When the right denies the true danger of heatwaves, ask yourself this: whose children’s lives is it willing to risk? | George Monbiot
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- The Telegraph, the Sun and the Daily Mail ran editorial lines last week minimizing heatwave health risks and romanticizing 1976, with Telegraph columnist Ysenda Maxtone Graham claiming schools "sweltered in 30-degree classrooms" and Sun columnist Jane Moore invoking a "gung-ho spirit" as a "benchmark for common sense."
- Carbon Brief's Leo Hickman countered that schools DID close early during the 1976 heatwave, which was a dry heat, unlike last week's high humidity — and June 1976 temperatures never reached records set during the recent heatwave.
- A study published in Energy Research & Social Science found that 49% of UK participants had "little to no knowledge on how to cope with extreme heat," and a separate finding from the same paper showed 82% of UK households reported difficulty keeping at least one room cool in summer.
- Overheating rates for the poorest half of UK households ran twice those of top-half income earners, per that same study — and the UK government confirmed to Monbiot that it sets no maximum temperature limit for schools, instead advising only that windows and doors be opened and equipment heat minimized.
- The Climate Change Committee found that taking an exam on a 32C day leads to around a 10% lower likelihood of passing compared with a 22C day; children have thermal comfort levels 1.9-2.8C lower than adults on average, and a Hampshire study found 66% of classrooms already present a "cognitive impairment risk," projected to reach 92% by 2050.
- The Red Cross reported in 2023 a strikingly poor UK public understanding of heatwave health risks, even though the evidence base shows warnings and advice save lives.
- Monbiot frames the pattern as class-coded: affluent commentators in air-conditioned spaces urging toughness on people whose homes and schools were never built for heat, with private schools better positioned than state schools to absorb the disparity.
Why it matters: Concrete stakes: 82% of UK households cannot reliably keep a room cool, 66% of classrooms already face cognitive-impairment temperatures, and exam pass rates drop roughly 10% at 32C — yet the UK government sets no maximum temperature for schools, leaving children in state schools and lower-income households to absorb risks that affluent columnists are dismissing as alarmism. The pattern turns a heat emergency into a class question: commentators urging resilience against dangers that their own buildings are built to avoid.
