If You Think It’s Hot Now, Just Wait
And we’re only beginning to appreciate all the consequences
Extreme temperatures — highs above 100 and as much as 120 degrees or more — are occurring with increasing intensity, frequency, and duration due to climate change. Cooling off at night is also becoming less possible as average overnight lows in the U.S. hit their highest level in recorded history. We have yet to come to terms with the consequences, despite the fact more people die from extreme heat than from all other natural disasters combined. If (as is the case) some places are too hot for human survival (a reality that will impact hundreds of millions in the years to come), you can be sure heat is changing the planet and our lives in many other ways.
When I first started working on climate change several decades ago, discussion of warmer temperatures often focused on changes in averages. On this basis, for example, it was (and still) is often said the climate in Washington, D.C. would become more like that of Memphis and that of Boston more like that of New York — hardly disturbing (unless you run a ski resort!). Indeed, the first scientist to model the expected change in global average temperature with a doubling of carbon dioxide, Svante Arrhenius, thought the prospect for warmer winters in his native Sweden was a good thing. As recently as 2007, a…
