Hi Community, I'm starting this topic to help people navigate the escalating heat crisis around the world.
First of all, many, though not all, scientists have been warning us that this time would come. They just didn't know when it would come. The UN climate group has been woefully conservative over the last ten to 20 years about when the escalation would happen. But many are now agreeing that exteme weather is here.
This is an El Niño year, so we were expecting some extreme heat. I believed last year that this year would see catastrophic mortality rates from heat.
The data on El Niño years shows that El Niño years are surpassing each other in the extreme heat and storm events as we move into the future. Seems like a no brainer to me.
The good news is that there are measures you can take to protect the most vulnerable loved ones-- children and elderly are the most vulnerable to heat stress.
We all need to understand:
- How heat stress can affect different groups
- How to tell when someone is overheated and how to cool them down quickly and get them to an ER.
- When we MUST stay out of the sun, and
- When we must avoid working, playing and hiking during hot times of the day.
- Do not tough it out. This is not your father's heat wave.
- That we need cooling mechanisms in our homes at night when the body must be able to cool down.
- No pets ever left in a car during this weather. Not even for five minutes.
If you don't have air-conditioning, you can get inexpensive small USB chargeable battery air conditioners to use while sleeping. Perhaps someone here can give us more information on these: Amazon small portable battery powered USB airconditioners
The other good news is that I've seen this coming (so have many scientists) for over ten years and I feel it will take out the arrogance so many have had for man's dominance over nature, and catapult us into a greater respect for the earth. That situation has already happened. @seaholly was telling me that after the catastrophic heat wave in British Columbia that killed over 700 people, the government began providing free air conditioners to vulnerable elderly.
I invite you to share ideas here in the same way that we shared ideas when covid emerged. We helped each other through covid which, at the time, I wrote it was a dress rehearsal for climate change.
@seaholly @lovendures @deetoo @bluebelle @cc21 @lalabella @baba
As for the future. I've noticed a few changes that have played in my mind for the last ten years
- A revolution in the building industry. Houses will be tighter fitting (fewer leaks), retrofitted with heat pumps for year around comfort, 100 percent electric (until some other energy form is available), very low energy emissions and many will use solar so they don't have to depend on the electric grid during peak times.
- People who can afford it will chase winter. It's going to become a thing to buy property in the southern hemisphere for your summer retreat.
- We have already written about the Great Migration that will ensue. See The Decades Ahead on the site Prediction Page (no membership needed to read), and see the latest predictions made in April 2023, but also probably mentioned in Sept, October, Dec, Feb, April and June 2023 (prediction membership needed).
- Worker laws will protect outdoor workers from working above certain temperatures and wet bulb temperatures.
- During hot months, outdoor work schedules will change to the cooler times of day and night, which will mean dramatic changes in work schedules with many working outside only at night.
- The escalating climate will peak at some point in the long term future when civilization takes appropriate actions, and then the greenhouse gas blanket will slowly dissipate over several hundred years. I keep seeing massive tree planting, along with drastic Greenhouse Gas emission reductions as the only actions that work. Scientists will try technological interventions like blocking the sun, but these have some bad risks, so hoping they won't rely on them. In some countries that have so much to lose, like India, they may just start doing it regardless of other countries' approval.
- Get ready for a really green planet, both literally and figuratively.
- During the hot centuries, people will reflect negatively on our time period. Some of the worst perpetrators' names will go down in history -- Koch Brothers, Exxon Mobil, BP, and Shell, and the Republican Party. They bear more responsibility than any individuals on the planet. If any large groups of people will be blamed, it will be the U.S. and China but the U.S. will write its own history.
@jeanne-mayell Thanks, Jeanne! These are incredible insights from your experiences and prior visions. I think this topic is an important, practical one as we are facing stories each night on the news about the unprecedented heat waves happening now, as we speak. Having a topic to share practical and creative ways to cope is an invaluable resource to have at our fingertips. It is easy, living in Michigan (where all seasons can occur in one day!) to forget the many areas of the country and world that do not have air conditioning or fluctuations back to cooler conditions.
P.S. And thanks for mentioning wet bulb! I just learned about that last summer and it was something that I never thought about. Horrifying, really, to think of people having to work outside and deal with conditions where you physically, literally cannot sweat to cool off.
Does this mean the end of Gov. Greg Abbott , who signed in to law his draconian "Death Star" bill banning water breaks???
If someone dies from this law he should be charged with murder.
Phoenix is breaking records and not in a good way.
Last Saturday, the Phoenix-area broke the record for the most days under an excessive heat warning, which started on July 1 and will be in place through July 17. The number of days of the current warning nearly doubles Phoenix's past record, which was eight days.
Phoenix will likely break or tie more records by this weekend, including the largest stretch of consecutive days with temperatures of 110 degrees or above, and the highest temperatures registered for this weekend's dates.
The city's record for consecutive temperatures of 110 degrees or above is 18 days, set in 1974. Monday marked the 11th consecutive day that hit 110 degrees or above recorded at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Temperatures are forecast to stay at or above that mark for the rest of the week into next week, threatening to beat the record.
Highs for Saturday and Sunday are also forecast to tie historic records with both days expected to go up to 117 degrees.
It will be even hotter the following week.
Does this mean the end of Gov. Greg Abbott , who signed in to law his draconian "Death Star" bill banning water breaks???
If someone dies from this law he should be charged with murder.
Sadly, it is very unlikely to mean any such thing. This is the state whose attorney general was indicted on felony charges in 2015 and is still in office, with no trial in sight.
Praying that nobody in the state’s un-air-conditioned prisons dies from the heat. Cruel and unusual punishment, indeed.
High of 104 today in San Antonio, with a heat index of 111. Life-threatening for those with health conditions and no a/c. The city offers free bus service to “cooling centers” but you have to get to the bus stop.
You aren't the only one who is having this conversation.
And yes, 102 can happen at that time of day in Phoenix, but but not exactly normal. Yesterday it was 108 at that time which is insane. We are breaking records right and left with the heat. Hottest days, highest overnight lows and consecutive days over 110. So far we have had 17 days in a row of 110 plus temps. The 10 day forecast is for 110 plus for every day. Many over 115. So, 27 days at or higher than 110. This is SHATTERING the previous record of 18 consecutive days back in 1974. This is not normal, even for us desert dwellers.
It was 118 yesterday.
@lovendures ...fellow Arizonian!!
Here in Tucson we have only hit 110. Today (Sunday) is predicted 111. I have pretty much hunkered down and stayed at home. My A/C has gone out several times...once the capacitor (sp?) and two weeks later a fuse. Under warranty so I only had to pay labor. But Friday and today the electricity has shut off momentarily ... and the A/C takes time to start up again. My HVAC guys (great folks family biz) say it is the Grid not my unit. So I am doing anything that takes electricity VERY early in the a.m. or at midnight. 😳 Even so, today it blipped once well before noon. I send cooling thoughts to you in Phoenix!!!!! I have a portable swamp cooler that works (if the electricity is on!) and family in town to retreat to if necessary. I suspect AZ will have to make some pretty vital changes going forward. Like you I have family (son, DIL three grands) in Texas. (Arlington suburb of Dallas) and they are struggling with the humidity as well as hotter than "normal." Right now I would welcome the monsoon humidity because it means rain! Never has it taken this long for the monsoons to descend!
In my early 30s when I moved here, I went out and danced in the rain the first monsoon. I am ready to take my 73 yr old bod out and do that again IF ONLY only it would rain!
Thinking of you ❤️
Ah! Thanks!
Monsoons are vital and yet absent this year. They were absent a couple years ago also. They bring needed rain and immediately cool down the land. I will be dancing right there with you when they occur.
Today appears to be a break for where I live in only reaching 112 ( A few days back it had been forecast to reach 120). Unfortunately is going to climb all week long again.
28 years ago when we first got our home here, power grid failures during the summer were common, but more rare now. I remember a monsoon with a microburst in 1996 which torn down everyones block walls in our neighborhood and also resulted in a major power outage for 2.5 days. So many trees down also. That first night we slept with wet towels on our bodies. I had a newborn who I covered with a wet wash cloth throughout the night. The second day we found a hotel room.
Stay cool and safe Tesseract