In “The Heat Will Kill You First,” Jeff Goodell documents the lethal effects of rising temperatures and argues that we need to take hot weather a lot more seriously.
...As this terrifying book makes exceptionally clear, thinking we can just crank up the A.C. is a dangerous way to live. Goodell, who has written about climate change for more than a decade, is currently based in Texas, where “every heat wave is a nail-biter” — including, coincidentally, the one that is happening right now. In addition to the viciousness of the climate-control cycle — we cool ourselves on a warming planet by making the planet warmer — powering all those air-conditioners is like playing chicken with the electrical grid: “If power goes out for long on a hot day, businesses shut down, schools close and people die.”
Goodell’s stripped-down style suits his subject. This is a propulsive book, one to be raced through; the planet is burning, and we are running out of time. Death is a common refrain, and it doesn’t apply only to humans. “When it gets too hot, things die,” an agricultural ecologist tells Goodell. Or, as Goodell writes of creatures that adapt by moving to cooler places: “If they can’t find refuge, they die.” A hotter world puts the most vulnerable at risk — the old, the sick, the poor...
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/books/review/the-heat-will-kill-you-first-jeff-goodell.html?smid=em-share
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