Essay by Eric Worrall

They actually said “Extreme Heat”, but what else do you do on a hot day?

From drill to grill: Continued fossil fuel use puts us all in the hot seat

The Climate Council is warning that Australia’s biggest cities could face dangerously hot temperatures, unless action is taken to slow down climate change. The Council has released a ‘heat map’ which also shows that continuing to cut climate pollution can safeguard Australians from the worst impacts of soaring heat.

“The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices. And that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill.” (Applause)

US President Donald Trump, speaking in January, promised to withdraw from the Paris accord and exploit its large oil and gas reserves.

The Climate Council says if the world follows that lead and fails to cut back on burning fossil fuels, Australia will suffer from extreme heat for more than half of every year.

There are already signs of increasing heat, with last month recorded as the world’s hottest January on record.

Samantha Burgess is the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. She says the trend is set to continue.

“We know that the extreme events, which is where humans are most impacted, humans, society and ecosystems are most impacted by extreme events. They happen more frequently and with more intensity the warmer our climate is. So at the moment we’re at 1.3 degrees (Celsius) of warming and in 2024 we’ve seen record losses from extreme events, from hurricanes, from wildfires, from storms. These are projected to become more frequent and more intense with a warmer world.”

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Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/from-drill-to-grill-continued-fossil-fuel-use-puts-us-all-in-the-hot-seat/rauyv5ssi

Do try to keep up Climate Council, the CSIRO tells us we have already passed the 1.5C threshold you warned us would bring disaster.

So far the only disaster I’ve experienced is I’ve lost control of the algae in my pool, though I’m slowly winning the battle, with the aid of lots of chemicals.

The beer fridge still works – so not all is lost.

Obviously if Australia was to experience more hot weather, it would only be a disaster if nobody could afford air conditioning. Sadly a number of Australians are already in this situation thanks to soaring energy prices.

If only there was a way to rapidly bring down those energy prices, so all Australians could shield themselves from the heat with affordable air conditioning.