What if this is the new reality?

We’re frying tonight, along with the rest of South East Australia, there are bushfires covering the state, with the smoke from the fire south of Beechworth hanging around Albury adding to the discomfort. The heat has soaked into everything, even the floorboards are hot to touch at the moment, and the promised cool changes seem to consistently be another day or two away. 

Our evaporative air conditioner is still broken and late this afternoon the archaic Weather Wall, which had been providing some relief in the lounge  room, decided to pack it in too. This left us with no alternative but to stand in the back yard under the garden hose or take turns having a cool shower.

The troll princess has been suffering the most as she’s been running a temperature for the last 36 hours. Mrsdave has had a few brief bouts of madness bought on by heat stress, I simply poured an extra long Harvey Wallbanger and hoped for the best.

The big question on my mind is “What if this is a permanent change?”. The sustained heat of the past two weeks has played havoc with the electrical and transport systems in South Australia and Victoria, with this weekend likely to put a lot of stress on New South Wales’ infrastructure. If we continue to see this type of sustained heat year after year how will we respond to the chaos that it brings? 

It almost seems that we need to let the whole country shut down for a few weeks, to catch its breath and lay low, but that’s about as likely as being able to walk barefoot on the road today. There will no doubt be calls for State Governments to spend more money improving these essential services, most likely to be led by the private corporations who now make a profit from these once public assets. The most immediate solution is for all of us to modify our behaviour somewhat, but between self interest and responsibilities beyond our control this seems unlikely. 

First job tomorrow is a trip to bunnings to buy some more fans, but tonight we’ll be swapping bedsheets for damp towels.