Climate

Inside Climate News -   Heat is the No. 1 weather-related cause of death worldwide and in the United States.... At the start of this summer, more than 255 million Americans—or two-thirds of the country’s population—lived in areas experiencing life-threatening levels of extreme heat. 

But far too few people know the signs indicating exposure has gone from uncomfortable to dangerous.

Heat illness is a collection of medical conditions like heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat rash and heat stroke—the last of which can be deadly.

After about 30 minutes at a 105-degree core body temperature, cells begin to break down and rupture, unleashing their contents into the bloodstream. As the kidneys and liver kick into overdrive to try to filter out those infiltrators, the organs can fail, leading to cardiac arrest and death. 

“The body essentially treats that like a systemic infection,” Miller said. 

As heat stress worsens and a person gets dehydrated, their mental function suffers, said Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health. 

“It’s almost like you’re drunk,” she said. “You’re going to make poorer and poorer decisions that place you at higher and higher risk for a really bad outcome.”

Inside Climate News -  In Pope Leo’s first address on climate change, he called on people all over the world to demand action from their governments. Right-wing pundits in the U.S. immediately denounced his message as “woke.”