HORRIFYING HEAT WAVES COULD KILL TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AT ONCE – EXPERTS FEAR
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June 4, 2024
American cities are ill-suited for the heat. The asphalt and concrete that dominate our infrastructure mercilessly intensify it, driving outdoor temperatures in urban areas by up to an additional 20 degrees Fahrenheit on a hot afternoon. We can often ignore the fact that we’ve trapped ourselves in metropolis-scaled frying pans, however, thanks to air conditioning in our cars and homes.
But the uptick in extreme weather attributed to climate change, plain old heat included, has continually put many cities’ energy grids under threat. So what happens when all those AC units suddenly lose power?
If a blackout hits during a blistering heat wave: an absolute catastrophe, according to experts in an op-ed piece for The New York Times written by Jeff Goodell, author of “The Heat Will Kill You First.” In one extreme scenario befalling an American city, over ten thousand people could die as the result of a single heat wave, sending hundreds of thousands more to the hospital.
Goodell said that Mikhail Chester, director of the Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University, once likened such a scenario as “the Hurricane Katrina of extreme heat” — underscoring the vulnerability of American infrastructure to soaring temperatures.
Those staggering figures come from a study published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, which explored what would happen if a major, two-day blackout took place during a heat wave in Phoenix, Detroit, and Atlanta.
To read the full article, click here:
https://futurism.com/the-byte/heat-waves-could-kill-tens-thousands-at-once
