It didn’t take long after calendars were flipped to August that scientists officially declared July 2023 set the record as the planet’s hottest month. It’s a somber coincidence that Jeff Goodell’s book, “The Heat Will Kill You First,” was also hitting bookstands.
“It's kind of a strange and eerie feeling, because when I started the book, I obviously thought heat was an important subject … and that was not going to kind of stop any time soon,” said Goodell. “Frightening, extreme temperatures are a little eerie for me. And sometimes I feel like I'm kind of living in my own Stephen King novel.”
Goodell visits with Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk about documenting the lethal effects of rising temperatures, and how so many workers required to work outdoors are in the crosshairs of an increasingly warming planet.
Read the full transcript below:
GEORGE PRENTICE: It's Morning Edition. Good morning. I'm George Prentice. Well, the weather records continue to be shattered as our thermometer keeps climbing this summer. Extreme heat is indeed here to stay. Jeff Goodell is here, a New York Times bestselling author, a Guggenheim Fellow, as a journalist he's covered climate change for a couple of decades now. His latest book is The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. Jeff Goodell, good morning to you. Good morning.
JEFF GOODELL: Thank you for having me.
PRENTICE: You bet. I would like, if I may ask you to read a passage from your book. I think it would be a good jumping off point. On page 118, beginning with the words “Nobody expected…” Could you read a couple of paragraphs for us?
GOODELL: Sure, I'd be happy to. “Nobody expected a 70 degree jump in temperature during a heat wave in Antarctica in 2021. And yet it happened. Nobody expected 121 degrees in British Columbia. And yet it happened. Nobody expected 104 degrees in London. And yet it happened. The current record high in Phenix is 122 degrees. Could it hit 135 degrees? How about 140 degrees? If not in Phenix? How about in Pakistan? I talked to a number of scientists who all pointed out that the heat waves can be amplified by local conditions from how dry the soil is to how much pollution there is in the air. The particulates that make up smog paradoxically act as tiny mirrors, reflecting away sunlight, keeping places cool to hotspots in the ocean. But every scientist I talked to agreed on one thing. The more fossil fuel we burn, the higher the extremes can get. But perhaps the more urgent question is how hot can it get right now? Or to put it another way, with today's levels of warming, are there any brakes on the atmospheric system that can prevent a heat wave beyond any we've experienced or imagined?”
PRENTICE: Well, it raises the pulse. So, let's talk about adaptability. And you raise the question. Adaptability to what? As we might expect, a few degrees over maybe a couple of decades. But we're facing temperatures that are 20 or 30 degrees higher than anything we've experienced before. One of the things that jumped out for me in your book was when you wrote about adaptability of animals, even plants, squirrels using their tails as parasols, rabbits sending blood to their ears and how animals are on the run and fish and yes, even plants on the move. Yet we humans. For some reason, keep moving toward the heat.
GOODELL: Yeah, that's a great paradox of this story about extreme heat and climate change in general. And, you know, the human migration is complicated. People like warmer weather. I think there's a lot of…it hasn't really registered with very many people. The risks of these kinds of extreme heat waves, they just think of it as sort of being in a warmer place as better beach weather. And the idea that, you know, our climate has fundamentally changed has not kind of really penetrated the consciousness of a lot of people. Maybe that's beginning to change this summer as we see these extreme heat waves. But I think there's a profound misunderstanding and, you know, about the risks that we face as these temperatures get higher and higher. You know, it's one thing to work outside in the field on 100-degree day. It's very different to work outside in a field on 120-degree day.
PRENTICE: Can you talk briefly about how heat is especially dangerous for farm workers?
GOODELL: Heat is especially dangerous for anyone who works outside. Farm workers are a typical example, but so are construction workers. So are road crews, so are delivery drivers and postal workers and many, many people. And, you know, the problem with working outside is that you are exposed not only to the heat but to the sun, which amplifies things. And, you know, you're doing a job and we don't have federal kind of worker protections for extreme heat. A lot of employers, you know, demand high levels of productivity no matter what the temperature. So, for example, I wrote about in this book, I wrote about a farm worker in Oregon who died in the extreme heat wave in 2021, basically because he was afraid that if he took shade breaks and water breaks, he would get fired. And he wanted to keep his job. So, he kept working and he ended up dead.
PRENTICE: And we are seeing some states move the needle on that, Oregon and the State of Washington as well. But again, there are no real federal protections on this, are there?
GOODELL: No, they're not. They've been working on heat regulations for 5 or 6 years, but they keep kind of delaying them and not rolling them out. And yes, the Oregon and Washington have come out with state regs that are an improvement, partly as a result of this farm worker who died in 2021 and the publicity surrounding that. But, you know, other places are going backwards. You know, I'm talking to you from Austin, Texas, and, you know, in the middle of the heat wave, the worst part of the heat wave here two weeks ago. You know, Governor Abbott signed legislation that prohibited local cities and communities from instituting shade, mandatory shade and water breaks for construction workers. So, you know, in some places we're going forward and some places we're going backwards.
PRENTICE: Mr. Goodell, how long did it take you to put this book together?
GOODELL: I've been working. It started, you know, in the summer of 2019 when I was in Phenix on a day like today in Phenix, where the temperature is going to be 115, 116, 117. And I took a 10 or 12 block walk downtown in the middle of the day and was really overcome by the heat. And I realized that even though I've been writing about climate change for more than a decade, I hadn't thought about the immediate risks of extreme heat to people like myself in that moment. And so that that book really began with that at that moment. And that was four years ago. And so, I've spent you know, the book itself was finished up, you know, 8 or 9 months ago. So, I spent about three, three and a half years writing it.
PRENTICE: Can I assume that your inbox is just blowing up this, this summer?
GOODELL: Yeah, it's kind of a strange and eerie feeling, you know, because when I started the book, I obviously thought heat was an important subject and I knew that, you know, we're continuing to burn fossil fuels and we're continuing to heat up the planet. And that was not going to kind of stop any time soon.So, I knew it would be, you know, a relevant subject. But, you know, the kind of extreme heat we're seeing now, not just here in Texas where I live and not just in the United States, but all over the world, these really kind of frightening, extreme temperatures is a little eerie for me. And sometimes I feel like I'm kind of living in my own Stephen King novel.
PRENTICE: We're reminded, of course, that China and its dependance on coal, in spite of the heat, they lean even more toward their dependance on coal to keep their cooling systems going. That, you know, we don't see any state or nation boundaries on on this dilemma.
GOODELL: And that's the story of the climate crisis, right? I mean, we're all in this together, you know, a molecule of CO2 emitted from China or India or Russia is the same as a molecule of CO2 emitted from Boise or Austin. It goes into the atmosphere. It contributes to the warming of the planet, and it stays there for thousands of years. This is a problem that all of mankind is facing together, and some of us are more or less vulnerable than others because of our income, our age, our physical conditions where we live. But ultimately it affects everyone.
PRENTICE: Where do you find hope?
GOODELL: It's interesting. You know, I've been writing about climate change for 20 years, and a lot of people say, why aren't you, you know, an alcoholic living in your basement, you know, depressed about the future of mankind? And I'm actually not I mean… I'm inspired every day. I’m very hopeful. I mean, I, I meet people everywhere I go who are, you know, entrepreneurs here in Texas, you know, energy entrepreneurs who are building wind and solar and frankly, doing very well financially from that. I meet political activists who are fighting to get our politicians to pass policies that will help in adaptation and the kind of changes that we need. I meet city officials who are thinking differently about how to build cities and planning parks and doing all kinds of things. So, what makes me hopeful about this moment is that I think it's a moment where profound change is underway. And yes, there's a lot of scary things about it. And yes, it's really important that we look it squarely in the eye and understand the scope and scale of the changes that we are facing. But we also have a lot of possibility to do things differently right now. And one of the things that's kind of encouraging about, you know, my book has gotten a lot of attention in the last couple of weeks because of this extreme heat. And, you know, it's this moment when people are actually thinking about this now and listening and it's an opportunity to communicate, to educate people and to sort of move that that arrow of progress forward a little bit.
PRENTICE: Your book reads with the urgency of a of a thriller, yet you do take time to drill into some rather stunning scenarios. And he is Jeff Goodell. His must-read book is The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. Great good luck to you, and thanks for giving me some time this morning.
GOODELL: Thank you for having me.
Find reporter George Prentice on Twitter @georgepren
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