Disability and the Heat Dome

It's heat dome time again, kids. This week, a high pressure system centered over one of the I-states in the Midwest will create unreasonably warm temperatures for much of the United States. Summer has only just arrived and already Europe and Asia, especially the subcontinent, have experienced their own deadly heat domes with more to come.

It is imperative that we understand hot weather as lethal disaster, a disaster that will affect cities and regions differently depending on location and preparedness, a disaster that will affect the vulnerable more than the general population, a disaster that will strain social resources and separate families; no different than any other natural disaster: earthquake, hurricane, tornado, or tsunami. The type of thing we build memorials for.

My partner has chronic illnesses that are exacerbated by hot weather. We have the privilege of stable housing, air conditioning, and work that does not require us to be outside. Heat dome threat to us will amount to maybe not attending an Independence Day garden party or putting off travel plans until the fall. Today is expected to reach 35° C in Atlanta, much lower than Paris last week, or India for the rest of the summer, and yet it would be enough to kill members of my household if we went more than a day without air conditioning.

It is with a perverse thrill that I find myself witnessing the effects of global warming within my lifetime. A decade ago, I thought I might see some early signs, a decade before that, I thought I might see melted polar ice or a more active hurricane season, and now, with a quarter century of life expectancy before me, wildfire season is year-round in America and thousands die in un-airconditioned cities in Europe.

Global warming is at my doorstep. Only collective action can stop its advance.

In more local news, this website, through very little marketing effort, has attracted a number of new, regular readers. An intimidating occurrence from my point of view, and I can only hope to rise to the challenge. Thanks for being here. When my reach extends to more than a dozen humans, I'll give you guys a demonym.

My therapist has me reading The Happiness Trap. Looks mid.

Edward Lineberry

Uncle Walt sez:

Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes

Not heat flames up and consumes,
Not sea-waves hurry in and out,
Not the air delicious and dry, the air of ripe summer, bears lightly
along white down-balls of myriads of seeds,
Waited, sailing gracefully, to drop where they may;
Not these, O none of these more than the flames of me, consuming,
burning for his love whom I love,
O none more than I hurrying in and out;
Does the tide hurry, seeking something, and never give up? O I the same,
O nor down-balls nor perfumes, nor the high rain-emitting clouds,
are borne through the open air,
Any more than my soul is borne through the open air,
Wafted in all directions O love, for friendship, for you.

Three books from my poetry collection:

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