Heatwave? No, it's a national emergency, disrupting lives and threatening our health | Will Hutton

The idea of climate change as a distant problem won't survive the next stifling weekTomorrow, as we seek shelter from a burning sun, climate change will feel all too real. Britain has suffered ever more vicious storms and floods over the past few years but the next couple of days will drive home the menacing discontinuity with our idea of normal, a step change in our collective awareness. The expected heat - temperatures that may exceed 40C warns the Met Office - are not only a record, but life-threatening.It will start to change the politics of climate change. Until now, the green case has been propelled by the young, the progressive and the environmentally passionate, with the majority accepting the argument but without great heart. It's OK to be green as long as the costs and changes in our lifestyles are far in the future, and any wind farms aren't built near us - an opening the climate-sceptic right is exploiting to try to put a halt to what it considers backdoor socialism. Continue reading...