If you are caught in the extreme heat wave in the U.S. or on your way to Mecca and no AC?
- Drink plenty of WATER, stay hydrated, 12-24 oz per hour in extreme heat, not soda, not alcohol.
- Don’t hesitate to take a cold shower with your clothes on, light cotton clothes are best and will continue to wick off the water and stay cool for up to an hour.
- Plan to find a water feature for the children and yourself, does not have to be a public pool, just a shallow fountain or spraying mist.
- A portable evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) will cool 1-2 rooms effectively and at lower cost than central AC. Through air flow is needed.
- If you have AC, set it a little higher, maybe 78-80 to reduce load on the grid an save money.
An individual heat wave, flood or natural disaster does not tell us much about climate change. There is always some to say, “we had a big one back in 47” and often they are right. Need to look at world wide averages which is why the NASA earth science program is so important. However record breaking temperatures and other extreme weather are markers.
And on another note, my parents were the generation that came back from WWII. It seems to be they were more generally tolerant than their children or grand children. The great grand children hardly remember. Perhaps the veterans of WWII saw enough blood letting. Thye knew we had to find a way to get along with each other.
