The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet

by Jeff Goodell

“We’re all in the storm, but we’re not in the same boat,” Heather McTeer Toney, the former mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, said during testimony before the US Congress. “Some of us are sitting on aircraft carriers while others are just bobbing along on a floatie.”

“Heat moves less like a river through a canyon and more like laughter through a crowd,”

But naming storms after women was not such a bright idea. In the 1960s, women were not happy with the gendered and misogynistic way in which female-named hurricanes were described as “witches,” “capricious,” “furious,” and “treacherous.” (One outspoken feminist recommended that hurricanes be called “himicanes” instead.)