Health and Well-being
The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024
In the first `100 days of 2024 we will explore 100 climate solutions that may “empower you to evaluate, engage, and act” to address on-going climate change as an individual on your terms.
If you lived in the Pacific Northwest in June 2021, you suffered. You were assaulted by a heatwave of unprecedented intensity with temperatures 20-35°F above normal. The catastrophic heat wave, which resulted in Canada’s highest recorded temperature of 121°F resulted in hundreds of deaths, destruction of crops, floods from rapid snow and glacier melt and wildfires.
Nature declared the heat wave to be “one of the most anomalous regional extreme heat events to occur anywhere on Earth since temperature records began”. It is a warning to us in a warming world. The canary stopping its song in the coal mine. As we move into this new climate era, it is the heat that is going to kill us.
That is, in fact the basis of Jeff Goodells’ book The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on A Scorched Planet. Heat is the “first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis”. On a planet that is rapidly heating because of the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, local weather conditions will increasingly lead to deadly heat waves with more frequency.
And those heat waves are predatory – culling out the most vulnerable. People of 65 years of age, those with underlying health conditions – especially cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, and those living in lower income communities that may be less able to seek out and find escape from what can be a relentless killer.
“When heat comes, it’s invisible. It doesn’t bend tree branches or blow hair across your face to let you know it’s arrived…. The sun feels like the barrel of a gun pointed at you.”
Jeff Goodell in The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet
This danger is upon us and we must prepare. It will continue to become widespread and can impact everyone, not just those in southern climates that may expect it. “By 2100, even if we work to abate greenhouse gas emissions, the death toll from heat may be three times higher than it is now… even higher if we do nothing.
The death toll in the Pacific Northwest because most were caught unprepared in an area that has been built up and populated expecting moderate temperatures. According the Minnesota Department of Health, “extreme heat events in Minnesota are already occurring and are expected to become more common, more severe,
and longer-lasting as our climate changes”.
First of all, prepare yourself and your family with a comprehensive heat response plan. Know the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Have a plan to seek cooling if you needed, especially if your air conditioning systems is rendered useless from heat related power outages. Dress appropriately and stay hydrated. And tend to your neighbors and those in the community that may be more susceptible to the heat.
And if you want to immerse yourself in the potential for humans to survive on this warming planet, read Mark Lynas’ book Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency. “Rigorously cataloguing the very latest climate science, Mark Lynas explores the course we have set for Earth over the next century and beyond. Degree by terrifying degree, he charts the likely consequences of global heating and the ensuing climate catastrophe”.
Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 74: Protect Your Air
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