With wildfires raging across Europe and drought conditions spreading, August 2026 has become a month of existential dread for many. But Emma Beddington, a self-described veteran of sad-girl summers, offers seven unconventional survival tips to get through the season.
The Summer of Discontent
Even the most sun-loving among us are wavering as cataclysmic wildfires engulf neighbouring countries, Wales and parts of England face drought, and farmers warn of food shortages. Rescue centres are overwhelmed with dehydrated hedgehogs, and the Environment Agency is rescuing fish from dying rivers. The carefree days of sunscreen and picnics have given way to stifling, terrifying ones spent indoors, sweatily scrolling through apocalyptic images.
Vanity Fair has dubbed it a “sad-girl summer,” highlighting female singer-songwriters who soundtrack the anxieties of an “undeniably cruel” season. But it’s not just women who are struggling; many people are finding it hard to cope, and August still looms ahead.
Seven Survival Tactics
Beddington, who has long suffered from heat-induced anxiety, shares her hard-won strategies:
- Treat yourself like a beloved dog: Follow canine heatwave advice—take little walks in the coolest parts of the day, enjoy frozen treats, use wet towels, and sip chilled water. Naps are encouraged.
- Start your day with a book: Delay engagement with the news. Immerse yourself in something offline for at least half an hour. If concentration is an issue, novelist Naomi Alderman runs a reading version of Couch to 5K on her Substack.
- Take up a temporary hobby: Distract yourself with low-stakes projects. Last year, Beddington grew melons that were “inedibly disgusting,” but the tending helped. This summer, she crafts elaborate salads that would cost £17 in London, photographs them, and saves them in a folder called “lunch” (deleted in September).
- Delete your weather app: Watching rain chances evaporate from 90% to 20% or temperatures stubbornly hover in the mid-30s is maddening. Switch off and experience weather as your ancestors did—as an awe-inspiring, often awful, occasionally wonderful phenomenon.
- Become a bit nocturnal: Summer nights rarely get dark or cold, offering a reprieve. Beddington has seen bats, hedgehogs, and foxes in her suburb, and enjoys late city wanders where something “unhinged” often affirms her mood.
- Enjoy what summer still does well: Fruit. Blackberries are already ripe, peaches are juicy enough to eat over the sink, and figs and watermelon are abundant. Even apricots have been mostly good this year.
- Remind yourself you’re right: It’s sane to feel angry, grief-stricken, and frightened. As Beddington puts it, “Wouldn’t it be weirder if you didn’t?”
A Rational Response to Crisis
Beddington, a Guardian columnist, emphasizes that these tactics are not about denial but about preserving mental health in the face of overwhelming climate anxiety. “It’s daft, but it is the high point of many distressing, scratchy-brained days,” she says of her salad project.
As the heat persists, her advice offers a pragmatic, if quirky, roadmap for weathering the storm—one frozen treat at a time.
