Britain is Boiling: Stop the Hot Air, Start Saving Lives
Heat is killing more of us each summer. Hollow pledges will not keep our homes cool, our hospitals safe, or our families alive. Only action will.
The Heat Is Here: Stop the Pledges, Start the Preparation
The heat is no longer a warning. It is here, it is killing people, and it is reshaping the way we live. Every year The Lancet Countdown publishes a global health stocktake, and its latest report is blunt: hotter summers, sicker bodies, shorter lives. This is not theory, it is happening now, in our streets, in our hospitals, and in our homes. The question is no longer where the heat came from. The question is how we survive it
The 2024 report was blunt. The planet is hotter, people are sicker, and lives are shorter because of it. And 2025 is already proving no cooler.
That is the point we have to grasp. The real argument is not whether warming is caused by man or God. It does not matter. The heat is here, and we have to live in it. The question is: do we keep papering over the cracks with hollow phrases, or do we rebuild our lifestyles, homes, workplaces, and care centres to survive what is now unavoidable?
The human body in a hot world
Heat is not just a bit of summer. It attacks the body in ways most of us never think about.
Hearts strain as they pump harder to keep blood cool.
Kidneys fail faster when dehydration becomes routine.
Lungs suffer as hot air worsens asthma and air pollution.
Sleep breaks down, leading to fatigue, mental health dips, and mistakes at work.
The Lancet shows deaths in people over 65 from heat have jumped 167% since the 1990s. That is not a forecast. That is today’s pensioners dying in today’s homes.
To bring it closer, picture a single road of 100 houses, about 350 people. On that street:
One extra neighbour may die every few summers in a heatwave.
Half a dozen more could be rushed to hospital with heatstroke, dehydration, or heart failure.
One or two children will end up in A&E with an asthma attack triggered by the heat.
Around 30 people with kidney or heart disease will find their conditions worsening.
And if 200 are working, a single hot week could wipe out hundreds of hours of paid work, leaving families short of cash.
That is one street. Now multiply it by every road in Birmingham, Manchester, London, and even sleepy Little Piddle upon Tweed. That is why The Lancet is sounding the alarm.
Food, hunger, and the knock-on effect
In 2022, extreme weather shoved 151 million extra people into hunger. And hunger does not just happen in far-off countries. Every failed harvest in Spain or Africa tightens the squeeze here too.
On our street of 350 people, you will see it in the supermarket: tomatoes rationed, bread and milk creeping up in price. Families cut corners, less fruit, fewer proper meals, more cheap processed food. And while it fills a stomach, it comes at a cost. Cheap food is often bulked out with salt, sugar, and chemicals that make it tasty and long-lasting. The trouble is, your body has to process all that. It is hard work, work that slowly wears you down, raising the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and kidney problems.
Even Jeremy Clarkson, on his Amazon farm series, has shown how British farmers now live at the mercy of the weather. Failed crops, flooded fields, scorched harvests. It is not theory, it is telly. If Clarkson cannot dodge the extremes, what chance does the farmer down the road have?
Work that wears you down
Globally, 512 billion working hours were lost to extreme heat in 2023, worth US$835 billion, roughly £700 billion. That is how much work did not happen because bodies overheated, crops failed, and labour simply could not continue.
But again, bring it back to our street. Out of 200 working-age residents, how many drive vans, collect bins, deliver parcels, work in warehouses or kitchens? In a bad heatwave, those jobs cannot go on at full pace. Hours are lost, pay packets shrink. Stress builds. The knock-on effect is not abstract, it is the dad skipping meals so the kids can eat, or the mum forced into debt because her overtime shifts were cancelled.
The NHS under siege
We comfort ourselves with the thought that the NHS will save us. But hospitals built for drizzle are already creaking in the heat. Surgeries and wards overheat. Staff wilt in PPE. Ambulance callouts spike during hot spells, the July 2022 heatwave saw nearly 3,000 excess deaths in England and Wales.
Even modern office towers are feeling it. At Canary Wharf, several buildings have had to rip out old cooling towers and upgrade air handling systems just to stop workers roasting. If corporate skyscrapers need retrofitting, what chance does a 1960s-built NHS hospital have? And let us be honest, our street of 350 was not built for today’s climate either, was it?
Enough with the hollow gestures
We do not need more councils solemnly declaring climate emergencies in chamber, congratulating themselves on their moral courage, and then sliding off in taxpayer-funded taxis. That helps no one. It is hollow theatre, and the public can smell it.
And Westminster is no better. Ministers line up to make grand announcements about green growth and world-leading targets. Ed Miliband has been banging the drum for years, but the housing stock still leaks heat in winter and traps it in summer. On the other side, Conservative governments have scrapped insulation schemes, dithered on heat-proofing schools, and pushed net zero targets further into the future. Both sides love the sound of their own pledges, yet our hospitals still overheat, our care homes still buckle, and our high streets still swelter.
The speeches keep coming, but the walls remain uninsulated, the wards uncooled, and the streets unshaded. The gap between the podium and the pavement has never been wider.
What we need is practical graft, engineering, preparation, and common sense. Not slogans.
What we must do, nationally and personally
The Lancet makes it clear: delay costs lives. So what is needed?
Nationally and locally:
Retrofit homes, schools, hospitals, and care homes with insulation, ventilation, and cooling.
Build cities with shade, trees, and water, not just concrete.
Back farmers and food supply chains to withstand droughts and floods.
Equip the NHS with cooling gear, heatwave protocols, and climate-ready buildings.
Protect workers with shift changes, rest breaks, and hydration, not let them collapse in the sun.
At home and on our street:
Check in on neighbours: a knock on the door during a heatwave can save a life.
Ventilate and insulate: from cheap blinds to proper loft insulation, small steps cool homes.
Drink more water, less alcohol: sorry, I know a cold pint feels like salvation on a hot day, but it dehydrates you. Water keeps you alive, lager does not.
Waste less food, buy local, support farmers who are adapting.
Walk or cycle short trips: yes, I know you would rather drive. But fitter bodies cope better in the heat, and those small choices add years to your life.
Stop arguing, start sorting
We can fight all day about whether this heat is the work of God, man, or just the Earth shifting under our feet. But while we bicker, the mercury keeps climbing. The truth is the extra heat is here. It does not matter where it came from. What matters is what we do about it.
We can carry on with speeches, slogans, and hollow pledges, and watch the death toll rise. Or we can face the truth: the heat is here, and survival means rebuilding how we live. Cooler homes, climate-ready hospitals, safer workplaces, secure food. It is graft, not grandstanding, that will keep us alive. The choice is brutal but simple: prepare, or perish earlier than we should.