Arabic version: ريبيكا شو تخشى تصاعد حرارة الصيف في أستراليا

According to The Guardian, Australian writer Rebecca Shaw says Sydney’s warming weather has revived her dread of the hot months ahead, particularly temperatures reaching 40C. Shaw contrasts her experience with the public discussion around winter-related seasonal affective disorder, arguing that people whose mood suffers in intense heat are heard less often.

Shaw, who is from Toowoomba in Queensland, says the city’s elevation of 700 metres kept it cooler than many other places. She describes 26C, blue skies, a few clouds and a cooling breeze as her ideal weather. In Sydney, however, she says such conditions last for only about two weeks each year before temperatures become uncomfortable and then unbearable.

The writer says relief from summer heat is unevenly available, focusing on what she calls “air conditioner privilege”. She has never lived in a home with air conditioning and describes attempts to cool down with fans, wet towels, frozen peas, cold baths and visits to cold rooms or cinemas. Shaw argues that summer activities are enjoyable only when people can find respite from the heat and get enough sleep.

Shaw says hot weather affects her mood from the moment she wakes in smothering conditions. She acknowledges that she has not experienced winter outside Australia and that long periods of 5C weather might change her perspective. Still, she writes that it is easier in her current circumstances to warm up with clothing, bedding and a hot-water bottle than to cool down in a poorly insulated home. She links her fears about successive hotter summers to the climate crisis.