Opinion
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School's out if the temperature hits 40 degrees.
It's one of the first playground urban legends I ever heard growing up in Sydney in the 1990s.My classmates swore it happened to a friend of a friend's older sister (for real), while my cousins in Canberra were adamant a friend of a friend's neighbour could prove the rule was real.
I pined for a heatwave when I was a kid because any excuse to escape school was a good one. If the "no hat, no play" policy was strictly enforced, surely they'd send us home if the playground melted.
If I was worried about a test or an intense handball session at lunch, an unusually hot day was the ultimate long shot in summer — the Australian equivalent of snow days in America.
I wanted a once in a lifetime scorcher, but alas, the 40-degree day never came.
How hot is too hot for school now?
The thought of extreme weather was so far out of reach when I was in school that it could exist as a playground myth. As it turns out, no Australian state or territory has ever had the rule in place.The whole thing was made up by kids who were looking for an excuse to bludge, and it somehow spread across the nation.
Most schools across the country only have plans in place in the event of extreme weather conditions like natural disasters.
But 2019 was Australia's hottest and driest year on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The average maximum temperature last year was 30.69 degrees Celsius, and the year as a whole was 1.52 degrees above the long-term average.
My son starts school this week and forecast says there's going to be a heatwave.
If the playground urban legend still exists, what temperatures are kids telling each other now? A 50-degree day?
Sure, kids might get sent home, but the air force will be airlifting everyone out.
The new normal
It's an unsettling thought that extreme temperatures are the new normal for a generation of Australian children.I've been thinking a lot about the concept of "the new normal" in the aftermath of the devastating bushfires ravaging Australia.
These children will not know any differently because unrelenting summer heatwaves will be all they will ever know.
Bushfires are more likely than ever to be catastrophic. Summer is a time to prepare for the worst.
Over the past few months it has become clear we're going to have to deal with a lot of new normals.
On the radio, I heard a guy being interviewed on board the HMAS Choules, after being evacuated from Mallacoota, who referred to himself as "a climate change refugee".
I spoke with my dad about the people who lost their homes in bushfires and he said they'd have to re-build and install fire bunkers. Air pollution from bushfire smoke means you'll need a supply of P2 masks in your medicine cabinet.
Is it safe for anyone to go outside when it's hot and smoky? The long-term effects of breathing in the constant smoke from bushfires may be a nasty surprise.
We've already passed a point of no return
The Australian landscape has always burned and rejuvenated itself over centuries, but even the plants and animals that evolved with this cycle are being wiped out by wildfires encouraged by unusually high temperatures.
The ancient plants and animals conditioned to roll with this country's climate can no longer outrun the changes — and neither can we.
At a United Nations climate conference in 2018, scientists gathered to compare reports and concluded we've already passed a "point of no return".
Global temperatures are projected to rise above 1.5 degrees, which was once the measure for what was sustainable to avoid the further impacts of climate change.
The Indoor Kids
My kids are still in childcare, but when temperatures nudged close to 40 degrees in Melbourne, they were kept indoors for most of the day.When the smoke haze rolled across the nation as a result of the bushfires, they were kept indoors once again.
At this rate they'll be a generation labelled "The Indoor Kids". Gen IK, if you will.
Maybe the next playground urban legend won't be about a record-breaking hot day.
Rumours may spread about a day when the temperature cools enough for them to play outside in the summertime like their parents once did.
If a mild, smoke-free summer day becomes so rare that it's worth celebrating, well, let kids skip school and enjoy it while they can.
Cameron Williams is a freelance writer and film critic based in Melbourne.
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