The big melt

The big melt

Roger Federer has finally met his match – global warming.

It’s not easy to make tennis ace Roger Federer sweat. The Swiss maestro is as cool as a cucumber on court. He glides from side to side with the grace of a ballerina, mesmerising opponents and fans. But the unusual New York heat at the US Open managed to do what scores of tennis players had failed to – melt Federer’s rock solid game. The Swiss genius was beaten in the fourth round by little known Australian John Millman. And when asked about the surprise loss, Federer simply said, “It was hot.”

Federer may be supporting several causes through his foundation, but hitherto hasn’t had the occasion to highlight climate change. The latter, nonetheless, seems to be afflicting places like New York where summer nights have warmed at nearly twice the rate of summer days. As a matter of fact, cool climes are increasingly feeling the heat from human-induced global warming. Take Japan for example which this July saw record-breaking temperatures during an intense heat wave. Similarly, temperatures above 32 C have spread to the northern reaches of Scandinavia, while California wildfires have increased in frequency and intensity.

All of this hot weather in the global North could be due to that sneaky customer, karma, creeping up. While hitherto global warming was seen to be impacting developing countries the most, the trend might finally be hitting developed nations. After all, it’s their unbridled industrialisation in previous decades as well as current emissions that warmed us up in the first place. But not to worry, the techno-fiends have already dreamed up another one. Aren’t we looking for ways to colonise other planets if this one fails us? Or perhaps we could even go along with the climate sceptics on this one – it’s not the heat, Roger Federer is getting old.