You're living where it was never livable. You kept yourself alive with artificial means in a place where the animal that is the human being did not evolve. Look around at what naturally lives there. That isn't you. Your arrogance is finally catching up to you.
You're putting on a show of worrying that the artificial means you've relied on will one day not "be enough." But running all that air conditioning is part of the problem you're wringing your hands about.
This has always been a land of little rain and warm summers....
Warm summers? Come on. It's always been hot in the summer. It's just somewhat worse now.
We moved here in July 2019, and I decided I couldn’t wait until fall to go on a hike, so we went. To this day, I remember the surge of anxiety I felt when I realized I’d taken us deep into a trail in the middle of the day; there were no shade trees nearby, and our water was dwindling fast. Never again....
How can you be so out of touch with reality? Did that "we" include children?
When I talk with friends in more temperate climates, many wonder how I could love living in the Sonoran Desert. I tell them that it’s because this place has humbled me like nowhere else has, bringing me close to nature, to a slower and more sustainable pace of life....
Close to nature, but "sustained" by air conditioning.
Millions and millions of Americans love the southwestern lifestyle....
But you live in a desert.
Currently, about 8 million people are facing temperatures higher than 125 degrees Fahrenheit for days on end; by 2053, an estimated 107 million people will.... [P]eople keep moving here....
Posts
93 comments:
"Look around at what naturally lives there. That isn't you. Your arrogance is finally catching up to you."
You could say this about SFO, LA, STL, ChIraq, or just about any other ghetto in the country people are now trying to escape from.
"Your arrogance is finally catching up to you." We can say that again!
“But it’s a DRY heat!”
You moved to your dry heat. Now live in it. I will put up with Wisconsin’s humid summers.
Glowball worming ™
It's kind of funny to look at historic temperature records. You can look at Burlington, VT and see that global warming has been on a tear, and you can look at Plattsburgh, NY, just across the lake, and, well, not so much. Probably because they shut down the huge Strategic Air Command base that used to be there, putting a large dent in population growth and economic activity.
Desert dwellers might look at the lifestyles in and near the Sahara desert, and across Saudi Arabia. There is a way to survive in extreme heat -- cover up with a robe to create a mobile shade tent! Shade is the key, be it from a tree, building awning, or a robe separated from the skin.
Those from Europe and other areas populated by people with fair skin and blue eyes do indeed face additional challenges in heat and bright sunlight. Australians who migrated from the UK have the highest skin cancer rates in the world. Sunburn is a serious medical condition. Blue eyes really do need sunglasses to prevent eye damage. If you are serious about long-term desert living, let nature take its course. Over generations your descendants skin will become dark brown to black, their noses will grow larger to cool air and help to filter dust. Desert natives already have these biological adaptations, be they humans or camels.
My Dad, no college graduate, just a simple farmer raising crops. But unencombered by said "education", saw thing clearly.
He passed, in 1979. He was clear that huge battles over water, would dwarf anything we had experienced over oil. (He did not predict the elimination of gas cooking ovens. Some thing are too stupid to contemplate.)
Let's face it, Climate Change is making it harder and harder to be virtuous. And that whole pesky proof thing keeps rearing its head.
"It's a nice place to visit, but wouldn't want to live there."
Applies to many locales, nationwide.
Not to mention winter heating in Wisconsin.
If you have a basement, you can dump air from the basement floor onto your upstairs computer chair with a long flexible fabric duct and a 12v solar fan.
We generally can expect 7 to 8 months of generally fantastic weather here in Tucson. We run our AC from mid/late-May through September, then its doors and windows open.
I'm thinking she might like to try Barrow Alaska.
tell that to Elon Musk and other space explorers.
cc. Titan submersible occupants
Too. Many. People.
why not build underground?
even Riddick chronicle prison planet was just so!
Hollywood got that right
If we were allowed to innovate, we might never reach a point where any place on earth can't be habitable. Which is why the left is so determined to undermine innovation--they have to preserve their dreams of apocalypse. They can't bear the thought that humanity might live according to its desires and be happy.
The tale of her daytime hike in the desert reminds me of the book Death in the Grand Canyon chronicling how people meet their end by ignoring common sense and underestimating a hostile environment.
Besides falling off a cliff, most common deaths occur when someone (often hiking with their children) descends into on a canyon trail carrying little more than a quart of water. Thirst, hallucinations then death.
.
"You're living where it was never livable."
It is now.
"You kept yourself alive with artificial means."
Now do cities. Any city. Any modern country for that matter. The whole world: billions kept alive by artificial means.
Still, I agree that the Southwest and SoCal are mistakes, waterwise more than powerwise.
It may be Althouse's hostility to thermodynamics. Heat pumps seem to be evil, overlooking the refrigerator.
Journalist originally from Caracas (born before the Bonapartist Bolvarian Socialist Revolution and family likely fled from there). Went to UC Berkeley school of journalism, worked for NPR’s Latino USA, and recently wrote a piece about eco-fascism for the Sierra Club.)
In the last decade, as Left leaning activist types and those making careers in that environment about The Environment (mostly watermelons) have increasingly colonized The Atlantic (ever more predictable and less creative under Goldberg’s watch), I wonder why I’m being asked to consider and contribute in response to such a piece?
I believe radicals drive most activism, and I believe the logical end to radicalism is terrorism and the destabilization of our civil institutions (like the law). Much admin in universities and many supposed intellectuals got there first.
I believe that such people are mostly driven by ideology, and get human nature (their own nature, and their own hearts wrong within such ideas) and I believe they don’t understand Nature much either.
I believe many fellow feminists (even very bright equity leaning feminists) can’t put the radical genie back in the bottle most times, and continue to have serious blind spots regarding their own idealism and belief in a kind of dominant universal secular humanism and (P)rogress.
This is a joke, right? A Wisconsin winter requires you to use considerable artificial means to survive. Indeed, the cost of heating northern cities and towns probably well outstrips the cost of cooling a desert community.
Just more global warming porn.
Clueless? Or just an emanation of the unbearable lightness of being a writer for The Atlantic?
Here in Tucson we welcome the heat knowing that it will bring the monsoon rains that we need.
People survived and even prospered here before there was AC. However, history started yesterday for lefty "intellectuals".
The Southwest is much closer to the environment where man did evolve (the plains of Africa) than Wisconsin.
rhhardin.
What a great idea! Thanks. I'll try it.
What people don't seem to realize, especially people on the left, is that EVERYTHING is a tradeoff. People move to the southwest for the mild winters. We here in the midwest put up with the cold winters and humid summers so we can enjoy four distinct seasons. Why people live in Texas is anybody's guess.
Eh, I grew up in AZ. She's a bit dramatic. I just looked at the ten day forecast, seems pretty normal July weather. It's going to be above 115 for a couple of weeks. It won't stay. But people lived in AZ before air conditioning. Our first house was built in the 50's. It was brick, north facing and the windows were all covered by a patio to keep direct sunlight from coming in. The house was very efficient. We had AC but also a swamp cooler which worked well most of the summer.
Air conditioning just made builders lazy. A modern two story track can't exist without AC.
My house in Denver was just as dependent on AC as any tract house in Phoenix.
Hard not to notice that the people most likely to want to rely on "sustainable" energy are most worried about there being no energy when the sustainable energy can't be sustained.
Great! I'm living on the only land in America not stolen from the Indians.
You're living where it was never livable.
Tell the Tohono O'Odham and Navajo that.
Also, if it's so unlivable, why is it full of Wisconsinites every winter? (Doing what Wisconsinites do best, bossing everyone around and acting like the own the place! Granted, the Canadians are worse, but still.....)
What kind of a fuckwit hikes in the desert in July? We hide in the summer while our roof solar panels cover all the energy expenditure of running the a/c. Just because this person is inexperienced at how to cope doesn't mean it's unsustainable.
Also, the humidity right now is 52%. Whoever called this a dry heat was on drugs.
But running all that air conditioning is part of the problem you're wringing your hands about.
The United States now uses MORE energy COOLING, than it does Heating.. Prove me wrong
..I realized I’d taken us deep into a trail in the middle of the day; there were no shade trees nearby, and our water was dwindling fast.
simple Protip: Where EVER you go.. You'll NEED to get back. Don't GO TOO FAR.
If you don't think you can get back.. You Should have Turned Back LONG AGO. People do this in National Parks ALL THE TIME! They will be 5 miles from the trailhead.. Without food, without water..
WHY?? HOW???
how did you get That Far without noticing that you'd HAVE TO get back?
why did you get That Far without noticing that you'd HAVE TO get back?
Tell that to the Bedouin.
john said...
We generally can expect 7 to 8 months of generally fantastic weather here in Tucson.
Maynard said...
Here in Tucson we welcome the heat.. People survived and even prospered here before there was AC
BUT! you're living on the side of Mount Lemmon (with its Ski runs).
The Stupid Insane Idiots live down in Phoenix, because they're not smart enough to live in Tucson
I’ve only noticed this cruel contempt towards people who live where it gets seasonably hot. Does the host have the same hostility towards the Dutch who live below sea level or her fellow citizens who exert so much energy keeping warm in winter? Why all the outsized hatred for the West?
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said "Too. Many. People." Narayanan said... "why not build underground?"
Were the 2 of you trying to sing Paul McCartney's "Too Many People"?
Too many people going underground
Too many reaching for a piece of cake
Too many people pulled and pushed around
Too many waiting for that lucky break
That was your first mistake
You took your lucky break and broke it in two
Now what can be done for you?
You broke it in two
No premise is too thin to justify climate fear porn.
Blogger Rusty said..."We here in the midwest put up with the cold winters and humid summers so we can enjoy four distinct seasons."
And water.
Blogger rhhardin said..."If you have a basement, you can dump air from the basement floor onto your upstairs computer chair with a long flexible fabric duct and a 12v solar fan."
Or, just run the "furnace" fan. Cools the upstairs, decreases the humidity (assuming you have a dehumidifier in the basement). We went years without AC using this method.
Zarathustra (Zoroaster) was like Noah, except that he commanded that an underground city be built to survive the unlivable years. Unlike Noah's ark, an underground city has been discovered in Turkey, but nobody has been able to date it, as far as I know, and it seems to have been totally swept clean of artifacts.
If you ignore the nonsense conclusions, sometimes those "Ancient Aliens" shows are kind of interesting. They do present mysteries, but just like papers on climate, the data are usually good, but the conclusions are where the prestidigitations take place.
"I’ve only noticed this cruel contempt towards people who live where it gets seasonably hot."
Only the ones bitching about "climate change".
Imagine writing this same article about Africa. Come on Mauritania, realize that you can never survive where you are without pools and air conditioning. Libya, your lifestyle is not sustainable. Namibia, you'll need to give up and move on.
These journalist are idiots with the pretense of thinking they are smarter than us and can lecture us to do better. People have been living in deserts for millenia. Is it too much to ask modern journalist to crack a book or look at a map?
Per capita, it takes less energy to keep Arizonans cool than it does to keep Vermonters warm. But you don't even need to think about it for a nanosecond to know which one of these places has the overwhelming monopoly on smug, judgmental scolds sneering at the others for their lifestyle, and demanding higher taxes and more government meddling to punish them for it.
Funny how they aren't talking about shutting down A/C in NYC or DC.
I grew up in Phoenix, and now live in northern Arizona. Yes, it is very hot and dry here. If it weren't for family obligations, I would be back living in Ireland now. That said, it is certainly possible to live here without AC. I've done so in Phoenix for many years in the past. As for the desert being unsustainable for humans, what a bunch of crap. The current population of the southwest could not live here without the benefit of a modern technological society. But this is true of virtually all places now. The current size of the human population requires modern technology to survive. This is not a profound observation, and it applies everywhere.
People survived and even prospered here before there was AC. However, history started yesterday for lefty "intellectuals".
Not only did people live in the Southwestern states more than a century before air conditioning, but the women wore heavy gowns with layers of petticoats, and men wore wool, even in the summer.
The Sonoran Desert is one thing. The passive solar heating wasteland emerging in Arizona is another.
"The Stupid Insane Idiots live down in Phoenix, because they're not smart enough to live in Tucson."
Tucson and Pima County are run by Democrats. The County Attorney is a Soros-like prosecutor. The Mexican border is an hour away.
The clock is ticking.
“BUT! you're living on the side of Mount Lemmon (with its Ski runs).
The Stupid Insane Idiots live down in Phoenix, because they're not smart enough to live in Tucson”
And your water flows by us in Phoenix. My (Hayden-Rhodes) Aqueduct runs just south of us in PHX bringing water to you.
We have a be better solution, than living with all the nutcases in Tucson - we split our year evenly between Phoenix and NW MT. Typically we head north as the temps go into the 90s in PHX, and often hit the last snowstorm of the year in MT. Then, in the fall, we leave about the time of the first snowstorm, arriving in PHX when the temps are dropping into the 80s. Never too hot, and never too cold.
I miss Sam Kinison and did not appreciate his comedy enough when he was alive. He did a promo for WBCN back in the day celebrating Friday and the weekend. If anyone knows where to find it…
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
I’ve only noticed this cruel contempt towards people who live where it gets seasonably hot. Does the host have the same hostility towards the Dutch who live below sea level or her fellow citizens who exert so much energy keeping warm in winter? Why all the outsized hatred for the West?
I came to write something like this. This is better...
More generally, weather is another outlet for people what like to bitch and/or feel superior to those backwards folks that live far away...
@Mike (MJB Wolf)
I have never had to listen to a Dutchman complain about the possibility of floods, nor have I ever heard of anyone living in Montana express shock that winter is unseasonably cold and they don't have any blankets.
But the two groups I hear every single year are people in the western united states complaining about either fires or excessive heat, and people living along the Mississippi flood plains complaining about floods.
I'll also grant you east coast people living in Hurricane prone coasts complaing about Hurricanes, but this is less frequent and so less annoying even if equally dumb, whereas for a good four-six months every year without end I have to see stories about people upset that they chose to live in a tinderbox, or that they live in a desert and haven't invested in water bottles and a battery operated fan (or moved elsewhere).
As a rule, people choosing to live in cold weather places tend to understand the need to prepare for cold weather, whereas warm weather places attract a lot of grasshoppers.
@Mike (MJB Wolf)
I have never had to listen to a Dutchman complain about the possibility of floods, nor have I ever heard of anyone living in Montana express shock that winter is unseasonably cold and they don't have any blankets.
But the two groups I hear every single year are people in the western united states complaining about either fires or excessive heat, and people living along the Mississippi flood plains complaining about floods.
I'll also grant you east coast people living in Hurricane prone coasts complaing about Hurricanes, but this is less frequent and so less annoying even if equally dumb, whereas for a good four-six months every year without end I have to see stories about people upset that they chose to live in a tinderbox, or that they live in a desert and haven't invested in water bottles and a battery operated fan (or moved elsewhere).
As a rule, people choosing to live in cold weather places tend to understand the need to prepare for cold weather, whereas warm weather places attract a lot of grasshoppers.
@Mike (MJB Wolf)
I have never had to listen to a Dutchman complain about the possibility of floods, nor have I ever heard of anyone living in Montana express shock that winter is unseasonably cold and they don't have any blankets.
But the two groups I hear every single year are people in the western united states complaining about either fires or excessive heat, and people living along the Mississippi flood plains complaining about floods.
I'll also grant you east coast people living in Hurricane prone coasts complaing about Hurricanes, but this is less frequent and so less annoying even if equally dumb, whereas for a good four-six months every year without end I have to see stories about people upset that they chose to live in a tinderbox, or that they live in a desert and haven't invested in water bottles and a battery operated fan (or moved elsewhere).
As a rule, people choosing to live in cold weather places tend to understand the need to prepare for cold weather, whereas warm weather places attract a lot of grasshoppers.
I am a midwest transplant to Phoenix. A great book is the Children's Blizzard by David Laskin about the freak blizzard that hit the upper midwest in 1888. I believe the NY Times delared shortly after the event that people should just admit that part of the U.S. is uninhabitable. Just like 40 years before that people in the east kind of wrote off everything west of the Mississippi (the Great American Desert) as not worth inhabiting - leave it to the savages.
From my perspective, what makes places uninhabitable today are progressive politicians and rampant lawlessness. If Arizona becomes uninhabitable it will be because of bad politicans not a little siummer heat.
The most optomistic population estimates for USA/Canada prior to Columbus is around 12 million people. Even if we double that, that's 2/3 of the current population of California, and most of that was not living in the southwest.
On the other side of the world, there were two million people living in Saudi Arabia in 1900. In Egypt, 10 million.
I'm all for disproving the Malthusian Trap in favor of humanity, but trying to use nomadic, pre-industrial, and relatively tiny populations as evidence that it's perfectly reasonable for almost 70 million or so people to live west of the Rockies (a 800% increase in 100 years, as oppsed to 200% for the country at large) is a bit of a stretch.
It can be done, yes. But it can't be done in a way that is provides an eastern standard of living and is robust if the technological rug is pulled out from under it.
Blogger Maynard said...
Here in Tucson we welcome the heat knowing that it will bring the monsoon rains that we need.
People survived and even prospered here before there was AC. However, history started yesterday for lefty "intellectuals".
Well said. Somebody commented about 52% humidity in Tucson. That's because the monsoon is almost here. There was rain just east of the airport last night. I have an old map of the southwest hanging on my wall. Tucson is there in 1860 but no Phoenix.
I grew up in Chicago and left as soon as I was 18. I lived in California until the whole state went crazy. Arizona is just fine.
San Francisco depends on the Hetch Hetchy water (and power) system.
Los Angeles depends on the Owens Valley and Colorado river water systems.
NYC depends on the Croton, Catskills, and Delaware watersheds.
Similarly for every major city not sited on a river or large lake.
Heating and cooling are trivial, compared to water. Read Reisner's "Cadillac Desert".
San Francisco depends on the Hetch Hetchy water (and power) system.
Los Angeles depends on the Owens Valley and Colorado river water systems.
NYC depends on the Croton, Catskills, and Delaware watersheds.
Similarly for every major city not sited on a river or large lake.
Heating and cooling are trivial, compared to water. Read Reisner's "Cadillac Desert".
Blogger hombre said...
"The Stupid Insane Idiots live down in Phoenix, because they're not smart enough to live in Tucson."
Tucson and Pima County are run by Democrats. The County Attorney is a Soros-like prosecutor. The Mexican border is an hour away.
The present governor is a Soros creature elected by the sudden failure of voting machines in Republican districts of Phoenix.
We live in the foothills above Tucson in a district that voted for Trump in 2016. I checked. Tucson has crime but it is all south of the river. The city has its share of nuts but they seem to stay together.
What an idiot that writer is. Here is the hard truth- if modern technology disappeared tomorrow, 90% of the people living in Vermont would dead within 2 years. It isn't just the desert southwest where modern technology allows most people to survive.
Ah global warming and climate change scolds. Most of the comments so far talk about life in Arizona (where I was born--although I now live in Southern California). The Los Angeles Times and the local TV channels are alive with screams about a coming heat wave and maybe the end of the world. But San Diego (where I grew up) had the coldest first five months of the year in 2023 that it had had in more than a century. Summer finally arrived in So Cal and it will be warm.
And I can't see why the writer in The Atlantic had his or her knickers in a knot about the Southwest. The American Southeast has long been one of the fastest growing areas in the country. That's only been possible because of the advent of air conditioning starting about the late 1940s.
Celebrating our thirteen year in the desert (Vegas). We're going to have 110 or above this weekend. Much idiotic talk about how hot it is and why. Of course, we hit 117 one day last last summer. And we had a chilly, wet winter. And we couldn't have coffee on the balcony until early May, much later than usual.
Love the desert. Beats Jersey, where one might die in January without proper heat or clothing. Read somewhere that cooling is kinder to Gaia than warming, so this nitwit is not thinking critically-- either deliberately or due to a defect in her brain.
Let's work harder on Thorium salt reactors and desalination. We'll then be able to live anywhere on the planet and, via Starlink, we'll be able to tell people like her to fuck off at speeds ranging from 50 to 200 MBps.
Celebrating our thirteen year in the desert (Vegas). We're going to have 110 or above this weekend. Much idiotic talk about how hot it is and why. Of course, we hit 117 one day last last summer. And we had a chilly, wet winter. And we couldn't have coffee on the balcony until early May, much later than usual.
Love the desert. Beats Jersey, where one might die in January without proper heat or clothing. Read somewhere that cooling is kinder to Gaia than warming, so this nitwit is not thinking critically-- either deliberately or due to a defect in her brain.
Let's work harder on Thorium salt reactors and desalination. We'll then be able to live anywhere on the planet and, via Starlink, we'll be able to tell people like her to fuck off at speeds ranging from 50 to 200 MBps.
I always figure that the people who live where they live do so for reasons that make sense to them. I do find it amusing that people in the sun belt feel judged about where they live, when the judgement flows from the sun belt in great waves when the calendar is on the other side of the year.
I've been told if we all drive EVs the temperature will go down........or something.....
Certainly Ms. Guidi knew what she was getting into when she moved to Tucson, a lovely city that is a bit warm for my taste. Her compliant takes the Sonoran Desert which includes Phoenix and Tucson and goes north to Prescott and generalizes it to “the Southwest.” This inaccuracy (I’m being polite) slanders another Southwest city, my home, Albuquerque which isn’t even in the Chihuahuan Desert which ends just south of Albuquerque. Consider today’s forecast highs: Albuquerque, 101, (yes, damned hot); El Paso, 105; Tucson, 107; Phoenix, 112; Las Vegas, 110; Madison, 80 (nice enough even with the humidity).
Lauding Wisconsin misses a point which, as my cousin-in-law made 15 years ago upon moving to Phoenix from Lake Michigan frontage north of Milwaukie. He said that in Phoenix you stay inside in the summer, in Wisconsin, you stay inside in the winter. Big deal, he said. For some reason they are happy in Phoenix.
I heard something on the radio about sweat glands once. We have probably all heard that only humans have sweat glands. Why do some do better in the heat than others? Other commenters have noted skin color, nose, etc. It turns out we are all born with the same number of sweat glands. But if you are raised in a temperate climate, with cold winters, some of your sweat glands stop functioning, and they will never come back. When you move to a hot climate as an adult, you are always behind the "natives" when it comes to adapting to the heat.
I've been watching YouTube videos of life in Florida. People don't just survive by A/C. They play a lot of golf. They might warn: don't just hydrate, keep a wet towel around your neck. Of course the 55+ communities by definition aren't welcoming to children.
"It's just somewhat worse now."
[citation needed]
Surprised Cadillac Desert hasn't been referenced. The fragility of a heavily populated Southwest was noted long before the current amped Climate Change bullshit.
"Currently, about 8 million people are facing temperatures higher than 125 degrees Fahrenheit for days on end"
Total bullshit.
The hottest place in the US is Death Valley. Ridgecrest, CA is in Death Valley. Here's what AccuWeather has to say about July, 2023:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/ridgecrest/93555/july-weather/2154414
I looked at Phoenix and it was even cooler.
We. Are. Being. Lied. To.
Constantly.
"These journalist are idiots"
Those who can, do.
Those who can't, teach.
Those who can't teach, journal.
Living where it's unlivable is just a test run for Mars.
The aqea of Chicago was unlivable as well, it was a swamp. All that concrete made it liveable, then left wing government is making it unliveable. And into the swamp it will descend.
I thought it was well-known that many more people die of cold than of heat.
I'm a recent transplant here, too (Mesa, 2018) from WI and Seattle. Plus an archaeologist. There's nothing unusual about the climate, it's been far worse in the past (and far better). That's the weird thing about climate, it changes. People have lived down here in large numbers even before European contact.
The major worry I have here is electricity and water. They're not building more capacity apart from crappy solar and wind, and the water supply is inherently limited. My juice company, SRP, wants to control our thermostats; I said no. I figure the faux-governor will want to mandate that at some point.
I hike, run, and bike here outside all year round (except biking in the Winter because it's too cold!). But then, I'm scrawny, in very good shape, and don't go very long or far away. As a wise man once said "A man's got to know his limitations".
Alexander, it’s not us Westerners bitching about the heat either. It’s the loser DNC media and our host. We presently enjoying an unseasonably cool summer here in the Inland Empire just like Vegas is. Quite the inapt time for eastern progressives to write their Devil ac act.
"Which is why the left is so determined to undermine innovation--they have to preserve their dreams of apocalypse."
Who is this "left" that is "so determined to undermine innovation," and what are their "dreams of apocalypse?" (Are you referring to the Xtians who eagerly anticipate the end of the world as described in REVELATIONS?)
You guys just blurt out nonsense nonstop and think you're engaged in rational discourse.
Living in a desert? The late, great Sam KInnison said it best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0q4o58pKwA&t=48s
During the Medieval Warm Period, ca 800-1000, the desert southwest was verdant, supporting the Anastasi civilization. Those same weather changes caused drought for Mayans and precipitated their collapse. It was not enlightenment but there are records from Europe about how hot it was, and the Scandinavians were farming Greenland (farms that are coming back into view now as the Greenland ice cap recedes). It was warmer then than now. Oh, the climate relgionists will shake their hockey stick at you (for which the data and how it was produced has still not been revealed) and say it was regional. Sure.
I spend time outdoors in a rural area pursuing my hobby of flying Radio-Controlled Model Airplanes. It's hot at the field but we have minimum of heat island producing things like pavement and metal buildings. At the same air temp, the field is way more comfortable than the parking lot of the local grocery store. I grew up in Houston before AC was common in homes or schools. At the field we talk about how before cell phones and weather apps, we just went out and were careful about the heat.
What a load of crap. I'll go without air conditioning for a summer if you Wisconsinners go without heat for a winter. At the end of summer I'll be warm and accustomed to it. At the end of winter you'll be dead.
The writer does seem unreasonable.
I've lived half my life in the Phoenix area off and on. There are certainly sacrifices of comfort to refrain from energy use (money dumps.) We live in higher than comfortable indoor temps during the day and we get along fine.
As a kid we lived without A/C in Phoenix and my mom would wear a bathing suit all day and occasionally go out back and spray water on herself. I would play all day outside in the heat. At night our mom would cover us in wet sheets. It's fine, we can make do.
Once the care responsibilities we have are finished we will be seeking cooler environs.
I think humans are better built for extreme heat then extreme cold, generally.
As a rule, people choosing to live in cold weather places tend to understand the need to prepare for cold weather, whereas warm weather places attract a lot of grasshoppers.
Meanwhile "the grasshoppers" that run this country are shutting down the fossil fuel industry that allows you people who "choose to live in cold weather places" to survive. The Germans are already cutting down forests to make wood pellets to heat their homes in winter.
One day, in July many decades ago it was 134 degrees in Death Valley. Still unbroken despite mega tons of climate fear porn. There is nothing new under the Sun.
And those Arizona monsoons will soon be bringing intense rains to the interior deserts of California and Nevada along with the usual flash floods.
Downtown SF is nice and sunny today, but much of the city to the south and west is bathed in a muggy marine layer and windy fog is pushing through some of the hillier neighborhoods. It's called "No Sky July". I'd happily take some of that heat if it meant I had actual sunrises and sunsets rather than just varying degrees of gloom.
I'm shocked no one has mentioned the "Death Valley Germans" yet.
California has enough water, the system to distribute is a rube-Goldberg design. You have the feds, state, local districts, north-south conflict, coupled with a use it or lose it system that ends up growing rice in order to keep the water rights. San Francisco nailed a notice to a tree over a hundred years ago, so it has senior rights. If you don't have water rights...
The Bay area does not just have one water district, it has many, SF has the water it stole from Yosemite. The east bay has EBMUD, the south bay has multiple water suppliers, Marin county is its own world. A book would be required to explain all the details of bay area water.
The major local storage reservoirs are linked to earthquake faults. The SF local storage is Crystal Springs, created by a dam on the San Andreas fault. If the dam goes, San Mateo gets a bath. The dam where the water from the Sierra arrives is Calaveras Reservoir, located on the Calaveras fault near Pleasanton. To the south, also on the Calaveras fault, is Anderson dam and reservoir. It is the largest local reservoir for Santa Clara County. It has been drained and is being rebuilt because they realized it might fail and flood San Jose.
The state water project that steals water from the north in order to pump it south, over mountains 4,000 feet high north of LA, draws the water from the "Delta". This area around Stockton is subject to salt water coming from the bay. So very poor water quality. It is then sent south hundreds of miles. Some water gets drawn off to fill San Luis Reservoir, and supply some of San Jose's water needs.
This whole system was not designed for efficient water use, but a series of political compromises over 100 plus years. Rube would be proud.
It would appear to me that a basement in the desert would be much more comfortable.
While Michigan has plenty of water for swimming pools I suggest the author move to Ohio because they deserve it.
"Ridgecrest, CA is in Death Valley."
To be fair, Ridgecrest is about 40-50 miles west of Death Valley.
Fun Fact:
"One day, in July many decades ago it was 134 degrees in Death Valley. Still unbroken despite mega tons of climate fear porn. There is nothing new under the Sun."
Yup.
Fun Fact: The hottest air temperature ever recorded in Death Valley (Furnace Creek) was 134°F (57°C) on July 10, 1913. During the heat wave that peaked with that record, five consecutive days reached 129° F (54°C) or above. Death Valley holds the record for the hottest place on earth.
Oddly enough, 1913 was also the year that saw Death Valley's coldest temperature. On January 8, the temperature dropped to 15°F (-10°C) at Furnace Creek.
Source: National Weather Service
Both records were set 120 years ago. One hundred and twenty.
Amazingly people lived in the Southwest before AC.
With that much sun, plenty of cheap solar to power air-conditioning. Try heating your home in Winter that cheaply.
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