Fighting fires on moors in February, doing emergency repairs on train tracks buckling from heatwaves and tackling the issue of single-use plastics in the NHS.
These are now regular tasks of firefighters, railway engineers and medics who are key workers on the climate change front line.
Here, they share the dramatic changes they have seen in the past 20 years due to the climate crisis and how it is making their jobs even harder.
Firefighters
Britain’s firefighters are on the front line of the battle to douse the flames of global warming.
Wildfires in winter and devastating summer floods are signs the planet is hotting up.
Senior fire officer Steve Healey says he is no scientist but he can see the evidence before his eyes.
“Clearly the climate has changed” he said “What has caused it? You would have to put that to the scientists and politicians. But the climate has definitely changed.
“I’ve been in the service just short of 25 years and the jobs that we go to now are very different to the incidents that we responded to when I joined.”
His colleague at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, station manager Mick Strickland, says winter moorland fires on tinder dry grass are increasingly common across the UK, even on areas surrounded by snow.
“It is bizarre kicking snow off your boots and then walking into a field and putting a fire out. It is bonkers” he said.
“As the summer times have been expanding, we have gone out in February, there has been snow on the ground and we have had surface fires on moorland.
“That is just purely the vegetation that has got very thin on top, snow might have come and compacted it and then as the snow disappears it only takes a very small amount of daylight and sunshine to dry it and then the sun magnifies it and away it goes.
“The snow is coming but it is disappearing quicker. Whereas we used to have long winters with loads of snow on the ground, our winter periods are just very brief.
“That is generally because the temperatures are just warming. Things are getting warmer.
“The warmth starts in February, when the snow starts to disappear, and now runs right the way through to October, whereas 15, 20 years ago, our wildfire activity was purely in the summer period.”
Mr Healey, Lancashire’s Deputy chief fire officer, said: “Wildfires in February? It is just unheard off. And conversely, flooding. The major floods in 2007 were in the summer.
“You can’t judge when you are going to need wildfire resources and you can’t judge when you are going to need flood rescue resource. It could be any time of the year.”
The environmental changes mean Lancashire, like other services, is having to invest in new kit, equipment and training.
Standard fire engines cannot drive over moorland so more 4x4s are needed, together with specialist all terrain Hagglund vehicles.
In June 2018, a fire started on moorland at Winter Hill, north west of Bolton, which spread over 18sq kms and took 41 days to extinguish.
Hundreds of firefighters from across the country were involved, all toiling in searing temperatures while wearing heavy protective clothing designed for entering burning buildings.
It led to calls from the teams on the ground for a change in thinking about how to tackle the blaze and on what to wear.
Mr Healey said: “What we have had to do over the years, not just in terms of wildfire, but also with flooding, is to make sure fire fighters have got the right sort of PPE to keep them safe.
“The standard fire kit that you would get from joining the services as a recruit, is predominately designed to go into burning buildings, but as soon as you put that on in summer months, there is a danger you will get dehydrated before you have done anything.
“We have had to invest heavily in making sure the firefighters have fire retardant PPE but is lighter weight, so they can deal with the protracted amount of time they spend on moors.
“The same goes for flooding. We would have major floods where fire fighters were dealing with flooding dressed in fire kit, which is designed for putting fires out.
“So we have invested heavily in specialist resources. We have six swift water rescue teams, that are trained to operate in a swift water environment, and all of our firefighters are trained to deal with flooding.
“Every firefighter now has a waterproof flood suit, to enable them to wade in deep water. The specialist swift water teams also have a full body dry suits.”
Kitting out a firefighter with swift water PPE costs around £1,000, around the same cost as the lightweight wildfire suits.
“We are having to invest in resources in dealing with incidents that many years ago we would not necessarily have to, because it would be a once in a thousand year event” he said.
Lancashire now has a specialist team to deal with wildfires and sends firefighters to Portugal for training.
Instead of the traditional ‘beating’ of the flames, fire breaks are scorched in the earth surrounding the main blaze to prevent it from spreading.
They are also trained to combat forest fires, which can see trees being consumed by flames within seconds, toppling them to the ground.
Mr Strickland said: “We had a forest fire in Lancashire last year and it is the most dangerous wildfire you can get. It is what kills firefighters in Europe - the trees falling.”
Dave Loner, 43, was one of the hundreds of firefighters sent to Winter Hill.
He said: “We were there for 41 days and they looked for our input to make things better.
“On the back of that was when the service started investing in other skills and we got the PPE.
“It was kit and theory. It was thinking a bit different about the fire. The idea is we are not doing as much work, the fire is doing the work, we are just monitoring.
“We understand which way it is going to go, which direction, paying a lot of attention to the weather and wind.”
Dave added: “Spain is expecting temperatures of 50 degrees this year. It is becoming more normal in northern Europe.
“We used to go Spain and 30 degrees was hot. But we are getting that here now. That’s what climate change is.”
Rail workers
Network Rail says the effects of climate change are already being felt within the railway industry.
Group safety and engineering director Martin Frobisher, 53, said: “We are noticing the effects of climate change and it’s a big challenge for the railway industry.
“Every year we read about another weather record for heat or flooding; the highest this or lowest that.
“Either extreme affects us.
“The impacts of climate on the railway network come in many different shapes and sizes.
“High winds can bring down overhead power lines and when combined with wet ground we are out with chainsaws getting trees off the line.
“If it’s flooding we have to get out with the pumps and if there’s a really big storm our passengers can get trapped.
“Then in summer as the weather gets hotter and hotter rails can buckle if they heat up and expand.
“One big challenge for us is earthworks because Britain’s railways were built by the Victorians and their embankments are an old design.
“They are far steeper than motorway slopes and combined with over 100 years of weathering this leaves us very vulnerable in extreme weather.
“Storms in particular place big demands on our frontline teams.
“They do a brilliant job but whenever there is an extreme weather event it leads to a lot of work for them.”
Martin says Network Rail is currently working on a range of measures to meet the 2050 deadline for a zero-carbon network.
He said: “Around 60 per cent of the UK’s rail mileage is currently diesel so we have got to convert that.
“A primary solution is overhead power lines because nothing is more efficient than taking renewable electricity from a wind turbine to run a train.
“These trains are much lighter because they just have a motor and don’t carry a heavy engine or fuel.
“A secondary solution we are looking at is technology such as hydrogen fuel cells and battery powered trains.”
Network Rail are planning on trialling a battery powered train at the COP 26 climate change summit in November.
The train, which uses military submarine technology, can complete a 90
minute journey before recharging in ten minutes.
Martin’s teams are also trying to improve air quality in cities by using stop-start technology while trains are in stations.
Recycled plastic sleepers are being trialled instead of concrete to use 40
per cent less carbon.
Martin added: “We have got more to do - I don’t for a minute pretend we haven’t.
“But we are starting from a really good place.”
The nurse
- By RCN Rose Gallagher, Infection prevention expert
"In the year of COP26 the importance of tackling climate change has never been higher on the agenda.
Only this week at least 45 people lost their lives when the US’s rainfall record was broken twice in one week Left unchecked climate change is going to continue to have a devastating impact on our planet and the way we live our lives.
There is, however, a massive issue with the impact on health that is less spoken about.
Air pollution is linked to heart disease, stroke and lung cancer, contributing to tens of thousands of deaths a year, is a silent but deadly killer.
Figures suggest the health and care system in England alone is responsible for an estimated 4-5% of the country’s carbon footprint. The NHS continues to take steps to reduce this and has, in recent years, moved to reduce plastic straw, cups and cup and cutlery from hospitals.
This prevents millions of items that could not be recycled ending up in landfill.
Providing health and care services is also a double edge sword. We contribute to climate as a direct result of caring for people affected by it.
That means taking important steps to reduce the impact the health and care system has on the environment.
Nursing too has a vital part to play because of how many items we use to provide care and the waste we produce as a result of this. We have seen a huge increase in the use of PPE during the pandemic. But now we must now think about what we use more sustainability – a hugely important part of tackling climate change.
Even before the pandemic health and care staff were reliant on gloves when treating patients. Designed to protect us they are regularly overused, even as a substitute for hand hygiene and this has to stop.
At the Royal College of Nursing every year we run a Glove Awareness Week on this very issue.
It sounds simple but by only using gloves when necessary and then taking them off as soon as a task is completed not only reduces waste but also prevents long-term damage to nurses’ hands which, in some cases, has ended careers.
If nursing staff could make just one change to reduce over reliance on gloves it could help to protect our planet’s resources.
If we do not all act now, we will be dealing with the health consequences of climate change for many years to come."
