Zack Polanski, “I called this press conference.. Because of the shocking scenes of wildfires”
“3,000 people have died because of the extreme heat”
“I want to draw attention to do everything we can to push the prime minister Andy Burnham to take action on what is such a crucial… pic.twitter.com/pv5QtGfS9X
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) August 6, 2026
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has delivered a ‘reality check’ to the Prime Minister over Britain’s climate emergencies. He ‘sounded the alarm’ about the horrific impacts of extreme heat and wildfires in the UK.
Speaking at the end of yet another heat health alert, Polanski accused new Prime Minister Andy Burnham of failing to act. He stated that extreme weather poses threats to safety, food and water supply, and our very way of life. Speaking with all necessary urgency, Polanski warned:
What we’re living through right now are likely some of the least extreme summer temperatures we’ll experience in our lifetimes.
The Green leader set out a series of measures he called on Burnham to take to keep people safe from extreme heat, including financial support to keep homes cool and cool spaces in every area. This is needed desperately after an estimated 3,000 people died as a result of dangerous temperatures in recent months.
Warning that the crisis risks food and water shortages, Polanski called on the government to bring water into full public ownership. He says that water companies have failed to secure our water supply, allowing billions of litres to be lost to leaky pipes while failing to build any new reservoirs. No new reservoirs have been built for over three decades. Meanwhile, an estimated 20% of treated water in England and Wales is lost — up to three billion litres per day.
Polanski also cited British farmers warning of the risk of empty shelves, after flooding followed by drought led to the UK facing its worst harvest on record. The Green leader also calls for record-profiteering fossil fuel giants to cover the costs of adapting to increasingly regular extreme weather events and fire risks.
Met Office study attributes 2,700 excess deaths to heatwaves in May and June
Polanski sounds the alarm
Polanski delivered the emergency press conference with all the needed gravity of a Johnson-era Covid announcement. He was joined at the press gathering by an ex-soldier, a GP and a firefighter.
They all described the consequences of extreme weather they’d seen in their work. Broadcaster Chris Packham attended, warning about the many present and future risks of the climate poly-crisis.
Highlighting the dangerous, wilful hyper-normalisation by the British establishment of climate breakdown, Polanski told the nation:
The scenes we have seen play out on our television screens are frankly apocalyptic. And yet the response from our government is to pretend none of this is happening. It’s an astonishing dereliction of duty from those whose first responsibility is to keep us safe.
And from the media — with some brilliant and notable exceptions — we’ve seen more clamouring for North Sea drilling in the last few weeks than raising the alarm on climate breakdown.
While our country has come together — to offer shelter to those who had to leave their homes due to wildfires, to check in with elderly neighbours, to care for those who are sick because of the heat — the government has been far, far too quiet.
Polanski went on to outline what urgent steps need taking:
In the immediate term, we need to keep people safe from extreme temperatures. That means a free, accessible cool space in every local area. And financial support for households to heatproof their home.
Second, we need a robust wildfire prevention strategy. A fire service with the resources it needs to tackle blazes when they come. That must include firefighting helicopters where needed, and not again seeing the shocking sight of requiring a charity to step in to contract a private firm to help fight the fires.
Right-wing press blame anything but human-made climate change for deadly wildfires
‘Complete strategic blindness’
The ‘Green Menace’ took aim at the corporate structures dragging the country to the point of peril. Polanski called out private profiteering at the public’s great expense:
And this should be funded by taxing the fossil fuel giants who are profiting from fuelling these infernos.
Finally, to secure our water supply, prevent droughts and protect our food system we need to bring water back into public hands. Right now, money is flowing out of our hands into the pockets of shareholders – just like water is flowing out of these companies’ leaky pipes in the middle of a drought.
Carl Benfield, a former soldier and engineer, spoke of his experiences alongside Polanski:
As a soldier and an engineer, I was used to conducting threat assessments and defensive plans. It is clear to me that climate change is the single greatest threat to human security we face. Removing climate resilience from our national defence priorities was an act of complete strategic blindness.
You cannot defend a nation if you refuse to acknowledge the very force that makes its infrastructure obsolete, burns its countryside, and threatens its food and water supply.
As Polanski and Benfield make clear, it’s time to acknowledge reality. It’s time to act — now.
Polanski slams climate inaction as heatwaves cost us billions
Featured image via the Canary
