It’s Too Hot, What Are You Doing About It?

Let’s get through this summer

If you live in Florida, or Texas, you have my extreme apologies. If you are flying out to visit Death Valley just to take record-breaking selfies, that is pretty messed up.

While people are dying, and most of all wildlife and food production is threatened, it seems a bit warped to take little snapshots of “used to be life on Earth back in ‘cooler 2023’ . I fear that some of those pics for the scrapbooks will soon be dust in the digital wind.

People are going to extreme lengths to either adjust to heat, to laugh it off, or to defy lethal conditions.

Some wish to regulate things like water for workers in heat-death dome conditions. Some are more concerned about climate refugees than ever. Some citizens are lashing out with violence and social chaos.

Others are keeping their cool.

Keep cool

Some places are offering energy incentives for people to turn off their air conditioning. People are working more in the wee hours of morning, or later in the day if it’s not scorching.

Cooling centers and public pools and beaches are inviting the overheated to come and splash it off. This will work well if we implement it right, and if people can learn to have equal access and opportunity. It could also be quite challenging if wet bulb temperatures come too soon.

For now, wetting down a towel and draping it over you, staying still, and seeking shade is vital for all living beings where extreme heat is dangerous. These are those of you (all of us!) who live in the Goldilocks Zone of limited temperature range.

In those places with wildfire smoke and aggravated respiratory challenges, people are staying indoors more, buying air filters, keeping children at arm’s length, and monitoring air quality.

In places with flooding, people, as always seek higher ground. They are also worrying about selling their homes, relocating, and insurance costs. It promises to get even more snarled, so the wise have already left town — if they can afford it.

Water is life

One of the most important things that people can do it re hydrate. Water intake is so important. It is also vital to provide some shade and water to vulnerable wildlife. So, putting up any container to serve as a birdbath-or even bowl of water — is helpful for protecting biodiversity. Even insects need water as they are foundational to how your area keeps watersheds, retains soils, cools, shades, and feeds all life.

These measures will help protect your sense of mental health, empowerment, and your human need to be reciprocal as nature designed.

One of our biggest challenges is water shortages. It’s time to give up extravagant lawns, plant trees, restore eco-systems, take down some dams, and participate in conservation. With rivers drying up and droughts persisting, of course food production is challenging life as we once knew it. We will have to learn to share, or all are more exposed to hazardous risks.

It’s wonderful if you support a community that allows green zoning, garden growing, water cooling centers and protection for the un-housed and/or impoverished. If not, get started now. Greening our cities, and demanding efficient and fair politics/policy is also vital.

If you have the freedom to go somewhere with a walk-in refrigerator, do enjoy.

But do not forget your life is just one among many lives.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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