![]() Let’s remove the assumption of the hotter the better when it comes to games. But even here, temperatures of 25 degrees and more make it difficult to run around. The Olympics are invariably held in the summer, even in places such as Athens where no sane individual does anything except stay indoors during the heat of the day, ie anytime between 10am and 6pm. There was a reason why last night’s France-Germany game was livelier - well, a bit livelier - than the England-Croatia match on Sunday, and it is that the game was in the evening, when it was cooler, and when the players weren’t forever trying to wipe the sweat from their faces with their shirts. Instead, every tournament and championship peaks in the summer, which favours those from cultures where they’re used to hot weather, but is hellish for anyone from temperate zones. If I were a sportsperson - unlikely, I know - then I’d insist in my contract that I shouldn’t be asked to play in the summer months September to May would be fine. What’s also wildly discriminatory is the failure of sports organisers to take account of a constitutional proclivity to wilt in the heat in working conditions. Instead we - and I mean architects and planners - need to think Mediterranean, and plunder the architectural tradition of cultures that have adapted to hot weather - internal courtyards, for instance, with shady interiors. Modern buildings designed with expanses of glass on the exterior (seen the hideous Nine Elms development?) are not propitious for hot weather - think greenhouses. This sounds good right now, without the Doomsday scenario. It wants the Government to require landlords to adapt buildings with things like window shades. It seems pretty tendentious to me, but what did catch my attention was its warning that homes, especially flats, aren’t built to accommodate higher temperatures. There was a report today from the Climate Change Committee pressure group, warning about the unpreparedness of the UK for increases in temperature above the predicted 1.5 degrees by 2050 to a possible four per cent over present levels by 2080. Some of us are just not cut out for hot weather. Sad cases hang around the chiller cabinets in the supermarkets. It gives the lie to the notion that working from home is the better option for worker productivity - au contraire. I can see the attraction of running pictures of girls with crop tops and sunglasses, but that still doesn’t make a heatwave good news.įor some of us, it’s a cue to get into the office and to wallow in the shade and the air conditioning. In hot weather the heat rises and the only way to keep the sun out is to keep the curtains drawn. I occupy the top floor of a mansion block. Memo to broadcasters and my fellow journalists: most of us living in London don’t have gardens. But that’s not the condition of most Londoners. If I’m somewhere with a garden, I like being out in it, perhaps in the dappled shade. When I say I can’t stand the heat, I mean I can handle a nice warm day. (Apparently, that’s due to happen tonight, thank God.) What’s wrong with them? Do they not realise that they are effectively discriminating against that large, vulnerable and marginalised group, those of us who can’t stand the heat? What is it about weather forecasters? When there’s a heatwave and temperatures head for 25 degrees, or 30 in the shade, they adopt the bright note of people with good news to share, dropping their voices only when they’re warning about the humidity breaking with a thunderstorm.
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