When the right promotes heat-stress denial, ask yourself this: whose children’s lives is it willing to risk? | George Monbiot
The class politics of extreme heat are very real and very dangerous – but that doesn’t stop the billionaire press from peddling its agenda Every
The class politics of extreme heat are very real and very dangerous – but that doesn’t stop the billionaire press from peddling its agenda Every time you think the idiocy has hit rock bottom, it discovers a new level. It turns out there’s an even deeper hole you can dig for yourself than climate-science denial: heat-stress denial.
Across the billionaire press last week, columnists and leader writers minimised the health impacts of the heatwave, particularly in schools. Expect more of this next week, when temperatures are forecast to soar again. An editorial in the Telegraph (which represents the newspaper’s view) titled “Hot weather alarmism treats the public like children” maintained that “unlike in the seventies, when people were largely trusted to look after themselves, officialdom now feels the need to lecture the public about the risks of hot weather at every opportunity”.
Extreme heat warnings are issued and weather maps are “painted in an alarming red”. Outrageous! Instead of issuing warnings, the government should just trust people to “take the appropriate precautions”. We should all “learn to live” with it. Quite right too: whatever happened to the bulldog spirit of ignorance and needless death?
Cricket, warm beer, excess mortality: these are the markers of national character. Continue reading...
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