A Preview Of London In 2052 - Deadly Heat, A Failing Grid, Supermarkets For The Rich - Plus Today's Red Flags
If you think the temperature uncomfortable today, let me take you to the last day of July 2052, the rays of the climbing sun reveal a city still sweltering in the residual heat of the day before. From the air, London resembles a colossal refugee camp. Streets, gardens and parks are teeming with tents and cobbled-together shelters, within which the city’s residents have spent another uncomfortable night away from the heat traps that their houses and flats have become. After six days when the temperature peaked at about 40C, another scorcher is on the way.
Half-hearted attempts to upgrade insulation across the country’s housing stock ran out of steam and cash decades earlier, and most homes still have few barriers to the infiltrating heat. Almost all the country’s electricity is now from renewables, which has brought the cost down, but the relentless onslaught of extreme weather has driven an ever-deepening economic depression across the world. Many now have air conditioning, but can’t afford to run it.Early risers yawn and stretch as they queue at standpipes for water. A succession of dry winters and a spring drought have brought water rationing across the south-east of England, adding to the woes of those waking from another sticky, broken sleep. Ironically, there is plenty of rain now, and every day ends with an electric storm and torrential rain. Most of this, however, cascades directly into storm drains that can no longer cope, bringing surface flooding to lower-lying parts of the capital, but no end to the dearth of potable water.
Growing crowds cluster around state-run grocery stores that provide the basics at affordable prices. Failed harvests at home in the previous two years, and massively reduced food imports, as other nations stricken by extreme weather hold on to what they have, has meant the rationing of bread and other staples. Supermarkets still exist, but they are struggling to keep prices down, and so cater almost entirely to the wealthy.
EDIT
As the UK Climate Change Committee flagged last week in its latest report to the government, our country is not built to handle such heat and its all-pervasive ramifications. More than nine in 10 homes are not well insulated enough to keep out the heat, while by 2050 there is forecast to be a daily shortfall in water supply of 5bn litres. The three worst UK harvests all occurred in the period from 2020 to 2025, contributing to the loss of grain equivalent to a year’s worth of bread supply. We currently import 40% of our food, but as the harvests of other countries are also increasingly affected by extreme weather, we will no longer be able to rely on this continuing. The world’s second-biggest producer, India, recently banned all exports of sugar for four months. Such a policy of “we hold what we have” will only become more prevalent as climate breakdown takes an ever greater toll on global agriculture.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/26/heatwaves-britain-2052-sleep-hot-houses-water-climate
= new reply since forum marked as read
