This story originally appeared on Voice and is part of Climate Office cooperation.
AND 4-month-old baby dies in Arizona as the temperature rose into triple digits. 2-year-old dies in hot caralso in Arizona. At least four people have died from heat-related illnesses in OregonOne motorcyclist died and others fell ill driving through Death Valley temperature reached a record 128 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here are some examples of the dangers of extreme heat over the past week. As the climate gets warmer and extreme heat becomes our new normalsummer will continue to remind us that high temperatures pose a earnest threat.
And the heatwaves have been even more devastating in other countries. At least 30 people in Pakistanmore than 100 people in Indiaand more than 125 in Mexico died this year due to heat waves. At the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi ArabiaExtremely sizzling weather played a role in the deaths of more than 1,300 people. World Health ORganisationHeat stress is the leading cause of weather-related deaths, and as average global temperatures rise the risk is growing.
It’s strange then that in many aspects of our culture we view heat as something to be willingly accepted, bravely endured, blissfully ignored, or, in the case of some marginalized communities, fully deserved.
Our books, movies, TV shows, popular tropes, idioms, and social media often reinforce the idea that the heat is something we can — with enough mental acuity — overcome. But because of climate change, “pushing” the heat is something we can no longer physically do. In some parts of the world, that’s simply not possible as temperatures rise beyond the point of practical survival.
We’re past the point where millions of Americans who work outside in the summer or spend significant amounts of their recreational time outside can do so safely without regular access to shade and hydration — and increasingly, even that isn’t enough. Yet ironically, the more we rely on air conditioning and other artificial cooling systems for relief, the further we drift away from the urgency of the problem.
It doesn’t facilitate that heat itself, outside of an emergency like a forest fire, isn’t an immediate problem. It creeps up on us, gradually causing health problems over a period of hours during which everything can seem fine—until it isn’t.
It’s worth examining our attitudes toward heat: where they come from, what hidden biases they may contain, and why it’s so strenuous to shake the belief that the inability to adapt to extreme heat is in some way a personal failure — even in the face of a global climate crisis.
No one has to be blazing sizzling, and certainly no one has to die.
All our stories about the heat are about breaking through it. What if we can’t?
We don’t question the necessity of heating in winter. So why do we consider cooling in summer a luxury? Even after the warmest year in history and probably deadliest year for extreme heatpolicies needed to deal with heat are worryingly feeble in the U.S., if they exist at all. For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency responsible for workplace safety, is only this year beginning to create federal workplace safety standards for extreme heat despite workers across the country are regularly dying at work due to high temperatures over the years.
How did this happen? The delay in developing federal protections for workers exposed to heat may be related to the idea that if they couldn’t stand it, it was because they weren’t tough enough — a literal application of the “if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen” maxim and a deeply ingrained cultural stereotype.