This time last year Britain was in the middle of a heatwave and I had worn shorts for weeks on end. It felt like we suddenly had a Mediterranean climate – with lighter evenings. In fact, by 2050, global warming means London really will have the same climate as present-day Barcelona. At least, that’s according to a new study, which “pairs” cities today with their future climate-equivalents. So London will be like Barcelona, Madrid, the new Marrakech, Seattle will feel like San Francisco, and so on.

But Robert Wilby, who studies urban heat, isn’t so sure. While he says matching cities like this is a nice way to communicate risk, cities create their own climate which makes it tough to compare one to another – especially over many years. For him, perhaps the key finding is actually that many cities will become so hot that there is no climate equivalent anywhere in recorded history. For Londoner, global warming may mean uncomfortable but survivable summers. But in tropical cities already suffering from heat stress, the likely consequences are far more scary.

On a much smaller scale, you can help the environment by not treating your tent as disposable. Aurore Julien writes about the carbon cost of abandoning a festival tent.

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