Saturday, August 5, 2023

Your summer vacation has changed forever

This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion publishes each week based on

This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion publishes each week based on web readership.

The Death of Summer — Niall Ferguson

Most of us have an idea of summer in our heads. It generally involves beaches. Americans head to their coasts — avoiding only fog-shrouded San Francisco — and Europeans to the Mediterranean or Aegean. We all strip down to near nakedness and sit around in the sun, occasionally frolicking in the ocean waves. We aim to return home tanned and toned. If you come from another planet and don't know what I am talking about, watch the Barbie trailer.

Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP

An entire economic system has evolved to meet our needs. Airlines compete to fly us to seaside resorts where hotels provide the shelter and the food. Restaurants with sea views are thronged. Those who can afford a second home compete for waterfront locations. Owning a boat or some other aquatic toy is often part of the deal. There is also a freshwater variant, in which a lake takes the place of the sea. But the basic concept is the same.

However, rising global temperatures would appear to be killing this version of summer. None of what I have just described is enjoyable if the mercury is above 30 degrees C (86 F). Indeed, sunbathing becomes life-threatening. And who wants a week on Corfu if a large tract of the island is ablaze? This summer in southern Europe has been less Barbie, more Oppenheimer.

Even those who prefer not to think too deeply about climate change notice when their familiar summer holiday morphs into an ordeal akin to being slow roasted. Those who own the capital stock — the hotels, the houses, the boats — naturally cling to the hope that this summer is an aberration and next year will return to normal. But they have been clinging to that hope for quite a few years now. The horrible question keeps suggesting itself: What if this is the new normal?

Read the whole thing.

Time to Chill Out About Air Conditioning's Carbon Footprint — David Fickling

It's Getting Too Hot for Airplanes — Mark Gongloff

Subway's $10 Billion Price Tag Is Tough to Swallow — Leticia Miranda

The Moon Emoji Is Securities Fraud — Matt Levine

Russia Sanctions Aren't Stopping Putin But May Stop Xi — Hal Brands

Barclays and Deutsche Bank Aren't Delivering the Goods — Paul J. Davies

Your Rich Hedge-Fund Pals Are All Going to Dubai — Lionel Laurent

The Bud Light Hangover Hasn't Gone Away — Andrea Felsted

America's Colleges Are Also Facing a Housing Crisis — Matthew Yglesias

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