As record heat sweeps the country, hopes for climate legislation have been abandoned in Washington. Texas is experiencing an unprecedented fire season and has seen the hottest temperature in the country so far this year. As the doors of the Dallas Public Library opened, people flooded through the entrance to its air-conditioned sanctuary. Free bottles of water are distributed to the vulnerable and homeless. These are lifesaving measures offered by public libraries across the state. “Oh man, it’s tough. It’s tough. Especially for an old person,” says Richard, who has been homeless for two years. “This is really like a shelter for a lot of people. It’s not just me. Look around. A lot of homeless people are here right now.” More than 100 million Americans are living under heat warnings in Texas, Oklahoma and large swaths of other southern states. Image: Richard says it was ‘tough’ Texans have been asked to conserve water, while farmers use more as the region slides into severe drought. Fort Worth, about 30 miles west of Dallas, has seen America’s hottest temperature this year at 43 degrees Celsius. Forecasters at the city’s weather center are warning that climate change is here and will lead to big decisions about how we live our lives. Meteorologist Sarah Barnes said: “As we continue to see these records being broken more often, I think we will realize that this is certainly a concern. “Things aren’t going to get better if we don’t change.” Read more on Sky News: Shocking images show Europe still on fire How much will it cost to keep your fan on while you sleep tonight? The US is much better equipped for high temperatures than the UK, but the demand for air conditioning is putting the country’s electricity grid under enormous pressure. Twice in the past week, Texans have been asked to curtail their electricity use as demand came dangerously close to overwhelming supply. Still fresh in residents’ minds is the 2021 winter outage that saw power go out for days. Regulators warn that the kind of rolling blackouts that have become familiar in Texas and California could become much more common as summers grow hotter and longer. America is one of the world’s largest contributors to global warming, yet there is no climate policy to match the alarming conditions on the ground. President Biden rejoined the Paris climate accord as soon as he took office and had a fairly ambitious agenda aimed at putting America back at the center of the world’s efforts to reduce global warming. But last week those hopes of passing climate legislation vanished in Congress. Mr. Biden has now said he plans to take executive action to address the climate emergency. With a new president at the helm, it was hoped that this would be the time when America would get its act together on climate change. But amid wildfires and intense heat, that still seems very out of reach.
