P.G. Smith Author

Well, folks, it’s another scorcher, and it won’t get better for another week. There are heat advisories and warnings all across the country (and many parts of the world.) Extreme heat is dangerous, especially because we forget how dangerous it is. A silent, insidious killer that is becoming more menacing every year. We should prepare for it much better than we have been, but then, we hear and ignore these warnings every year, don’t we?

‘Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago’ by Eric Klinenberg is a great read, very well written and researched. It’s not a warning so much as a description of a catastrophic tragedy that took place in 1995: a weeklong heat wave that melted streets, and caused record electrical use, resulting in grid overload that left thousands without power for two days. More than 700 people died–more than twice the number that died in the famous Chicago fire. A horrible disaster. 700 people! Just 30 years ago. So, tell me, do you remember it? I didn’t.

Why do we dismiss or underplay the danger of heat? According to the Bureau of Statistics, heat causes more deaths than all other natural disasters combined, and yet we seem to dismiss it. Why? That is what ‘Heat Wave’ sets out to explain. Through extensive research, Klinenberg shows that a number of social factors–“

“including the literal and social isolation of seniors, the institutional abandonment of poor neighborhoods, and the retrenchment of public assistance programs–contributed to the high fatality rates.”

In other words, we don’t adequately prepare for it. We track forest fires, hurricanes, floods, tornados, tsunamis, even earthquakes and volcanos. We can’t prevent property damage but we can reduce death tolls. And we have done so in America. The number of deaths from all disasters has been greatly reduced, except for heat (and cold.)

From 1999 to 2023 deaths from heat have increased 117%, rising from 1,069 in ’99 to 2,325 in 2023. We have to start taking this creeping killer more seriously.

‘Heat Wave’ provides a clear analysis, a gripping portrait of the problems, and cogent suggestions for addressing them. One of the reasons we don’t focus on the problem becomes clear when we realize whom it affects: the poor, the old, and the isolated. It’s not ‘us’ in danger, it’s ‘them.’

One facet of the problem requires public education. Any of us can endanger ourselves by acting recklessly. If you sit on the beach or play golf in the sun for hours in 100 degree weather, you are risking heat stroke. So, don’t do that. Be sensible. Take the threat seriously.

But people who can’t get out of the heat have a bigger problem that requires a social solution. (Tellingly, the same is true of cold.) We have to care enough about our fellow citizens to provide minimal living conditions, even in extreme weather.

Our social safety net should not be so low that every year thousands die from heat or cold. To prevent that, we at least have to recognize it’s happening. Why not report the death toll on the news? We do that with wars, pandemics, hurricanes; why not heat?

I strongly recommend reading ‘Heat Wave.’ It’s a wakeup call. It’s really well done and it tells a story that has only gotten worse since it was written. It should be the Silent Spring of extreme weather.