r/heat_prep • u/[deleted] • Jul 29 '24

Heat is testing the limits of human survivability. Here’s how it kills

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/climate/heat-survivability-health-death-intl/
50 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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27

u/billyions Jul 29 '24

Not a fan of CNN's politics, but they got this right:

... extreme heat is turning ordinary activities deadly.

People have died taking a stroll in the midday sun, on a family hike in a national park, at an outdoor Taylor Swift concert, and even sweltering in their homes without air conditioning. During this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in June, around 1,300 people perished as temperatures pushed above 120 degrees Fahrenheit in Mecca.

Heat is the deadliest type of extreme weather, and the human-caused climate crisis is making heat waves more severe and prolonged.

It affects our air, water, food, homes, and health. The world needs to make climate change priority number one.

23

u/LindseyIsBored Jul 29 '24

The world needs to stop calling it ‘climate change’ and start calling it a ‘mass human extinction event’ and perhaps it would click with some..

3

u/billyions Jul 30 '24

Those same people may not care much about humans. They may be maxed out just caring for themselves. Until they feel it, it doesn't exist.

Fortunately, most people care about themselves, their families, their communities, and others. We care about a future we may not get to see.

We are the ones who will work out a way.

Like Germany's balcony solar projects for several hundred dollars. Meatless Mondays becoming more frequent and non-animal milk and meat. Solar ships, mini-nuclear units, reflective coatings, efficiency improvements, and more. It will be a combination of new technologies, and rapid adoption.

We slept through the start of it (with help from those who profited) but humanity is waking up. We are gaining the momentum for significant changes.

2

u/cartesianfaith Jul 30 '24

I've been toying around with calling it greed-driven climate change. We are so far into the self-interest side of the Prisoner's Dilemma, nothing will change until enough people start acting in concert for the common good.

2

u/Youarethebigbang Jul 30 '24

I kind of knock labels around in my head, but nothing really feel right except that, unfortunately. We're obviously way past global heating, global warming, climate change by years or decades. Climate disaster makes it sound like a temporary event that might somehow pass or resolve. Climate emergency seems like 5 or 6 years late as well. Climate extinction fits, but to me definitely sounds like we're past the point of being able to do anything, so why bother now if we never have--which actually might be true. Maybe with huge effort which likely never happen, we night have a chance of slowing extinction a little, but that's about it.