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Reviews tagging 'Animal death'
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell
4 reviews
aliciaofalaska's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Child death, Animal death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
schnaucl's review
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.75
The book opens with a discussion of the heat dome that covered the Pacific Northwest in 2021. It recounts al manner of terrible things that happened under the heat dome and concludes by saying that it will all be forgotten. Until the next one.
I live in the Pacific Northwest. I lived through that heat dome and I like to think I keep a close eye on things. And I'd forgotten much of what was recounted in that chapter.
It's hard to convince people just how dangerous, how deadly heat can be. There's an entire chapter about it. It can cause the same loss of life as other natural disasters but it doesn't have the same visuals of property damage so it doesn't stay in the collective memory the same way. One suggestion made in the book (and trialed in other parts of the world) is to give the worst heat waves names, like hurricanes. It seems to have helped impress upon people the need to prepare in advance, check on vulnerable neighbors, and take heat waves seriously.
One of the greatest challenges is going to be that many of the challenges involve architecture. Before air conditioning, American houses in hot parts of the country were built with airflow in mind. After air conditioning became widespread they were built as closed systems to keep the hot air out and the cold air in. Ignoring for a moment the environmental costs, that's fine, as long as you have the money to pay for it and the electricity stays on but it becomes dangerous and even deadly when the power goes out either from the stress on the electrical system or because electric companies have to cut the power to reduce the chances of sparking wildfire.
There's a similar problem with iconic zinc roofs in Paris. During a heatwave they can cause the upper floors to become ovens that literally cook people to death. But retrofitting them will be costly and some people object because of their iconic look. Addressing these issues will take a massive amount of vision, time, and money and that's if you can get people to agree it's necessary.
It's hard to get people to take heat seriously. It's hard to get them to understand just how quickly it can overtake a person and become deadly. Certainly I had no idea. Some of the people who have it the worst are people who work outside, particularly those doing hard manual labor (for example, the people who pick crops). There are some states that are trying to put minimal protections in place (mandating access to water and rest breaks) and of course the industries say protecting people will cost far too much money and inconvenience.
There are no easy answers here, but the book does a good job of identifying some of the dangers we will continue to face as the world continues to heat.
I live in the Pacific Northwest. I lived through that heat dome and I like to think I keep a close eye on things. And I'd forgotten much of what was recounted in that chapter.
It's hard to convince people just how dangerous, how deadly heat can be. There's an entire chapter about it. It can cause the same loss of life as other natural disasters but it doesn't have the same visuals of property damage so it doesn't stay in the collective memory the same way. One suggestion made in the book (and trialed in other parts of the world) is to give the worst heat waves names, like hurricanes. It seems to have helped impress upon people the need to prepare in advance, check on vulnerable neighbors, and take heat waves seriously.
One of the greatest challenges is going to be that many of the challenges involve architecture. Before air conditioning, American houses in hot parts of the country were built with airflow in mind. After air conditioning became widespread they were built as closed systems to keep the hot air out and the cold air in. Ignoring for a moment the environmental costs, that's fine, as long as you have the money to pay for it and the electricity stays on but it becomes dangerous and even deadly when the power goes out either from the stress on the electrical system or because electric companies have to cut the power to reduce the chances of sparking wildfire.
There's a similar problem with iconic zinc roofs in Paris. During a heatwave they can cause the upper floors to become ovens that literally cook people to death. But retrofitting them will be costly and some people object because of their iconic look. Addressing these issues will take a massive amount of vision, time, and money and that's if you can get people to agree it's necessary.
It's hard to get people to take heat seriously. It's hard to get them to understand just how quickly it can overtake a person and become deadly. Certainly I had no idea. Some of the people who have it the worst are people who work outside, particularly those doing hard manual labor (for example, the people who pick crops). There are some states that are trying to put minimal protections in place (mandating access to water and rest breaks) and of course the industries say protecting people will cost far too much money and inconvenience.
There are no easy answers here, but the book does a good job of identifying some of the dangers we will continue to face as the world continues to heat.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Animal death
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
5.0
So I started listening to this on audio while running errands during an end-of-summer heatwave. As I was nearing home, I started having trouble breathing, I was starting to feel woozy, my heart was racing and I was feeling discombobulated and I thought “am I getting overheated?” But nope, just turns out this was one of many times throughout this book that I had to talk myself down from having a panic attack. This book amplifies all feelings of dread about an extreme future and the horrors of the contemporary heat we’re facing. The style of this book also quite surprised me as it was like reading climate change true crime, making for an engaging, immersive and terrifying read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Child death, and Death of parent
Minor: Racial slurs
jhbandcats's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Beautifully written treatise on the dire state of our world in the face of climate change. As I write this, Maui has just burned, British Columbia and Eastern WA are burning, a hurricane is flooding California deserts, and the entire middle section of the US is experiencing temperatures over 100 for weeks at a time. Globally, over 450,000 people die each year from heat.
This book is essential and terrifying. The author ends by saying he feels hopeful as he sees all the young scientists across the world working to stop the burning of fossil fuels - that’s the ONLY thing that will begin to cool off the planet. I didn’t feel any hope at all when I finished reading it. I did, however, learn an extraordinary amount of information about how plants, humans, and heat work.
Everyone should read this book. It’s good and it’s important.
This book is essential and terrifying. The author ends by saying he feels hopeful as he sees all the young scientists across the world working to stop the burning of fossil fuels - that’s the ONLY thing that will begin to cool off the planet. I didn’t feel any hope at all when I finished reading it. I did, however, learn an extraordinary amount of information about how plants, humans, and heat work.
Everyone should read this book. It’s good and it’s important.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Chronic illness, and Racism
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