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The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

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Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#41

Post by toiletaccount »

Causality1 wrote: post #10
boplicity wrote: post #2

Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…

I wonder how practical it would be to sink 30 foot deep concrete tube shelters with a ladder and a lid. They could serve as emergency daytime shelters and someone could climb out at night to search for a location with working power or cooler weather.

itd make more sense to lay a bunch of pipe underground and cycle air through it. or water in a closed circuit with a heat sink.

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#42

Post by princeb »

boplicity wrote: post #2

Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…

i probably have a comment somewhere recently, but singapore is already in WBT >35 conditions in the day. it eases to around 30 at night or when rain falls.

as long as power is running, it's actually fine in this country, but that's because we've designed our living space around the heat. it is entirely possible to never be exposed to the sun in a normal day in the life of a working resident here if you stay in the right neighbourhood, and this includes the daily commute, hobbies, physical activity, going out for drinks etc.

more and more of the country is being built underground and more and more of our air is becoming conditioned. this is the arcology of the future and it is somewhat pleasant.

edit: actually i think our infrastructure was built around protecting us from the harsh and unpredictable tropical thunderstorms and the protection from heat turned out to be a nice bonus.

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#43

Post by zabatuvajdka »

boplicity wrote: post #2

Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…

If there’s a heat wave and drought the only way is to dig tunnels and build cities underground. Water can be imported from the ocean (rising sea levels) and desalinated using solar/thermal power above ground and feed an aquifer!

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#44

Post by briantakita »

Igelau wrote: post #40
briantakita wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who own a car in Yakutsk must leave it running all winter, or the oil will freeze & cause engine damage. A toolbox is always present in the car, since being stranded on the road, without cell phone signal, will lead to death within a couple of hours. Having a part of your ears exposed for 15 minutes will lead to frostbite. Cold is no joke...

In other words, a fire.

Maybe you can light the entire car on fire, by igniting the gasoline, which will work for a couple of hours depending on how full the tank is...

I'm not going to disparage the survival challenges of extreme heat & humidity, but again, cold is no joke, even with a fire...

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#45

Post by javajosh »

Johnny555 wrote: post #37

Similar question to this that I've been wondering this wildfire season -- at what point is AQI (Air Quality Index) too severe for human tolerance? The scale tops out at 500, what happens to a person if the air is even worse than that? Some sensors near Medford, OR are reading in the upper 400's and even low 500's -- what happens if it hits what would be the 1000's if the scale went that high? I'm mostly thinking of p…

Practically speaking, you start wearing a mask. You start filtering the air inside, and you stop going outside. This way-of-life is already familiar to people in certain major cities, and to those with health issues that make them more vulnerable to air quality problems. It's a worse life, but it's still life.

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#46

Post by chrisco255 »

boplicity wrote: post #2

Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…

"The study — published in the British journal The Lancet — analyzed data on more than 74 million deaths in 13 countries between 1985 and 2012. Of those, 5.4 million deaths were related to cold, while 311,000 were related to heat."

Study: Cold kills 20 times more people than heat https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/05/20/cold-weath...

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#47

Post by nostrademons »

newbamboo wrote: post #3
boplicity wrote: post #2

Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…

I think we know based on the science we’re not going to see a stabilization in temperatures for at least 30 years under the best scenarios. We should focus on ways to save these lives. Solar powered swamp coolers is what is I’m thinking about. They require water however and that’s going to be as big of a problem as heat. Already is in many places.

Migration. Large parts of the taiga and permafrost are about to open up to human habitation. All the folks in the Middle East and India should move north in search of better weather.

Human societies have been historically very bad at handling large scale migrations, but it's about to become necessary.

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#48

Post by mjn »

javajosh wrote: post #45
Johnny555 wrote: post #37

Similar question to this that I've been wondering this wildfire season -- at what point is AQI (Air Quality Index) too severe for human tolerance? The scale tops out at 500, what happens to a person if the air is even worse than that? Some sensors near Medford, OR are reading in the upper 400's and even low 500's -- what happens if it hits what would be the 1000's if the scale went that high? I'm mostly thinking of p…

Practically speaking, you start wearing a mask. You start filtering the air inside, and you stop going outside. This way-of-life is already familiar to people in certain major cities, and to those with health issues that make them more vulnerable to air quality problems. It's a worse life, but it's still life.

This is one reason I hope it continues to be socially acceptable in the U.S. to wear masks. I've wanted to wear one even pre-covid for pollution and pollen, but you would get very weird looks, or even stopped by security in some cases.

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#49

Post by joe_the_user »

Johnny555 wrote: post #37

Similar question to this that I've been wondering this wildfire season -- at what point is AQI (Air Quality Index) too severe for human tolerance? The scale tops out at 500, what happens to a person if the air is even worse than that? Some sensors near Medford, OR are reading in the upper 400's and even low 500's -- what happens if it hits what would be the 1000's if the scale went that high? I'm mostly thinking of p…

I think it was high 500's here (Nevada City) a last week. I wore a mask for the short period I had to go outdoors.

Ideally, you'd want a VOC filter along with a HEPA filter.

It's a hostile environment - so is a blizzard. That's not saying it's not a problem but humans are able to survive a lot.

Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

#50

Post by throwaway894345 »

It’s wild to me that even the Biden administration appears so cavalier on climate. $1.2T on infrastructure and a follow up $3.5T budget bill and in both the environmental provisions are lame. Still no carbon pricing or anything that might make Exxon execs too uncomfortable (yes, I know Exxon supports carbon pricing in public because they don’t think anyone will actually do it).
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