While men argue, nature acts

Last week was a busy one for sure. For all kinds of reasons, strangely, there was just as much waiting around for meetings to start, as there was time spent in the actual meetings. On one of these occasions, I was standing waiting and chatting with Chris Oliver, our new CEO and he was admiring our in-house library. It is wonderful to have this facility available to colleagues and those using our recovery academy. However, as I pointed out to Chris, at one time we had a much larger library, which was housed in a magnificent building called Century House. Sadly, the building is no longer there.

The building had Virginia Creeper growing up three of its walls and in the autumn the reds and orange leaf colours made for an eye-catching display. A lifetime ago, I spent many happy Saturday mornings there reading, discussing life, the universe and all things mental health with a consultant psychiatrist named Som Soni. He was a man who possessed enormous patience and kindness. Som lived in a large house in Hale, a very upmarket area of Manchester. Each summer, he would invite those that worked with him to a garden/pool party. Such was his generosity, he always insisted that on these occasions you brought nothing at all, except yourself.

Som was generous in other ways too. My very first ever published paper was written with him and two other colleagues. I was immensely proud, when it came out. That was in 1989. The world and attitudes have changed greatly since that time, but I think much of the discussion in our paper can still be seen as being relevant today.

The world has changed in many other ways since that time, something I was reminded about last week when the NHS England Chief Executive, Sir Jim Mackey, visited our Trust. He met with the Board and senior leaders from across the organisation. He has an accent I could listen to all day long. He also has a very calm measured way of speaking that inspires confidence. One of the things he noted was how the world was changing, as a consequence of climate change. He talked about the impact of climate change in the context of productivity, which across the NHS had dipped during the summer of 2026.

Last year the UK experienced four heatwaves. This year, since May, we have experienced five distinct heatwaves; another one is promised for parts of England in the coming week. Trying to deliver comprehensive health during the heatwaves has been a real challenge and in many parts of the NHS, services almost ground to a halt. Operating theatres were closed, ambulances services were almost overwhelmed in some parts of the country, and staff found themselves working in intolerably hot conditions.

Whilst it has been a challenge in 2026, I’m not sure that the NHS has woken up to the future challenges resulting from such climate change. If I look at our Board Risk Register, climate change doesn’t feature on it at all. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the world, as we know it, is heating up more rapidly than the science had predicted it would. The consequences have been easy to see. There have been floods and wild fires, the like of which most of us have never seen. It’s not just here in the UK, the devastating floods in Nepal are said to have been caused by the effects of climate change.

There are some effects that are harder to see, which will begin to have just as great an impact, as the floods. Food production and food security for example. We are already seeing scarcity in some food products, a situation likely to only get worse, as farmers struggle to plant next year’s crops. It’s estimated that the UK needs 120% of its normal rainfall over the next seven years, in order to deal with the effects of this year’s drought.

Possibly we are too late to completely reverse the impact of these changes to our climate. Leading experts and concerned citizens have produced a call-to-action film The National Emergency Briefing; you can watch the trailer here (thank you to Chrissie Cooke for the link). If you go on their website, you can find out where there might be a screening near you. The hope is to get the film screened on national television. Whilst setting out the stark reality of where we are now, the film does however, offer hope. And if we act now, that hoped-for future, could still be realised.