Because of its rarity, I remember it with crystal clarity. It was a bright, hot day on Long Island in the mid 1960s and I was a 13 year old working on my uncle's farm. As I hoed what seemed like an endless row of peppers in a haze of dust and sweat, uncle Lewis appeared at the end of the field and signaled for me to come out of the field. "It's too hot" was all he said. We spent the rest of the afternoon under a willow tree in my grandmother's yard. That's the only time I remember leaving a farm field due to the chance of heat prostration and I'm willing to bet the temperature barely reached 90 degrees.
Reflecting on that episode the other day after reading about a farmworker who died in the Oregon during the recent record breaking heat wave, I'm amazed more workers didn't die as temperatures reached 118 degrees. Dehydration leading to unconsciousness can occur within a few hours without frequent water breaks. According to climate scientists, heat domes such as the one which lead to the inferno in the Pacific Northwest will become more frequent as the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere continues to climb. Some areas of the earth near the equator will become inimical to human life for long stretches of the day as the heat and humidity index will climb to unbearable levels.
How many people will have to die from heat related illnesses before action is taken to mitigate human driven climate change?
No comments:
Post a Comment