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

by Jeff Goodell

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For polar bears, heat equals starvation.

the unfortunate truth is that right now, the industrialized nations of the world are still dumping thirty-six billion tons or so of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, which is roughly ten times faster than has ever happened in Earth’s known history, even during past mass extinction events.

shaped by the accumulated warming of two hundred years of fossil fuel burning, two hundred years of steam engines, coal plants, cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes. Two hundred years of electrification and land-clearing and cattle-raising and data-processing, two hundred years of what we all too easily define as “progress.”

We have known for more than a century about the climate consequences of burning fossil fuels.

If the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated anything, it was how quickly and easily people were able to normalize the deaths of others, especially if they were old, sick, or otherwise living on the margins.