By RICHARD CAPRON
From Texas and Oklahoma, moving inexorably into the Deep South (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida), June has seen an extraordinary heat wave, with triple digit temperatures in many places. This is due to an unusual high-pressure dome, showing little reluctance to move and only expanding its reach.
This is deadly heat, especially for poor and working-class people. Farmworkers and day laborers need to work outdoors just to survive, but risk heat stroke under the oppressive conditions. The elderly and other vulnerable groups are advised to seek refuge in cooler places. But such respite is often hard to come by, due to economic and infrastructure limitations such as power failures.
As of June 28, more, than a dozen deaths have been attributed to the heat. In Dallas, Texas, a postal worker, Eugene Gates Jr., 66, collapsed on his route and later died as the heat index reached 115 degrees.
In Webb County, Texas, 11 such deaths have occurred. The dead range from 60 to 80 years of age, and many had underlying health conditions, according to Webb County Medical Examiner, Dr. Corrine Stern. The area has a higher poverty rate than the state average, and that compounds the suffering, Stern said. “There has been at least one or two that have air-conditioning, but don’t want to run it because of the bill.”
Meanwhile, much of the East and Midwest is shrouded in other-worldly smog and unhealthy air quality, courtesy of 463 identified wildfires raging from the Canadian plains to the eastern maritime provinces. Drought has exacerbated the risk of fires spreading over more than the 11 million acres already burning. The fires are likely to continue to burn with little abatement well into winter. Satellite images show the smoke reaching as far as Western Europe.
The heat wave and wildfires are just two of the most serious indications of climate change. Still to come is the looming hurricane season. In recent years, it has brought epic floods and damage to the Gulf and Atlantic coastal regions. With rising water temperatures, this trend is sure to continue. This is a disturbing glimpse of the new reality.
Most news coverage of the heat wave is focused on the problems of energy supply and the need to improve the power grid. This is typical of the response to weather-related crises. It reflects a band-aid mentality to addressing symptoms rather than the cause—the ongoing menace of climate change. It is perhaps an irony that the disastrous heat wave is being experienced in the very geographic region in which government authorities are so ardently defending the fossil-fuel industry, mainly responsible for the source of carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
Hopefully, the immediacy of the effects of climate change will provide a stimulus to take more aggressive action against the corporate profiteers who value their riches more than human (and planetary) life. It is time to organize and fight back! All out for the Sept. 17 march to end fossil fuels in New York City!
Photo: LM Otero /AP