Record High
EDITOR’S NOTE
As carbon emissions rise, communities across the globe are dealing with increasingly severe and frequent bouts of extreme temperatures. Scientists have observed an eightfold increase in record-breaking hot months over the past decade, and at any given time, extreme heat is now affecting about one-tenth of the Earth’s land area. Some 8 million Americans were exposed to “extreme danger” temperatures last year alone, defined by the National Weather Service as a heat index of more than 125 degrees Fahrenheit. By 2053, that number is expected to rise to 107 million.
These scorching temperatures are impacting public health, drought, agriculture, infrastructure, equity, ecosystems, and much more. But there are also innovative solutions, policies, and technologies being tested to adapt to this hotter future. Follow Grist as it delves into all aspects of extreme heat — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Featured
How to build a heat-resilient city
Grist designed a model metropolis for an era of high temperatures, using the coolest technology available.
Extreme Heat Newsletter
Wall mounted air-conditioning units adorn a building in Hong Kong.
The heat gap
Hello, and welcome to the last issue of Record High. I’m Zoya Teirstein, and today, we’re going to talk about the elephant in the room: heat inequity.
In his book Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History, the physician and medical anthropologist Paul Farmer explains, unflinchingly, why the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak killed more than 11,000 Africans while almost every single Westerner who contracted the illness survived. The difference between life and death came down to, quite simply, access. In clinics in Guinea, Libera, and Sierra Leone, equipment and fluids that would have saved countless lives were nonexistent. A few simple interventions would have made all the difference. “How many of these deaths were caused more by the virulence of social conditions than by the virulence of the pathogen?” Farmer asked.
I was reminded of Farmer’s book recently while interviewing a researcher about an unrelated topic, a study on the temperature thresholds at which the human body can no longer keep itself cool. That researcher, a scientist at the University of Oxford, found that parts of the world have already become too hot for hum... Read more
All stories
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![Traffic warden Rai Rogers mans his street corner during a shift under the hot sun in Las Vegas, Nevada.]()
![Traffic warden Rai Rogers mans his street corner during a shift under the hot sun in Las Vegas, Nevada.]()
‘An absolute crisis’: Millions in US Southwest stare down weeks of brutal heat
More than a third of the country faces some kind of heat advisory going into the weekend.
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![Woman cooling off on a street in Spain]()
![Woman cooling off on a street in Spain]()
More than 61,000 died from heat in Europe last summer — and experts think that’s an undercount
A new report warns that the continent could see premature heat-related deaths increase to more than 100,000 by midcentury.
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![Beachgoers walk along the shore near the Belmont Pier in Long Beach in 2022, ahead of a heat wave in Southern California.]()
![Beachgoers walk along the shore near the Belmont Pier in Long Beach in 2022, ahead of a heat wave in Southern California.]()
How climate change fuels heat waves
Climate change is making extreme heat events more frequent and more dangerous.
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![a collage of a hot day with a blazing sun and heat spots]()
![a collage of a hot day with a blazing sun and heat spots]()
How climate change drives hotter, more frequent heat waves
Everything you need to know about the science linking global warming to extreme heat.
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![A crowd of amazon delivery drivers standing in front of a warehouse holding signs that say]()
![A crowd of amazon delivery drivers standing in front of a warehouse holding signs that say]()
Extreme heat prompts first-ever Amazon delivery driver strike
Keeping drivers safe could require fundamentally changing the company's business model.
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![Book cover for The Heat Will Kill You First beside photo of Jeff Goodell]()
![Book cover for The Heat Will Kill You First beside photo of Jeff Goodell]()
‘The Heat Will Kill You First’ is a chilling book — and a warning
Author Jeff Goodell on an invisible, stealthy, and universal threat.
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‘We are in uncharted territory’: Earth logs hottest week on record
The grim milestone arrives as rampant flooding hits the Northeastern U.S., India, and Japan.
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![A man drapes a cloth over his head and a mother holds an umbrella over her child inside a hand pulled rickshaw to escape from extreme heat in India]()
![A man drapes a cloth over his head and a mother holds an umbrella over her child inside a hand pulled rickshaw to escape from extreme heat in India]()
July 3 was Earth’s hottest day on record — until July 4
Get ready for the “warmest month, warmest week ... and probably warmest hour.”
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Extreme heat will cost the US $1 billion in health care costs — this summer alone
High temperatures could lead to 235,000 ER visits and 56,000 hospital admissions for heat-related conditions annually.
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![A man leans over a fountain in a park to pour a cup of cold water over his head as a heat wave grips Guadalajara, Mexico]()
![A man leans over a fountain in a park to pour a cup of cold water over his head as a heat wave grips Guadalajara, Mexico]()
Storms and searing heat grip Mexico and Southern states
Millions sweat it out as heat indices reach 120 degrees and outages plague Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
