Cooling the City

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The summer of 2003 saw the largest number of deaths ever recorded in a UK heatwave - but by 2040 climate models predict the extreme summer temperatures experienced then will be normal. We will also be experiencing colder winters, and droughts and floods will become more common. Our infrastructure, housing, water, sewerage, transport and public buildings are not designed for such conditions. Gaia Vince asks how we can adapt and prepare our cities, where most people live and work, for the new normal weather conditions. New buildings in temperate climates are now designed with keeping us warm in mind, better insulation, more efficient heating and airtight glazing. However when it comes to overheating these measures designed to keep out the cold can be part of the problem. Can we adapt solutions from other countries where extreme heat is a more usual seasonal event? Will we simply have to change the way we organise our day to keep out of the heat? Is the real answer for mad dogs and Englishmen to take a siesta? Picture: Wood thermometer, Credit: Ugurhan/Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.
0:04.7	Join me as I serve up personal conversations
0:07.1	with my sensational guests.
0:08.9	Do a leap, interviews, Tim Cook.
0:11.2	Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.
0:15.0	It's in the hands of the Creator.
0:16.7	It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.
0:20.6	If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing.
0:26.0	Julie, at your service.
0:28.0	Listen to all episodes on BBC Sales. Now to the hot weather which has gripped Europe this week.
0:36.7	Almost 30 deaths have been blamed on the current heat wave which has engulfed much of the
0:41.1	continent and led to several forest fires.
0:43.0	That was August 2003,
0:46.0	and it was a heat wave that led to 35,000 deaths across Europe.
0:51.0	Every city has a now quite well established temperature at which people start to die of heat.
0:56.6	And in London that's around 25 degrees, so it's a maximum daily temperature.
1:01.1	Just 25 degrees. And these days that's not unusually hot for summer in the UK
1:06.4	which is why we're already experiencing deadly problems. As the climate changes we're
1:12.1	going to face more extreme weather, colder winters, flash floods, and hotter summers.
1:17.0	By 2040, heat wave deaths are predicted to double in the UK.
1:22.0	With the unusual summer temperatures of 2003 becoming normal.
1:27.0	I'm Guy Evans and I'm particularly interested in the way that humanity has impacted our planet
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