By Jim Hunt
When I was in Tacoma, Washington recently, there were people from throughout the United States attending the meeting and the one topic that seemed to be on everyone’s mind was the record heat throughout the country. A friend of mine from Goodyear, Arizona left home with the temperature reaching 118 degrees for the past week. Some attendees from Florida reported plus 100-degree days with high humidity. My nephew lives in Austin, Texas and is dealing with 105 degrees on a regular basis and it is wreaking havoc on his puppy, who can’t believe how hot it is.
While I am not a climate scientist, I think most people can agree that something is happening with the weather. And this is not unique to the United States but is throughout the globe.
Europe is suffering with record temperatures and the news is full of tourists in Italy, seeing 115 degrees in some of the favorite tourist spots. I can only imagine waiting in line at a museum or historic church, only to burn up when you finally get into the buildings. When my wife and I took our granddaughter to Prague, a few years ago, there were misting stations at some of the venues, and it was only April.
Even businesses that usually thrive during the summer are suffering. Golf courses in many parts of the south are virtually vacant after 11:00AM. Theme parks also are affected with kids sweltering while they await their favorite roller-coaster or thrill ride. Outdoor concerts must be prepared to deal with heat related injuries, and many are making sure that they have adequate supplies of water available to fans who spend many hours in the sun.
Construction workers and roofers probably have some of the hardest jobs during these record summer days. As dangerous as it is to be high on a roof in regular weather, having the sun beating down on you, seems almost impossible to accomplish much work, yet they prevail. The road paving crews have it doubly bad, since they are working with steaming truckloads of hot asphalt that they spread on the roadways. I doubt that I could hang with these workers for one day, yet alone, a whole summer.
There is also an economic cost to the rising temperatures. Homeowners are seeing higher utility bills and some areas of the country have experienced power outages, as demands on the electric grid exceed the capacity. Cities throughout the world are creating plans to deal with rising sea levels and the cost is going to be enormous. A recent study estimated that Miami will spend over $7.5Billion dollars by 2050. Sadly, this will lead to higher taxes to deal with these unprecedented costs.
Whether we are experiencing global climate change or not, it appears that we will be dealing with this phenomenon for the near future. Hopefully, we will discover a solution before it’s too late!
