A poll of 2000 British adults revealed that 52% prefer cold weather. Dr Laurence Wainwright discussed the probable reasons for these results in The Independent: “The body has limited resources to do almost unlimited things, so it has to make trade-offs... As a result, some of those higher-order cognitive functions, like the ability to have an empathetic, thoughtful conversation with a partner, go out the window.”

Dr Laurence Wainwright told the Mail that heatwaves are ‘now a creeping health, housing, and economic emergency that is costing families money they don't have.’

As temperatures in the UK reach dangerous levels, the government and businesses are pushing back at union proposals to set a maximum working temperature. "Because UK heatwaves are usually brief and intermittent, the population rarely has time to acclimatise to it physically," commented Dr Laurence Wainwright. 

Heatwaves in the UK are becoming increasingly common. Dr Laurence Wainwright spoke to teaching magazine TES about what that means for learning. 

During the UK's scorching May heatwave, Dr Laurence Wainwright warned The Independent's readers that the UK will "perhaps be the worst impacted by the predicted hot, long summer ahead. The country, everything from its cities to air-con-less offices and homes through to train tracks that buckle in the heat and oft-heat-overwhelmed health system, simply isn’t designed for hot weather."