The twenty-first century may not be remembered as the century in which the world ended. It may be remembered as the century in which normal life disappeared. Not everywhere at once. Not with one enormous explosion. Not on a Tuesday morning at 8:37. Everyday life will change gradually. First through higher electricity bills. Then through restrictions on water use. Through insurance companies refusing to cover certain homes. Through nights when cities no longer cool down. Through food that suddenly becomes scarce or turns into a luxury.

The Earth is already considerably warmer than it was before industrialisation. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the global average temperature in 2025 was around 1.43 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. The eleven years from 2015 to 2025 were the warmest since records began. That figure sounds small. Nobody would immediately declare the end of civilisation because a person’s body temperature had risen by 1.43 degrees. But the climate is not a human body. A global average consists of billions of local changes. Temperatures over land rise more quickly than over the oceans. In cities, concrete, asphalt and buildings store heat. At the same time, rainfall patterns, air currents, soils, ocean circulation and vegetation zones are changing.

A global temperature rise of 1.43 degrees can produce regional heatwaves far beyond anything that humans, agriculture or infrastructure have previously experienced. In 2025, large parts of Europe recorded above-average temperatures. Heatwaves stretched from the Mediterranean to sub-Arctic regions. Many European rivers carried less water than usual, while glaciers continued to lose mass. The climate century is therefore no longer a distant possibility.

Over the next ten years, the climate crisis may initially appear in wealthy countries as an expensive modernisation programme. Cities will plant trees, remove sealed surfaces and construct underground water reservoirs. Schools will install cooling rooms. Hospitals will secure independent energy supplies. Working hours will be shifted during summer. Buildings will receive pale façades, additional shading and improved ventilation systems. That sounds sensible.

Much of it is. But adaptation costs money. A great deal of money.

Those living in wealthy districts will receive cooler streets, green roofs and functioning shelters. Those living in poorer neighbourhoods may receive little more than an app informing them that it is dangerously hot outside. A new social boundary will emerge: no longer only between rich and poor, but between the protected and the unprotected. Freedom will no longer mean only being able to travel, consume or express an opinion. Freedom will mean having a home in which it is still possible to sleep during summer. Having access to clean water. Finding an insurance company willing to cover your property. Not fearing that the ground floor will flood every time heavy rain is forecast.