History tells us that every major energy transition has taken decades. Coal didn’t disappear the day oil arrived. Oil didn’t vanish when natural gas became popular. The move away from fossil fuels will happen, but it will take time.

That’s precisely why pragmatic transition solutions matter.

Every litre of Syntech ASB used today delivers immediate decarbonisation progress.

Waiting for perfection has never been a successful environmental strategy. Progress beats perfection every single time.

I always get asked whether individual actions really make any difference.My answer is always the same.

If eight billion people all believed someone else would fix the problem, we’d be in serious trouble.

If eight billion people each made one positive change, we’d move the dial remarkably quicker.

Climate change isn’t just an environmental issue anymore. It’s an economic issue. A food security issue. A public health issue. An infrastructure issue. A national resilience issue.

Which means every profession has a role to play.

And yes, even the sustainability professionals  who occasionally spend far too much time getting excited about carbon intensity platforms than measuring how much carbon they reduced today.

The challenges ahead are significant. But so are the opportunities. The UK has world-class engineers. Outstanding scientists. Innovative businesses. Creative designers.

And communities that repeatedly show extraordinary resilience when circumstances demand it.

The climate is not changing, it has already changed. Those who can’t see that or don’t believe possibly either don’t care or are delusional. But ethically and morally, society as a whole has a collective duty to protect everyone.

The real question is whether we’ll adapt quickly enough. History suggests we’re at our best when faced with a challenge. So the time is now people.

Let’s make sure this is another one of those moments, as the great Delia Smith once said “We need a 12th man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let’s be ‘aving you! Come on!”.    We must all play our part.

Resilience isn’t about accepting defeat. It’s about preparing intelligently for success.

And that may be the most sustainable investment any of us ever make.

Until next time, thanks for reading, have a beautiful weekend.

Mike.

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