UK (drought)

Common sense suggests travel by train can be one of the most climate-friendly modes of transport. However, in the midst of the hottest July in 90 years last summer, passengers were asked to avoid train travel owing to tracks being at risk of buckling (Network Rail, 2022).

In mid-July, the Met Office issued a red warning that instigated a national emergency declaration. Due to the higher demand in electricity from the extreme temperatures, parts of England closely escaped a blackout (Blas, 2022). The National Grid purchased electricity at a record £9,724pwh from Belgium–a price increase of more than 5,000% over typical costs (BBC, 2022).

In addition to struggling with expensive electricity, water companies restricted household water use. Yorkshire Water Ltd., became the fourth company to impose a hosepipe ban on its 5.4 million households and 140,000 businesses (Yorkshire Water, 2022).

The drought hammered the agricultural industry, forcing farmers to use their winter feedstock to keep their livestock fed, and with river levels at their lowest ever recorded, farmers across the country did not have enough water for irrigation (Suleiman and Ravikumar, 2022).

Read more about extreme weather here.

Read more about water insecurity here.