It’s hot, yes, but if we think about the future, we’ll feel better already. What a relief the Apocalypse brings

We’ve all read the news: the summer of 2026 is already the hottest on record, but the coming summers will be even worse, to the point that experts are saying, “We’ll look back on this summer with nostalgia”. Just hearing that was enough to make me feel cooler straight away. A cooling sensation entirely unsupported by the thermometer, without any basis in fact, merely perceived; and yet just as real, like an inner coolness that brings the same relief as a breeze. And even though no one admits it (perhaps because they’re unaware, or because we’re superstitious and fear that if someone says it, it’ll stop and we’ll go back to feeling hot), I’ve noticed I’m not the only one: it’s as hot as – if not hotter than – the past few days, the sun gives no respite, the air feels like the sort you’d use to dry your hands on one of those things in public toilets; before we were sweating, now we’re forming a crust; all around us, Europe is burning even without Putin’s bombings, and yet people are complaining less. You see them fanning themselves with a hand fan (the real money-spinner these days, forget about artificial intelligence!) saying laconically, ‘And they say it’ll be even worse in the future,’ and then they carry on with their lives with a newfound serenity, even with a half-smile of bliss, as if we weren’t all heading towards humanity’s mixed fry – watch out for the lemon: it’s not a slice but the whole thing, and you don’t squeeze it, you pop it in. Although swollen, worn out, disfigured by the heat, sunburnt, we all seem vaguely relieved by the fact that ‘it’ll be even worse in the future’, as if there’d been a proper summer storm (the sort from the old days, not these sticky heat-induced downpours) and the air had finally cleared.

It is the nostalgia effect, but applied to the present: as we know, nostalgia acts as a filter that smooths out wrinkles and erases flaws, to the extent that it makes us long for decades gone by when conditions were clearly worse (except for the weather); there are even those, like Elon Musk, who feel nostalgic for the Roman Empire – a truly epic period, starting with the fact that people used to die from toothache. But now that we’ve run out of past to yearn for (we’ve re-evaluated everything, even the Stone Age, so eco-friendly and environmentally conscious), all that’s left is to start feeling nostalgic for the present. And it works! 2026 already seems better, now that we’ve been told the future will be worse. The idea of a better future has always made life miserable for us: years of hope for what lies ahead have turned us into nothing more than a bunch of frustrated people, bitter about the rip-offs we’ve suffered and the dreams that have been betrayed. Now, however, that there is no hope left, the trajectory is inexorably heading towards the Apocalypse; now that ‘the worst is yet to come’, we look upon these daft times we’re condemned to live through with tenderness and a touch of nostalgia for when they’re no more: ‘I’ll miss you, shitty life. Actually, I miss you already.’

Knowing that it will be even hotter in the future makes us feel a sort of temperature swing in the present; it is as if resignation casts a shadow under which we can take shelter to find a little respite: there’s no point in getting all worked up about planting more trees, eating less meat or swapping the car for a bike; it’s better not to go out at all during the hottest years and just stay in the ‘cool’ of this 2026. In short, will things just keep getting worse in the future and will we end up missing this summer? So let’s enjoy it!