Goodness me, is it safe to go outside yet?

I'm lucky in that I spent Monday and Tuesday this week - when UK temperature records were broken every five minutes - indoors, sat at my computer, with all the curtains and windows closed, a constant supply of cold, weak orange squash at my side, wet flannels adorning my person and zero intention of venturing out into the inferno!

I am fully aware however, that this would not have been possible for the majority of our dealer readers, who had businesses to run and machinery to sell and fix. So how did you manage? Let us know in the comments below.

The serious aspect of this week of course, is that experts tell us events like this will become ever more frequent and ever more extreme. I read a quote from the Met Office saying that we should be expecting these +40degree occurrences every three years from now on. 

So changes do need to be made in the way the world works. And whilst it can feel overwhelming and beyond our own personal capabilities at times, our industry can help in some small way.

And when I say help, I don't just mean by reacting to an emergency situation as I saw some amazing farm machinery users so wonderfully doing as wildfires were breaking out on Tuesday (take a bow Farmer Tom). But rather, in helping to change consumer attitudes in the long term, for the better. 

I suspect most reading this today won't be fans of artificial turf - and nor should the general public be if they want to help do their bit to reduce the planet's temperature. Our sector can rightfully shout about the benefits of naturally grassed surfaces - and the modern tools used to cultivate them - as being an integral part of the solution to cooling our urban areas.

I spoke to my colleague Laurence Gale, editor of our TurfPro sister title, who as an ex-greenkeeper, groundsman and parks officer, is an experienced agronomist, with comprehensive knowledge regarding the benefits of turfed areas. He told me lawns function as an excellent natural thermoregulator. He said, "Lawns absorb carbon dioxide, which is the main cause of global warming, by storing carbon while releasing oxygen. They clean the air, acting as purifiers, absorbing nitrogen oxide, ammonia, sulphur dioxide and ozone and returning oxygen to the atmosphere."

So the more well kept lawns outside people's homes, rather than a plastic carpet, the better.

There was a great article in The Guardian this week, entitled Why fake grass is far from green in ways you might not guess that covers how harmful these artificial surfaces can be to the environment. And further bad press was generated for the fake grass industry last month when the Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints against adverts claiming artificial grass produced by Evergreens UK Ltd was eco-friendly. The ASA judged that boasts made in three advertisements were “unsubstantiated and misleading” - a perfect example of corporate greenwashing.

Laurence continued by telling me, "From my own experiences, replacing natural grass with artificial products is absolutely not the way forward. Creating a nondescript, non-natural landscape is a recipe for disaster."

Hopefully with the events of this week, the conversation can shift from the two extreme ends of the spectrum. It feels that often we're only exposed to the archaic views of those who choose to deny climate change and pretend it's just summer - and to the views of those who decide to superglue themselves to motorways, turning off the masses from even hearing their message due to their extreme behaviour. Perhaps now the rest of us who are concerned about what's happening, and who want to make worthwhile changes to our lifestyles, can hear practical solutions as to how we can make a difference.

And our industry can surely be at the forefront of letting the public know just how important their areas of natural grass can be.