Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumHuman Beings Have Never Lived On A Planet This Hot, Or In Today's Huge Numbers In Deserts
On a scorching day in downtown Phoenix, when the temperature soars to 115°F or higher, heat becomes a lethal force. Sunshine assaults you, forcing you to seek cover. The air feels solid, a hazy, ozone-soaked curtain of heat. You feel it radiating up from the parking lot through your shoes. Metal bus stops become convection ovens. Flights may be delayed at Sky Harbor International Airport because the planes cant get enough lift in the thin, hot air. At City Hall, where the entrance to the building is emblazoned with a giant metallic emblem of the sun, workers eat lunch in the lobby rather than trek through the heat to nearby restaurants. On the outskirts of the city, power lines sag and buzz, overloaded with electrons as the demand for air conditioning soars and the entire grid is pushed to the limit. In an Arizona heat wave, electricity is not a convenience, it is a tool for survival.
As the mercury rises, people die. The homeless cook to death on hot sidewalks. Older folks, their bodies unable to cope with the metabolic stress of extreme heat, suffer heart attacks and strokes. Hikers collapse from dehydration. As the climate warms, heat waves are growing longer, hotter, and more frequent. Since the 1960s, the average number of annual heat waves in 50 major American cities has tripled. They are also becoming more deadly. Last year, there were 181 heat-related deaths in Arizonas Maricopa County, nearly three times the number from four years earlier. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2004 and 2017, about a quarter of all weather-related deaths were caused by excessive heat, far more than other natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes.
Still, the multiplying risks of extreme heat are just beginning to be understood, even in places like Phoenix, one of the hottest big cities in America. To Mikhail Chester, the director of the Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University, the risk of a heat-driven catastrophe increases every year. What will the Hurricane Katrina of extreme heat look like? he wonders aloud as we sit in a cafe near the ASU campus. Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005, resulting in nearly 2,000 deaths and more than $100 billion in economic damage, demonstrated just how unprepared a city can be for extreme climate events.
Hurricane Katrina caused a cascading failure of urban infrastructure in New Orleans that no one really predicted, Chester explains. Levees broke. People were stranded. Rescue operations failed. Extreme heat could lead to a similar cascading failure in Phoenix, exposing vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the regions infrastructure that are difficult to foresee. In Chesters view, a Phoenix heat catastrophe begins with a blackout. It could be triggered any number of ways. During periods of extreme heat, power demand surges, straining the system. Inevitably, something will fail. A wildfire will knock out a power line. A substation will blow. A hacker might crash the grid. In 2011, a utility worker doing routine maintenance near Yuma knocked out a 500-kilovolt power line that shut off power to millions of people for up to 12 hours, including virtually the entire city of San Diego, causing economic losses of $100 million. A major blackout in Phoenix could easily cost much more, says Chester.
EDIT
https://desdemonadespair.net/2019/08/can-we-survive-extreme-heat-humans-have-never-lived-on-a-planet-this-hot-and-were-totally-unprepared-for-whats-to-come.html
Merlot
(9,696 posts)$100 million in losses would be a drop in the bucket.
I'm hoping due to the high stakes that Vegas has a strong infrastructure. They are working towards full renewable energy at breakneck speed.
kimbutgar
(21,162 posts)The 80s? The homes in Arizona would have solar panels that powered air conditioners. Perhaps solar cells would be powering cars and public transportation. If we had moved forward in developing these wind and solar resources the world would not be suffering the dramatic effects of global climate change.
mopinko
(70,127 posts)w a solar panel attached to power it.
they sell them for rv's, but not homes. somebody has a finger on the scale.
hunter
(38,317 posts)... our local Target has solar panels on the roof. A local supermarket has solar panels over the parking lot, as do many of our schools.
I don't know if it's enough to carry the air conditioning loads on especially hot days.
I do know it's nice to park under the solar panels on especially hot days compared to parking in the sun.
kimbutgar
(21,162 posts)As I get close to social security retirement age it will be less money I would have to give to Pg&e every month. When my mother was alive her biggest monthly bill was pg&e. That said since we are fog bound it might not work.
But my point is if we had stayed on the path of Jimmy Carter we might have developed solar panels that could have handled air conditioners and public transportation and vehicles. It seems alternative energy development and scientific research stopped when Reagan got elected. Setting this country back from advancing.
delisen
(6,044 posts)Climate change in economic terms.
Many places will be expecting federal help in saving themselves, others might take up bold building programs of their own.
Maybe there will be new reality shows or game shows like the old Queen for a Day. Contestants will be cities and towns competing for massive federal subsidies.
We will all get to vote on which city wins the survival battle.
It will be like the gladiator contests in the Roman empire. Of course we can expect vote tampering.
appalachiablue
(41,145 posts)to raise money. Definitely see where this is going incl. reality shows and 'Queen for a Day' competing & begging as you said.
Boomer
(4,168 posts)It's bad enough that we're not seriously working to lower our carbon emissions, we aren't even prepared for the most obvious results of our inaction.