Cities are tackling growing heat - but they have to avoid a dangerous trap

With modern solutions such as air-con aggravating the problem, ancient heat-management techniques can offer answersClimate scientists baffled by unexpected pace of heatingBeneath the streets of Seville - the city nicknamed "El Sartén", the frying pan of Europe, where summer temperatures regularly top 40C - a ?5m (about ?4m ) cooling strategy is taking the city back in time.The millennium-old Persian technique of "qanat" features underground channels filled with water and shafts that bring the cooler underground air to the surface. Seville is doing the same, adapting a 1992 experimental qanat to use renewable power and - in a new twist - pumping the water to the tops of buildings, where it will trickle down inside the walls to cool them. Even the benches will be chilled. Continue reading...