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As this heat wave begins, remember that Toronto has always been intolerably hot in the summer. People who move here go into shock when they first encounter the swampy heat considered normal in Toronto’s least enchanting months.

We are a badly designed city. The tall buildings that block off the waterfront prevent cooling breezes coming in from Lake Ontario, and the most dense parts of the downtown city, laudable in a larger green strategy against climate change, are among the hottest.

This makes sense: black roads and black roofs absorb and radiate heat; densely built streets can’t always accommodate the large trees the suburbs mystifyingly decline to plant; a blizzard of air conditioning creates more external heat; even parked cars send out heat so intensely that it’s noticeable when you pass on the sidewalk.

But the fact is that Toronto has a horrible summer climate, humid in the extreme, with sodden energy-sapping non-stop heat that leaks into the fall. You know that each year it will leak more.

Classrooms are hotter in spring and fall, and children wilt. Even gardens are hotter. Plants are stressed, with succulents normally fat with water turning limp and then crisp.

No one plants boxwood now that blight has arrived, but I believe (based on no science whatsoever) that a sturdy plant like box would have thrived had our climate not changed so quickly and harshly. I have gardened in Toronto since my 20s. What a new garden needs is leathery plants with leaves like bark.

In the right amount of shade, it’s hard to kill ferns, even in a drought like this summer’s. Hostas are hardy, albeit unattractive. Ugly plants often do very well. And of course boulders can populate a garden. They don’t die, I’ll say that for them.

Next up is rubble. We’ll always have rubble.

But I am most concerned about humans who don’t cope well with heat. In one Parkdale building, as the Star reported, tenants who have hydro included in their rent and who installed air conditioning are clearly being pushed toward eviction.

The same thing happened to me as a student in a downtown apartment building — don’t ever change, Toronto — so I had the air conditioner delivered through a side door and installed it concealed in a balcony window.

Some people bask in heat. My neighbours from West Africa are finding this Toronto summer too cold. But I find heat so difficult that I installed a heat pump on the roof, because cool air wasn’t reaching the second floor. The cost was ludicrous. I was sweaty and past caring.

I would rather do without food that go without sleep on Toronto’s hot nights. Everyone hits a different wall and horrible wet heat is mine.

And where can one escape? People reserve summer for vacations, but across the touristed world, temperatures are hitting 45C. Portugal and Spain are on fire. Incompetent Britain is in a heat wave so extreme that train rails are buckling — this, in a nation surrounded by water.

Today, parts of London may hit 41C. Weather advisories seem to suggest that people should stay home because extreme heat will cause bad decisions and death. Gatwick Airport ran out of water after a pipe burst in the heat wave, leaving it with two functioning toilets. Hammersmith Bridge was being wrapped in silver insulation foil to reflect the sun.

I expect this of austerity Britain, but not of Canada. Our cities and towns are not prepared for extreme heat, nor for floods or fire. Again one has the impression that there are no plans should catastrophe occur.

Was there a backup plan when Rogers collapsed? Is there a plan for power outages in extreme Toronto heat in August? Do we have enough duct tape?

Do I sound irate? Unhinged? Wait till the heat pump dies. What I write then won’t be a column but a medical experiment. Enjoy your summer.

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