The Red Cross traditionally provides international aid to people throughout the world for emergencies, support of refugees, survivors of human trafficking, and chronic hunger. Now, out of necessity, they’ve added global heat to their repertoire.
Well, it was destined to happen… Global Heat Action Day initiated in June 2022 by the International Federation of Red Cross (“IFRC”) and Red Crescent Societies, which is the world’s largest humanitarian network.
Going forward, mark calendars June 2nd the designated global day to observe “heat action day,” which is absolutely 100% necessary if only because it’ll bring people to an understanding of how to handle a super-hot world, how to survive, what to avoid. The rationale for starting Global Heat Action Day is that the planet has entered a new high stakes danger zone that is fed by excessive levels of greenhouse gases, e.g., fossil fuels like oil and gas emitting more and more CO2 into the atmosphere directly causing more and more intense heat, people are dying. This new world order of extreme heat is surrounded by threatening wet bulb temperatures, too much humidity combined with too much heat, that devastates human bodies.
Heat Action Day is a collaboration between the Red Cross and C40 Cities, which is a formal network of mayors of the world’s leading cities united in action. Over 50 cities plan awareness-raising events geared to educate the public. According to the IFRC, national societies around the world are rising to the challenge of extreme heat, supporting heat action-plans, spreading messages to the public, checking the most vulnerable, distributing water, supporting medical services, setting up cooling centers, and helping people retrofit homes to increase shade.
The Red Cross is going to have their hands full, very full indeed… check out the following message in an email from Bernie Sanders on May 31st: “As you read this, India is recording its hottest temperature ever — reaching 126 degrees Fahrenheit in New Delhi, an area of a population of 33 million people, almost 4 times the size of New York City.”
“At that temperature, the body loses the ability to cool itself, breathing rates increase, and dehydration becomes a critical issue. Consider that last fact alongside the reality that local governments are setting limits on water usage because of a shortage in the area.” (ed.- Mexico City is experiencing an identical problem – a city of 22 million.) “So, yes. This is a very serious issue.”
“And in the midst of all that, understand that this is only early in India’s summer season, meaning there is a good chance that everything they are seeing today has a significant chance to become worse in the weeks to come.”
“So, what does the weather in India mean in the context of Donald Trump and this election?”
“In Donald Trump’s first term as president, he withdrew from the Paris Agreement, he weakened clean energy regulations and fuel economy standards, supported multiple pipeline projects, expanded drilling offshore and on public lands, removed climate information from government websites, and appointed judges and agency leaders who undermined our ability to move toward sustainable energy and protect the environment.”
“But if you think his first term was bad, just wait until his second.” This ends the Bernie Sanders’ quotes.
Trump is global warmings’ strongest advocate. No other president has embraced global warming so wholeheartedly.
CBS News flash, May 31st: “At least 50 deaths blamed on India heat wave in just a week as record temperatures scorch the country.” That is a big number but likely underreporting the reality. (Delhi: “India counts among heat stroke deaths only those deaths medically certified as having been caused by direct exposure to the sun, thereby capturing only 10% of the real figure, leaving out deaths due to high ambient temperature,” Source: India Underreports Heatwave Deaths. Here’s Why This Must Change, Indiaspend.org.) Does this mean the real death figure could be 500 in one week and not 50?
“Making matters worse for the 32 million inhabitants of India’s sweltering capital, the extreme heat has created a water crisis, with more being consumed and less available from parched rivers. With taps running dry in some areas, authorities have been forced to truck in water tankers to set up public distribution points… The scorching temperatures also destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of crops, affecting millions of people in India’s vast agriculture sector. Scientists have linked the killer heat waves on the Asian subcontinent directly to the rapid rate of global warming making it 100 times more likely to occur,” Ibid.
Too many Americans fail to take climate change/global warming to heart as a serious threat to life. And a significant number of Americans accept the view that climate change is not real. In fact, according to The University Record / University of Michigan study, d/d Feb. 14, 2024: “Nearly 15% of Americans deny that climate change is real.” It’s the epitome of stupidity, of course, the climate always changes and always has. What counts is the rate of change, which rate is currently so geologically fast that it is destroying ecosystems left and right, and if left unchecked, will kill many, many more people, a massive killing machine that has already started in earnest in India and in Mexico and SE Asia.
The only way out of this impending global heat death march is by stopping fossil fuels. But nobody wants to do it… meaning, we’re cooked!
Will Roger Hallam’s (co-founder of Extinction Revolution) new project, changing of the guard in the world, gain enough traction to save humanity from itself? Watch the YouTube video and judge for yourself.
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.
Source: CounterPunch
