Thermodynamics...

Topics: Climate Change, Energy, Existentialism, Global Warming, Green Tech

Noun: the branch of physical science that deals with the relations between heat and other forms of energy (such as mechanical, electrical, or chemical energy) and, by extension, the relationships between all forms of energy.

Heatstroke is a condition caused by your body overheating, usually as a result of prolonged exposure to or physical exertion in high temperatures. This most serious form of heat injury, heatstroke, can occur if your body temperature rises to 104 F (40 C) or higher. The condition is most common in the summer months.

Heatstroke requires emergency treatment. Untreated heatstroke can quickly damage your brain, heart, kidneys, and muscles. The damage worsens the longer treatment is delayed, increasing your risk of serious complications or death.

Mayo Clinic: Heatstroke

A metaphor: If you heat a bottle of water, the liquid inside will heat, causing pressure to deform the bottle if it's plastic or, many times, shatter it if it's glass.

The Physics of Climate is thermodynamics. We are all subject to the Three Laws and the Zeroth Law.

Driving to and from work, I see house-less (I stood corrected by a man in Austin, Texas, who showed me his home, a tent in a field) with their quintessential signs, in the vernacular of the depression era, "panhandling," begging for dollars to get a snack, a beer, a joint, to anesthetize their pain, and plights. There are rare times I present them with those bills, as with most people having credit cards, debit cards, and Apple Pay, I'm not always in a position to help them. My wallet, more often than not, contains coins and folded receipts.

The water off the coast of climate-denying Florida climbed above 90 degrees, putting coral and the ecosystem that we're a part of at risk and giving the furnace to supercharge more deadly storms. Farmers Insurance has left the Sunshine State because insuring houses impacted by rising temperatures and climate disasters is becoming less cost-effective every day. The Sunshine State may no longer be a retirement destination if you can't afford to repair or reconstruct a home shattered by gale-force winds. Disney may HAVE to move.

It's easy to look down on the un-housed, speculate as we drive by in airconditioned cars that they're lazy, that they have mental health issues, that. their families got tired of dealing with them, or, if their families were their financial "lifelines," all lifelines succumb to Entropy and eventually have expiration dates.

What happens when the un-housed collapse? How long will we drive by in weather like Texas or Saudi Arabia, and instead of holding a forlorn sign, instead of asking for a few bucks, we're instead hit through our airconditioning with a stench of rot more rancid than a thousand rodents in a bag? Will we gag? Will we call 911 or the Sanitation Department to collect the dead like refuse? Where will the bodies be buried, or will they be cremated, with the only record: "Jane or John Doe" and the date? Rancid bodies tend to incubate diseases: Are we, through neglect of climate change and apathy, generating the next pandemic?

A 64-year-old woman collapsed and died of heat exhaustion in Big Bend, Texas. A 27-year-old man collapsed and died of heat exhaustion in California. Both were hikers and tragically chose their activity. Circumstances chose the un-housed: all of us are humans on the same planet, in the same bottle, where the water is superheating.

Humanity is related to heat, and all forms of energy, from billionaires to paupers.

One group is far LESS likely to collapse in the streets from heat exhaustion.

In Phoenix, Heat Becomes a Brutal Test of Endurance, Jack Healy, New York Times

BLOGS

Thermodynamics...

Comments