00:00This is what Emmanuel Macron was doing while France was burning.
00:03German Chancellor Friedrich Merz did something similar.
00:05He took an extended vacation through most of August, when the country's rivers dried up,
00:10fires swept the land, and a study estimated 12,000 people had died so far from summer
00:16heat-related causes. A British council cancelled a debate earlier this summer on ending climate
00:20emergency policies because of a heat wave. US politicians are guilty of it too. But as
00:25Australia's Prime Minister learned, there are consequences for failing to show up. In 2019,
00:30Scott Morrison went on holiday during one of Australia's most catastrophic fire seasons on
00:34record. I was living there at the time and took these photos. We were walking through streets thick
00:39with ash and smoke, and politicians wouldn't talk about it. Three years later, climate-focused
00:44independents and minor parties took nearly one in ten seats in the main House of Parliament. Europe
00:49may be heading through the same political shift. Climate barely registered in European polling this
00:53spring. By August, it was Germany's number one concern, and had jumped sharply in Britain. The
00:58Greens looked like to hold the balance of power after the recent Swedish election. The lesson isn't
01:03that voters suddenly become climate activists. It's simpler when homes, workplaces and trains become
01:09unbearably hot. People notice when politicians refuse to acknowledge the problem. The grim truth is
01:14that summers like this will be getting increasingly common. Politicians who ignore this manifest fact
01:19won't look smart. They'll look out of touch.
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