If the UK is to survive the worst impacts of climate change, it will need robust infrastructure to protect its citizens from the meteorological threats that lie ahead. By every scientific estimate, our hothouse future is going to be one of increasingly unpleasant extremes: more intense heatwaves, rising summer temperatures, more violent storms, rising sea levels – and, of course, worsening droughts. These impacts are baked into the future, scientists have repeatedly warned us. Thanks to the huge amounts of greenhouse gases we have already pumped into the atmosphere, we have no way of avoiding these changes. We can only try to cope with them.
Our response to the current severe water shortages therefore gives us a chance to assess how well we are preparing for the meteorological mayhem ahead. In short, can we gain some confidence about our ability to fight climate change from the way our water companies are attempting to battle the drought that is now afflicting the country? The answer is straightforward and depressing. If the water industry in England is anything to go by, we look woefully unfit for the coming battle.
