![]() ![]() To tell you about it, though, I have to go way back, because you can’t separate heat from the beginning of things.įourteen billion years ago, the universe was compressed into a stupendously hot, incredibly dense nugget, which then rapidly expanded. Among other things, we evolved clever ways to manage the heating and cooling of our bodies that gave our ancestors an evolutionary edge over competitors. ![]() Temperatures in parts of the world could rise so high that just stepping outside for a few hours, another study warned, “will result in death even for the fittest of humans.”īut to understand the dangers of extreme heat today, it helps to understand how we have lived with heat in the past. Even if we transition fairly quickly to clean energy, half of the world’s human population will be exposed to life-threatening combinations of heat and humidity by 2100. One recent study projected that over the next fifty years, one to three billion people will be left outside the climate conditions that gave rise to civilization over the last six thousand years. The truth is, extreme heat is remaking our planet into one in which large swaths may become inhospitable to human life. In the North Atlantic ocean, sea surface temperatures in late June are the highest ever recorded. Just look at the events of this year: wildfire smoke from Canada turned the skies on the east coast an apocalyptic orange sea ice in Antarctica hit a record low all-time temperature records were shattered in Puerto Rico, Siberia, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Texas (I live in Austin, where, as I write this in late June, it’s 106 degrees F). ![]()
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