Michael Mosley’s death was so often framed as him being tragically so close to reaching safety. What I don’t…

Michael Mosley’s death was so often framed as him being tragically so close to reaching safety. What I don’t think is recognised with climate change is that the infrastructure we think will shield us from the heat, may not be able to. /1 https://t.co/Kok2YHYJix https://t.co/GDHVXV6J5g

Mosley for example had shade. He was using an umbrella to shield his body from the sun. It didn’t help. Similarly James Lovelock, one of the greatest realists on the impact of climate change, often spoke of us needing to retreat to air-conditioned zones, to survive. /2

But air conditioning is infrastructure. It needs a reliable supply of electricity, itself now heavily under threat from increasing heat. Heat pumps have operating limits too. And no amount of building alone can shield us from the increasing heat. /3 https://t.co/LC05Nq5uq7

It’s not just the human body totally dependent on thermoregulation within a very narrow range of temperatures, to survive. Our societies need to be thermoregulated too. Against extremes of heat and cold. /4

Extremes that are getting greater and more frequent. But it’s the gradual rise in baseline heat that is insidious. Water supplies are increasingly choked with toxic blue-green algae, even in cooler seasons. /5 https://t.co/qDBjbXaG8J

I raise this topic a lot, because it’s our engineering that creates civilisation. Not our politics. Engineering we ignore, as we have with Covid as well. ‘Keeping the lights on’, essential infrastructure. Water, air, safe temperatures, safe and adequate food. /6

Those who work with infrastructure already know the often dire challenges of keeping it running, with rising heat. Designed with tolerances that have already been exceeded. We’ve lived in lifestyle cultures where ‘materialism’ has been a dirty word. /7

We need to return to materialism. It’s the only sane philosophy of life. As Michel Tournier once noted, only materialist cultures prioritise material well-being. Idealist cultures, run on ideas, political or otherwise, create endless rivers of death and blood. /8

They pulverise our material infrastructure, for sport. The team sports of competing idealisms or ideologies. This is what I call reality politics. The need to refocus on our basic material well-being. /9 https://t.co/BhX011YzfZ

No ideology needed, it’s just in the way. We don’t need to vote for new and improved infrastructure. We just need to build it. I imagine a political party whose sole platform is ‘are there material needs not being met? Yes? Then that’s where ALL the money goes.’ /10

Not one cent for anything else, until all material needs are met. And no ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ frameworks to allocate these resources. There is no Left or Right, for material well-being. They’re childish ideas designed only to maintain our ridiculous team sports societies. /end