the brilliantly leaping gazelle

There is a wonderful irony to this hot weather, as cyclical as it is inevitable. Namely, he more we do to alleviate the effects of the heat, the more we increase the heat and add more effects. There are many reasons why, of course, as one might expect for something so complicated, but as far as I can make out, they all boil down to one thing. And that thing is humanity’s infinite capacity for self delusion.

Obviously, I’m not going to detail all the reasons here. After all, this is a blog and to make matters worse, I’m a brain damaged blogger.  Meaning, amongst other things, that I have neither the ability or the time to properly research my claims. But as we now live in an age where ‘my truth’, ‘lived experience’ and other equally fatuous expressions of a preposterously dangerous nostrum hold as much sway as actual expertise, based upon years of credible academic research and study, does this even matter?

Of course it does. Otherwise society ends up being told that women can have a penis, that water has a memory, and that there is a god. Just not the same one for everyone.

Anyway. Urban heat islands.

Urban heat islands (UHI) are another example of something which I think most people had worked out for themselves, but as they weren’t in receipt of government grants or else on the board of some university, think-tank or charity which complained that they never got the grants, had never bothered to give a name to. Having written that, I’m going to tell you what you already know. 

Very simply, UHI’s describe the phenomenon where urban areas experience higher temperatures than their surrounding rural areas, due to a combination of factors, all of them caused by humans. Given that over 82% of the UK populations lives in either a town or city, this should not be a shock. The heat we generate in those towns and cities essentially stays there, and the air conditioners and electric fans that we are using to keep ourselves cool as result of the hot weather are only making it worse. The Institute of Civil Engineers worked out that about 10% of the UK’s electricity consumption was devoted to meet the demand for cooling. That was in 2017. 

So. The cycle continues. And the faster the UK population increases, the more demand there’ll be and the hotter it gets…you get the idea.

Indeed, even by me using this computer to write this blog, I’m making things worse. I’ve done a three Google searches to research this. Each Google search uses 0.0003 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy, resulting in 0.2 grams of CO2e emissions. How they worked that out, what that ‘e’ means, and if its as harmful to the planet as switching the kettle on, I don’t know, but what I do know is that globally Google carbon emissions increased by 51% since 2019. By 2026, it’s estimated that they’ll equal Japans.

Shockingly, AI is involved in this increase. I know! Again, how exactly I don’t know because whenever I hear AI, all I think of are Cyberdyne Systems, Skynet, Sarah Connor and Judgement Day, but if you want to know how, then click here. Be aware though, if you do want to know, you’ll only be hastening the inevitable.