Too Hot to Handle

Dr. Peter Carter, Paul Beckwith and Regina Valdez discuss wet bulb temperature and how it is making survivability in the heat more difficult in regions that are already historically hot.

This video was recorded on June 29th, 2022, and published on July 17th, 2022.

Some of the topics discussed:

• What is wet bulb temperature and what are its thresholds for survivability?
• How higher wet bulb temperatures are affecting farmers in India and Pakistan.
• How prolonged exposure to high wet bulb temperatures can, within a few hours, lead to heat exhaustion and death.
• The importance of air conditioning and other methods of cooling the body during high wet bulb temperature periods.
• How the wet bulb survivability threshold has been found to be lower than the theoretical threshold.
• The fact that older people, babies and people on certain medications are most vulnerable to higher wet bulb temperatures.
• How heat waves resulting in higher wet bulb temperatures can lead to massive die offs of people and animals as portrayed in the book by Kim Stanley Robinson called ‘The Ministry for the Future.’
• How high occurrences of high wet bulb temperatures will lead to the need for ‘Chill Suites,’ along with other solutions.
• and more. . .

Links:

• Wet-bulb Temperature (Wikipedia)

• Potentially Fatal Combinations of Humidity and Heat Are Emerging Across the Globe

• Practical Human Wet-Bulb Temperature Resilience Threshold Limit Measured to Be Much Lower than 35°C

• Deadly Heat Stress to Become Commonplace Across South Asia Already at 1.5°C of Global Warming

• Humidity May Prove Breaking Point for Some Areas as Temperatures Rise, Says Study

• Global warming: Earth has 50% chance of exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius in next 5 years, scientists say

• The White Roof Project

Regular Panelists:

• Dr. Peter Carter - MD, Expert IPCC Reviewer and the director of the Climate Emergency Institute

• Paul Beckwith - Climate Systems Scientist. Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Paleoclimatology Laboratory as well as at Carleton University

• Regina Valdez - Program Director, Climate Reality Project, NYC. GreenFaith Fellow and LEED Green Associate

Video Production:

• Charles Gregoire – Climate Reality Leader, Electrical Engineer, Webmaster and IT prime for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum

• Heidi Brault - Climate Reality Leader, BA(Psychology), Library & Information Technician Diploma - Video production and website assistant - Organizer and convener, Metadata technician, COP26 Team Lead for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum.

Attributions:

Background Music:

• Title: Through the City II
• Author: Crowander
• Source: Free Music Archive
• License: BY-NC 4.0

Image and Video:

• Image and Video Attributions