Last weekend I took a walk out from Neilston to Duncarnock Fort, or the Craigie, which, for a wee lump, affords an impressive panorama that takes in much of the Glasgow city region.

Mindful of the record temperatures which were forecast then and came to pass this week, the view provided food for thought on just how far we are from making the changes demanded by the climate emergency.

Water levels in the various reservoirs I could see were already visibly low.

Multiple ‘greenfield’ developments were springing up to create more low-density housing almost wholly dependent on people getting around in private cars.

Much of the agricultural land, with the notable exception of Locavore’s nearby Left Field market garden, was being managed inefficiently and offering little to lock-up carbon or promote biodiversity.

Busy main roads contrasted with a half-empty, expensive, hourly train service.

No council, government, public or private institution is yet doing enough in the face of the climate emergency.

Instead, in too many cases, and certainly in the case of the UK Government, phrases like ‘net-zero by 2050’ are waved around as a fig-leaf for ‘taking things seriously’ whilst simultaneously signing off on new fossil fuel projects.

Pictures of stressed firefighters, battling to put out blazes in London, just as they are across much of western Europe, will perhaps serve as a wake-up call. Or perhaps not, if the contest to be the next Prime Minister is anything to go by.

This week, a survey of Tory party members who will decide that put climate action at the bottom of a list of their priorities.

When even this newspaper tweets - then rightly deletes - the question “would you like Glasgow to reach 40C?”, without acknowledging climate change as the cause of record heat, or the excess death that can result from it, it is clear there is still much to do.

Climate deniers have always shouted down fatalist visions of the future, but we are witnessing temperatures now which weren't forecast until much nearer 2050.

Climate breakdown is happening here, faster than expected. We must urgently change course.

The UK remains the host nation of COP26 and Glasgow its host city, until the baton for the UN’s climate roadshow is formally handed over to Egypt and Sharm El-Sheikh in November.

We should use the platform we have in the last few months as hosts to demand more.

Glasgow's people played our part last year, but what was agreed at COP26 was inadequate. What we are all doing collectively, as a society, is inadequate. The time for climate action was before the first COP, almost 30 years ago.

We have wasted much of that time since, kowtowing to vested interests and not listening to science.

We don’t have any more time to waste. We really, really need climate action now.