Climate change: adapt, and brake!

Our buildings and vehicles were constructed for a milder climate, and need to be refitted.

The Met Office on 13 July circulated research findings that more than 2,700 people had died from heat-related causes during the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales, and about 40% died because of the extra intensity, above previous heatwaves, added by global warming.

A 2024 UK Health Security Agency commissioned report found lack of climate adaptation in the social care sector was putting vulnerable adults at risk. The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change has found 90% of NHS hospital buildings are vulnerable to overheating. Hundreds of schools have been forced to close, reporting indoor temperatures in excess of 40ºC.

Many trade unionists have spent the last few weeks negotiating over necessary quick fixes: water coolers, flexible working arrangements, special carers’ leave, curbing heat-emitting machinery, portable fans, mechanical ventilation and AC, dress codes.

Longer term we need a sustained struggle to push employers to adapt buildings and work patterns properly.

Abandoned
The thick walls, small windows, external blinds, shading, etc. with which people in the hotter regions of the world have coped for thousands of years have been largely abandoned by modern building design. Even in some hotter countries like the USA and Singapore, the trend has been to construct buildings that trap the heat and then control indoor temperature with air con. We end up with energy-intensive air conditioning systems which are vulnerable to failure, increase outdoor temperatures and blow the energy budget.

Employers probably can be persuaded of passive design adaptations like white roofs, external blinds, and ceiling fans, but only if reps are arguing for them.

There is also a danger that in discussing the detail we regard the rising temperatures as a “natural” phenomenon outside human control. Far from it. Global warming is being driven by human activity and stopping climate change requires revolutionary changes in the way we live, work and organise productive activity. Without those changes, we edge ever closer to abrupt and catastrophic changes in Earth systems, such as the collapse of the Atlantic Meridian Overturning Convection. AMOC collapse would bring subzero winters for three to five months of the year in the UK followed by hotter summers than we currently experience. Such extreme seasonality will make it almost impossible to grow crops and will require a built infrastructure that can provide shelter in both polar cold and tropical heat.

Our bosses are reluctant to invest in timely building adaptations for the same reason the capitalist class as a whole has been reluctant to cut carbon emissions. At every turn they prioritise maximum profit over human need.

The solution is to build a workers movement that can take social ownership and control of productive wealth away from capital. We agitate for technical adaptations but also for a change of course, away from production for private profit. No individual should own a building bigger than their own home, no individual should own a machine bigger than their car. Our workplaces should not be someone else’s private property.