Not the ‘New Normal’

Educating the Public on the Nature and Climate Crisis is a Step to Putting it Firmly on the Political Agenda

Professor Mike Berners-Lee, chair of the National Emergency Briefing, sets out the ‘civic moment’ he is trying to create as extreme weather events show no sign of slowing

A forest fire burning on the slopes of Mount San Cristóbal in Spain in June
Photo: Eduardo Sanz/AP

A resilient nation begins with an informed public. As yet another heatwave grips Europe, the headlines have become depressingly familiar. Record-breaking temperatures and wildfires, food systems on the brink, trains slowing because the tracks are too hot.

An estimated 2,200 people have died from heat in the UK in June alone, with hospitals struggling to manage in temperatures they were never designed for.

We sometimes hear that this is ‘the new normal’. I wish that were true.