Summers are typically brutal. But this year could be special, in all the wrong ways.
Climate Change is a huge issue, one that impacts our daily lives, including our seasons. And while some people may grudgingly admit that they like warmer winters, those people will also probably tell you that they don’t like extremely hot weather, dealing with 90 degree weather on a daily basis. This summer, all across the world, is speculated to be the hottest ever since data has been collected. Today, we look at the factors contributing to what is going to be a grueling summer, the rippling effects that it will have on people, how we should deal with the unrelenting heat, and what the government:local, state, and federal, should do to assist its citizens during what will be a very challenging, grueling time of the year.
Climate Change is a phenomenon that causes rising temperatures all across the world. Climate Change is mostly man-made , caused by a mixture of pollutive agricultural practices, harmful ways of traveling, and unsustainable ways of living. The gasses and substances that these causes emit into the atmosphere slowly erode the Ozone Layer, which is a layer that helps protect us from the sun. Over time, the temperatures tend to rise all throughout the seasons. It is not only summers that are getting extremely hot, it’s also our falls and our winters, which has led to ski resorts struggling to survive. But summers, which are already hot in their current state, are only going to get worse. The summer of 2023 can give us a stark reminder of what extremely hot summers can do to communities and people all across the world.
The Summer of 2023 had many severe effects on us, like wildfires. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service ,”The June- July-August was the warmest on record globally by a large margin, with an average of 16.77 degrees celsius, 0.66 celsius degrees above average”. Additionally, with the rising temperatures, there were wildfires all across the world from the Swiss Alps to Canada to California. The smoke from the wildfires in Canada could be seen and felt as far as Virginia (the writers and staff of this organization would feel it). The smoke from the wildfires can have very serious health effects. According to an article written by the Environmental Protection Agency titled”Wildland Fire Research:Health Effects Research”, the effects of wildfire smoke can lead to serious illnesses such as “ reduced lung function, bronchitis, exacerbation of asthma and heart failure, and premature death.” These wildfires are worsened by the increasingly dry weather. Climate Change tends to increase the possibility of droughts, making certain forests more susceptible to more raging wildfires.To be clear, Fires are a necessary part of our earth’s ecosystem.This is supported by an article written by the United States Geographical survey which wrote that fires”cleans out” dead leaves and branches, adds nutrients to the soil, and helps the seeds of some plants to sprout.” But these wildfires, helped by extremely dry conditions, often exacerbate to levels that deeply harm nearby communities, leading to lost lives and forced evacuations, and afterwards, leads to water quality that is lowered by the soot and other substances that go into the water.
The Summer of 2023 was an exceptionally hot one. In places like Texas, the average temperature of the Summer of 2023 was 85.3 degrees, their 2nd hottest in their history. According to Erin Douglas and Yuriko Schumacher in their article titled”Texas just recorded its second hottest summer in 2023” , they noted that “Some cities, including El Paso and Austin, went more than 40 days without a single day that didn’t reach 100 degrees.” They also noted that “ In the last 10 years, Texans have experienced an extra 1,000 days of record-breaking heat, at least, compared to a normal decade”. These extremely hot days often lead to deaths due to heat stroke. A perfect example of this is Gabriel Infante, a construction worker in Texas, died while installing fiber optics in June of 2022 due to heat stroke. He started showing signs of heat stress at work,collapsed, then died at the hospital. The temperature outside at the time was 100 degrees fahrenheit with Infante’s body temperature being 109.8 degrees. This death took place 2 years ago. These heat related climate change deaths will only increase. A study done by a group of researchers stated that between 2036 and 2065, heat deaths specifically in relation to cardiovascular deaths is estimated to increase.
The Summer of 2024 is expected to be a sweltering summer as there will be a La Nina phase coming in. Certain parts of the country will experience multiple 90 degree days with some cities like Boston and New York City experiencing more than twice the number of 90 degree days as 2023. Not only will it be hot but it is also estimated to be a very hurricane-heavy summer, especially in areas near the Atlantic Ocean according to Brian Lada, a meteorologist for AccuWeather. Furthermore, in an article that Li Cohen wrote for CBS News, she interviews Scott Dance, a climate reporter for the Washington Post, who said according to Cohen” La Nina can also bring more heat domes” . Heat Domes, according to Cohen, are” high pressure areas that”keep it sunny”. By all accounts, this summer will be incredibly hot, hotter than last year, very humid, and probably full of hurricanes in places like Florida. It is our moral and strategic imperative that we prepare ourselves for what will be a very difficult strained summer, during a time of election season, during a time where temperatures will likely skyrocket, wildfires will rage all over the world, and hurricanes will not be an afterthought.
The most important step toward ensuring this summer does not take many lives with it by the time it departs in September is to ensure the issue is not politicized. Protecting our citizens from the effects of a hostile summer is not a Democrat issue, a Republican issue, a Libertarian issue, etc. It is a non-partisan issue that is based on basic decency and care for the citizens that public servants are meant to serve.
We also need to ensure our workers, especially construction workers, are supported when they are working outdoors in insane heat. Localities should implement regulations that mandate multiple water breaks across the span of the workday. The timing and rate of these water breaks should be varied depending on the industry, how hot the weather is estimated to be, and medical factors amongst individual workers. For example, some workers may get thirsty and start experiencing symptoms of heat stroke easier and faster than others. An example of such a regulation that to me is a good one is a regulation put in by the cities of Austin and Dallas in 2015 which mandated a 10 minute water break every 4 hours for construction workers. The regulation is not very strict, yet gives time for employees to hydrate themselves in the grueling hot sun. Now unfortunately, this regulation was effectively overridden by the state government not too long ago. That is not only deeply unacceptable but also deeply unconscionable on so many levels. But there are still strategies that we must implement.
In my personal opinion, the biggest thing that the government, local, state and federal, can help deal with the summer is Infrastructure and heat plans, ensuring there are plenty of cooling centers, especially in lower income areas which tend to get hit harder by the extreme heat due to lack of air conditioning. In these cooling centers as well as other places, fresh and bottled water should be available in plentiful amounts. There should also be more infrastructure into our medical infrastructure, ensuring there are enough doctors, nurses, and buildings, to help deal with medical emergencies related to not only heat but also natural disasters. Now dealing with the cost of those medical emergencies is a big concern and a battle we must fight to ensure medical treatments are affordable but that is a fight for a different day due to the current political situation making it highly unrealistic. FEMA must run seamlessly with no problems at all. The world does not wish to see Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina part 2.
The Summer of 2024 is coming on us incredibly quickly, in less than a month. The summer will be incredibly testing for so many reasons. It may be easy to dismiss this summer as a typically hot unimportant summer to be swept under the rug in the midst of an important election season, a crisis in the Middle East, and much more. Yet all the signs point toward an incredibly important hot summer that will be hotter and more devastating than any summer before. There will be plenty of hurricanes, 90 degree days, skyrocketing energy bills, and probably but hopefully not many lives being taken. The tools and strategies are out in front of us. We just have to implement them. We have no other choice but to do so. It is our moral and strategic imperative to do so.
The author has used numerous sources. For the sake of basic integrity, the author has included them all here in basic MLA format.
“Protecting People from Extreme Heat.” Human Rights Watch, 30 Sept. 2022, www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/21/protecting-people-extreme-heat. Accessed 17 May 2024.
Lada, Brian. “Sizzling Summer Ahead: Accuweather Issues 2024 US Summer Forecast.” Sizzling Summer Ahead: AccuWeather Issues 2024 US Summer Forecast, AccuWeather, 1 May 2024, www.accuweather.com/en/weather-forecasts/sizzling-summer-ahead-accuweather-issues-2024-us-summer-forecast/1644799. Accessed 17 May 2024.
Khatana, Sameed Ahmed, et al. “Projected Change in the Burden of Excess Cardiovascular Deaths Associated with Extreme Heat by Midcentury (2036–2065) in the Contiguous United States.” Circulation, vol. 148, no. 20, 14 Nov. 2023, pp. 1559–1569, doi:10.1161/circulationaha.123.066017.
Sainato, Michael. “Texas Worker Accused of Being on Drugs Was Actually Dying of Heatstroke.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 July 2023, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/20/texas-construction-worker-death-lawsuit-greg-abbott. Accessed 17 May 2024.
“Summer 2023: The Hottest on Record.” Copernicus, climate.copernicus.eu/summer-2023-hottest-record#:~:text=The%20June-July-August%20%28JJA%29%20season%20for%202023%20was%20the,was%20the%20fifth%20warmest%20for%20the%20summer%20season. Accessed 17 May 2024.
Douglas, Erin, and Yuriko Schumacher. “Texas Just Recorded Its Second Hottest Summer on Record.” The Texas Tribune, 7 Sept. 2023, www.texastribune.org/2023/09/07/texas-hottest-summer-2023/. Accessed 17 May 2024.
“Wildfire and Climate Change.” Wildfire and Climate Change | U.S. Geological Survey, www.usgs.gov/science-explorer/climate/wildfire. Accessed 17 May 2024.
“Wildland Fire Research: Health Effects Research.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 12 Feb. 2024, www.epa.gov/air-research/wildland-fire-research-health-effects-research. Accessed 17 May 2024.
Cohen, Li. “U.S. Officials Are Bracing for Another Summer of Dangerous Heat. These Maps Show Where It’s Most Likely to Happen.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 30 Apr. 2024, www.cbsnews.com/news/maps-extreme-summer-heat-us-forecast/. Accessed 17 May 2024.
