There’s a lot to be anxious about as a new parent, let alone in a heatwave when the thermometer in your one-year-old daughter’s room is reading 26C. That’s six degrees higher than the upper limit of the recommended temperature for a child’s room. After scrolling my phone for advice on how to cool her room, I couldn’t help waking up every few hours to check she was OK on the baby monitor.

In the UK, we are unprepared at every level for the extreme weather caused by climate breakdown. Whether it’s unbearably hot buildings in the summer, our damp and cold homes (some of the leakiest in Europe) filled with mould in the winter, our unprotected towns built on flood plains, or our unfit-for-purpose train tracks that get shut down at the slightest weather warning, the climate crisis is already wreaking havoc on public and private infrastructure – and it’s only getting worse.

Despite heatwaves becoming more common in the UK, the dangers from extreme heat are not well known. Heatwaves are often described as “silent killers” – elderly and vulnerable people are at risk of dying alone and in their homes. At the moment, the government’s own advisers say that heat deaths could rise several times over to exceed 10,000 in an average year by 2050 without action. Vulnerable groups such as disabled people, elderly people and children are most at risk from extreme heat. But low-paid workers and those forced to work outside are at high risk as well. Take the example of the

© The Guardian