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I'm surprised that it never occurred to me that Saudi Arabia is going to be one of the first places on earth that will be uninhabitable. It is impossible to ex
by rhelz 2y ago
I'm surprised that it never occurred to me that Saudi Arabia is going to be one of the first places on earth that will be uninhabitable. It is impossible to exaggerate the magnitude of the tragedy--the damage to world culture--it will be when Islam's holiest sites are too hot for human life. An absolutely irreplaceable loss. For everybody, not just muslims.
And man, we are not far off. If you have a temperature of 103 degrees, it is recommended you go to the doctor. If you have a temperature of 108 degrees, you risk permanent brain damage.
The human body cools itself by sweating--the evaporating water carries off the excess heat. But this process stops working at 95 degrees if the humidity is 50% or higher. 120 degrees and above it just stops working. You either find air conditioning or you literally (not metaphorically or hyperbolically--literally) cook to death.
Currently, the earth is warming at a rate of 1/3 degree per decade. Already it is dangerous to do the Hajj. The time when it will be impossible is IMMINENT. We simply can't let this happen.
- f_allwein 2y agofor context: 52 C = 125,6 F
- raverbashing 2y agoI'm not so sure for two reasons: 1 - people know it's hot already in regions like these, and they are prepared for the most part (even with things like giant parasols, etc) 2 - I'm much more worried about places where the wet bulb temperature will shoot above the acceptable suddenly. This might be more sudden and in less prepared areas.
- rhelz 2y ago// they are prepared for the most part ...and yet the # of deaths is going up. Over 1,000 people! We are not talking about a disaster which might come, maybe, far in the future. The disaster is here, and its about to become a catastrophe!
- raverbashing 2y agoDefinitely, it is getting worse. And it will get even worse unfortunately But the Hajj cases seem more predictable and more manageable (if the will was there of course). What I'm afraid of is an unpredictable heat wave that comes and hits much harder in a densely populated area
- rhelz 2y agoIf we are this bad at predictable heat, we are screwed on unpredictable heat. 1,000 people died. These days, we are so numb to big numbers (Elon Must buys Twitter for $40 billion, and gets $56 billion stock from Tesla!) that it's easy to just gloss over that.... But if a hurricane hit New York, and 1,000 people died in time's Square, it would be declared a major disaster. 1,000 people dead means tens of thousands of people in sadness and mourning.