“I look out of my closed window, and I have no idea how warm there. It can be 30, 32 or 35 degrees Celsius,” says the journalist based in Austin and the author Jeff Gudel.
This is unlike, say, typhoon or hurricane, he adds. The trees sway, there is heavy rain and lightning flash. “As for the heat, there are virtually no visual signals.”
Even he, the climate -reporter for more than two decades (with stories in The New York Times, CNN and The Guardian, among others), never stopped to admit how dangerous the heat is. This has changed in the summer of 2018.
He was in the phenoation, Arizona, where the temperature violated 40 degrees Celsius. He was late for the meeting, couldn’t find a taxi, and decided to run instead as sometimes.
“As long as I went for five quarters, I was dizzy. My heart was pounding. I felt that if I pushed myself, I would be in trouble,” he recalls. “It was the first time I realized that the heat was not abstract. It could quickly become deadly, even for a healthy person.”
Then he was impressed, adding that since our planet was warming, we were not afraid of proper fighting, writing and without picking this threat that we did not see.
What could we do otherwise?
He was chasing this issue for five years and in 2023 he released his conclusions in the form of a book. His sixth work with the subject of climate, this was called “heat” to kill you first: life and death on the ransom planet.
In it, goodell traces how the heat has quietly formed our world. Based on scientific research, field reports and lively victim experience, it explores the biology of thermal stress, failure of our built -in conditions, a different load on vulnerable communities and global attempts to adapt.
In fact, the book is an urgent attempt to make the heat visible, and it was not easy, he says. “It was like a ghost biography.”
Not only is it that the heat can kill you, though there is, of course. It also leads to higher miscarriages, lower points. “We are just starting to understand the spectrum,” Gudell adds. “The good news is that there are ways to protect yourself and adapt. Some communities are already doing it.”
Exceptions from the interview.
* What makes us such blind to heat as a deadly threat?
I think there is such a tendency to think: “Oh, we encountered 40 degrees Celsius before. We can go through it,” or “it’s just a couple of degrees hot than usual, right?”
Because the changes have occurred over time, the game has a variable base level. We, in everyday life, are very difficult to recognize and remember how every small, gradual change was made.
This is why science is so important. He is able to tell us, “No, really, it wasn’t always like that.” Or “even when we encountered 40 degrees Celsius before, it has not ended with such a long duration.”
* You said that our inability to understand heat as a problem is also a factor in how we see it, we talk about it and consider it in our world.
Yes. “Hot” is regarded as cool, sexy. Sweat is regarded as a cleansing and a sign of internal force. Warmth is comfort and safety.
Often in films, books and even weather forecasts, especially in the West, the idea of a hot day is accompanied by images of people who go to the beach, taking a day off, children playing in the rain. The heat is reflected not as a threat, but as this free time engine.
And yet, most people in the US and India make the choice between work when they have to expose their life risk, from heavy heat, stay home and lose their salaries.
Meanwhile, we just no longer build cities with a sense of public good. Not enough green spaces. There is insufficient access to water, available electricity or insurance that allows you to get a salary if you cannot pursue existence outdoors.
All these factors are related to the lack of political will and leadership.
* What measures should governments consider today?
Changes do not necessarily have to be big. For example, in Austin some bus rides are free even on very hot days.
Fritoun, the capital of Sierra Leone, builds heat care in the open markets.
In the long -term changes, Athens plans to update the ancient aqueduk by 140 AD, which will help bring more water to the city and create cooling ponds to which people can access.
In India, Sewa (self -employed women’s association) checks the microstating program that offers insurance and direct cash payments to women in the informal sector when thermal waves arise and they cannot make it work.
The key part of the heat readiness is also a message. Spain and Greece call and rank thermal waves in the way we do for hurricanes and cyclones so that people are more aware.
Getting this kind of message is especially important in regions where it was traditionally hot and there is a sense that “we’ve seen it before.” The government and the media must strengthen the message: “No, we are not.”
* If you could do anything to make changes in this area, what would it be?
If I could wave a magic wand, I would give every mayor or leader who deeply cares about climate change.
I also subsidize electricity and air conditioning. Air conditioner is not a solution, and it is problematic, but there are about 750 million people who are still lacking in electricity.
I would also set up more solar panels, so people are independent of the network that is already struggling and can easily break.
Heat is a really difficult question. This is not the way to cure the disease. No vaccine and pills.
It will be very important to study each other.
