If we believe science and scientists, you know, those men and women who study everything from the tiniest particles to the curious facts about why there are left-handed people, we might want to pay closer attention to what’s going on all around the world where summer is now in full bloom.
In its full glory, the seasonal heat has reached a scorching, record-breaking level and bringing with it a whole new set of challenges. During the first week of July, the planet experienced the three hottest days in history, registering dangerously close to catastrophic levels.
On consecutive days beginning July 3rd, the planet’s average temperature was 63 degrees. That is a pole-to-pole figure which prompted one scientist to comment, “We are in uncharted territory, and we can expect more records to fall.” Scientists say this is the hottest the earth has been in 125,000 years.
While the United States bakes—there have already been temperatures reaching 120 degrees in south Texas and the southeast United States. But that heat level has already been topped in other places and topped it even sooner in season.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, an agency under the auspices of the United Nations, some places in Pakistan hit 127 degrees with a smattering of other places throughout the Middle East and Central Asia hitting marks nearly that high.
When temperatures rise to these levels, scientists say, they can leave their mark, warping railroad tracks, softening asphalt even extending takeoff distances for airplanes. In some places, including Phoenix, airports have been forced to shut down for safety reasons because of the heat. Runways are not long enough for safe takeoffs.
But it is not just discomfort that the heat dome, the term used to describe current conditions, impacts. It may soon be entire economies and populations, particularly but not exclusively in underdeveloped countries.
In some countries across the Middle East and Asia, the blistering heat often disrupts power, lead- ing to shutdowns of air conditioning—where there is air conditioning! Where people often live in crowded conditions, nighttime temperatures without air conditioning, sleep becomes problematic. Sleep deprivation also becomes a health issue when sleep is often reduced by half. Agriculture also takes a hit, often a brutal one. Crops may also be stunted or even ruined, scorched by the intensity of heat. Mortality also spikes.
One study, published by Lancet, a respected health publication, estimated that heat annually kills up to five million people worldwide.
Despite having an infrastructure that provides the comfort of air conditioning, there are still millions of people across the United States whose job is performed outside.
New Mexico native and iron worker Anthony Pino has one such job. Pino is currently working on a public waste facility project in Anthony, New Mexico, a small town approximately 20 miles east of El Paso, Texas.
While longer summer days allow Pino and his crew more daylight to get the job done sooner, the extra day- light also extracts a toll, one that Pino knows intimately. Every day on the job in southern New Mexico heat, he knows that heat stroke for him or his workers is a daily reality. But the job needs to get done. In ironwork, as in so many jobs, time is money.
“We usually work ten and a half hours Monday, eleven on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and seven and a half on Friday,” he said. “When we start in the morning, it’s already 80 degrees.” Pino’s crew has been on the current project for the last six weeks.
“The first week it was in the eighties,” he said. “The second week it was in the nineties,” but from then on, it’s been well over a hundred degrees. The hottest day so far peaked at 113. Last week, the heat overtook one of his crew.
His men were “up on a round deck,” Pino recalled, “when one of them just started cramping up.” The man’s condition got so bad that he froze, that is, he could not even climb down. His crewmates had to climb up to bring him down and get him emergency help. Luckily, he’s going to be fine. Pino can empathize with the young man. He’s had his own heat related close calls. It happened, he said, “a couple of years ago.”
“It was probably 105 or 110 (degrees),” he said. “A couple of hours in, I felt like someone had poured a bucket of water over my head,” he was sweating so pro- fusely. “I started cramping up…my hands…my ribs… everything at the same time…my toes.” Not thinking it was heatstroke, he finished his shift, even driving some forty miles home before getting medical attention. Doctors told Pino that delaying just thirty more minutes might have been fatal.
Pino keeps plenty of water, Gatorade and ‘liquid IV’ on hand every day on the job. On any given day, Pino and his crew of four “go through forty waters” a day. He makes sure they take necessary breaks to maintain crew safety. But right now, he’s angry with politicians who have legislated against water breaks for workers who deal with crippling heat.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed a bill banning ten-minute water breaks every four hours for outside workers. The signing occurred just days after a 35-year-old utility lineman died after experiencing symptoms of heat illness. Pino joked that after learning of the new law he posted a picture of himself on Facebook aiming an obscene hand gesture at the Texas governor.
In Texas, a state where six in ten construction workers are Latino, Abbott’s advocacy against mandated water breaks was pilloried. Latino workers, an NPR/Columbia study showed, made up a third of all worker heat deaths in Texas since 2010.
Pino’s story is only one component of what may await as a result of the pattern of excessive warming. NASA, scientists representing a multitude of governments and the UN warn that without a wholesale movement to curb global warming, ocean temperatures will continue to warm resulting in an array of catastrophic outcomes.
Warming ocean waters can lead to more frequent and serious storms. Higher global temperatures accelerate glacial melting which leads to rising ocean waters. Scientists also warn about longer and deeper droughts which result in more forest fires. Hotter summers contribute to lower crop yields. Warming winters lead to deforestation.
The 125-plus temperatures being recorded now, they say, are precursors to eras that, until now, have only been theoretical. But, despite the lateness and mounds of evidence, with a will, there is still time to act.
