UCL Geography experts advise on living with the heat

It will not have escaped those living in the Northern Hemisphere that the past two months have been anomalously warm.

Several UCL Geography staff have contributed their expertise and opinions to the associated public discussion:

• Professor James Cheshire has created a map of the hottest June day on record in London. This demonstrates the heat’s wide extent across the metropolis and how local urban uses, such as parks and high-density housing, affect the microclimate (see above image).
• Professor Chris Brierley was a member of an expert panel for the TRT World television discussion programme, Roundtable. He explained how the current warmth is a sign of the climate to come. In fact, he argued, this summer will feel markedly cool by the end of the century.

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• Professor Simon Lewis published a comment piece in The Guardian highlighting how the UK government is failing to prepare for events such as this heatwave. He stressed how science has long projected them as a consequence of climate change. Government and wider society must devote serious effort to adapt to increased warmth, and not just treat it as an “Act of God”.
• Professor Mark Maslin has been providing a running commentary on Twitter, especially highlighting the ‘fraction of attributable risk’ caused by humans in previous UK heatwaves. He was also interviewed for BBC London and BBC Worldwide news on the reasons heatwaves are problematic for the UK, and how to adapt to them, including hydration, the closing up of houses to keep the cool in, and the nighttime airing of houses.