Social Cohesion Means Survival

摘要

Two-thirds of the United States, 195 million Americans, recently suffered through dangerous heat in mid-July, bringing to mind the 1995 Chicago heat wave that caused more than 700 deaths due to heat-related illnesses. That heat wave, at its peak, resulted in a heat index-a combination of heat and humidity-of 120. This type of weather is predicted to occur with more frequency and increased severity. "Climate change and its consequences are already manifesting in the form of deadlier storms, rising sea levels, droughts, wildfires, and floods," the Union of Concerned Scientists stated in its "Killer Heat in the United States" report, released this year. "Yet the heat extremes forecast in this analysis are so frequent and widespread that it is possible they will affect daily life for the average U.S. resident more than any other facet of climate change."