The Heat Will Kill You First' is a chilling book -- and a warning Author Jeff Goodell...

[littlemissmartypants]

The Heat Will Kill You First’ is a chilling book — and a warning
Author Jeff Goodell on an invisible, stealthy, and universal threat.

Zoya Teirstein
Staff Writer

https://grist.org/extreme-heat/the-heat-will-kill-you-first-is-a-chilling-book-and-a-warning/

This story is part of Record High, a Grist series examining extreme heat and its impact on how — and where — we live.

On an early August morning in 2021, a family — two parents in their 30s and 40s, their 1-year-old, and a big dog — set out on a hike in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The temperature was a comfortable 70 degrees Fahrenheit when they started out, but the day became dangerously hot as the four began the climb back up to where their truck was parked. At ground level, the temperature was likely hotter than 110 degrees F. They never made it back. All four of them — the dog, the parents, the baby — died on the trail.

County sheriffs struggled to determine what caused a healthy family to drop dead with no evidence of foul play or struggle. Was it toxic algae from the river that flowed along the bottom of the gulch they hiked beside? Did they accidentally breathe in carbon monoxide from an open mine shaft near the trail? But the answer was right in front of them the whole time. Two months after the bodies were found, authorities announced the official cause of death: hyperthermia and dehydration. The family had overheated.

That story is one of many examples of heat’s deadly toll in The Heat Will Kill You First, author and climate change journalist Jeff Goodell’s new opus about extreme heat. “If there’s one thing in this book that will save your life,” Goodell writes, “it is this: … if your body gets too hot too fast — it doesn’t matter if that heat comes from the outside on a hot day or the inside from a raging fever — you are in big trouble.”

Heat is an invisible, stealthy force, Goodell explains. Because we’re all familiar with it, we think we know how to handle it, how to game it. But heat can’t be negotiated with past a certain threshold — if your body gets hot enough, you die. It’s as simple as that.

Snip...
Much more at the link.

https://grist.org/extreme-heat/the-heat-will-kill-you-first-is-a-chilling-book-and-a-warning/

❤️pants

[callous taoboy]

1. I live in central Texas-

I have a half acre lot, half of which is shaded, that I mow maybe 4 or 5 times a summer using a self-propelled lawn mower. I always let the grass in the back yard brown out so that by late July it needs no attention. Meanwhile, all of my neighbors who have similarly sized lots over-water and over-mow all summer, but they all have riding lawn mowers.

There have been very hot summers in the past where mowing is uncomfortable, but this summer is a different story. I mowed last week starting at 8:00 a.m. Thirty minutes later my shirt and shorts were completely soaked with sweat. I went in to a 74 degree house, chugged water and stood under the ceiling fan. I repeated this every thirty minutes and managed to get the front and side yards done. I tackled the back yard the following morning, first time I’ve ever needed to break the job up.

Yesterday I got out there at 7:30 and attended to spraying briars that were trying to take over a back fence, and I was using a shovel to root up small hackberry trees that come up everywhere and will take over unless eradicated. I began feeling dangerously over-heated after about thirty minutes. It felt like I was suffocating.

I am facing the reality that it will not be long before Texas summers are too hot for any outdoor activity after 10 a.m.

[KPN]

2. Wow. Scary. Good luck there in Texas taoboy. Sounds

like you have a good handle on it.

[dalton99a]

3. The trend is clear:

(as of Jul 13, 2023)

[BeckyDem]

4. Heartbreaking.

The death toll across the country from the heat is climbing.

[orthoclad]

5. I've worked in hot enironments

One of the most dangerous symptoms of overheating is that you lose judgement - you don't realize that you're in trouble. You get stupid.

[pfitz59]

6. Only mad dogs and Englishmen

go out in the heat of the mid-day's sun. Add Americans to that list.