‘Hot enough for ya?’ Where I grew up that was how people greeted each other on a sweltering summer’s day. It was a tongue-in-cheek way of saying it’s hot, can you take it? Is this the heat you ordered?
It was usually how we teased people from cold climates, those who come here to enjoy our sunshine. They have no idea of how hot it can get. And neither, as it turns out, do we.
It’s not funny anymore. Talking about the weather isn’t a banal conversation starter, it’s a conversation about existence. And as a species, we’re in trouble.
It’s terrifying.
Temperatures around the country are soaring as high as 48 degrees. Canberra just had a 40-degree day. Adelaide is hitting 43. While there’s some reprieve on the coast, inland communities are expecting a week of temperatures in the 40s. As I write this there’s six fires in Victoria doubling in size with their intensity expected to increase with consecutive days of record-breaking heat.
Heatstroke is deadly, and it occurs when the temperature in your body rises above 40 degrees. Symptoms are red, hot, or dry skin. Reduced or no sweating, a dry, swollen tongue, intense thirst, seizures, and then loss of consciousness. The body cannot regulate internal temperatures and eliminate heat gain, and this puts a strain on the body as it tries to cool itself. It puts pressure on heart and kidneys and can trigger events like heart attack or stroke or organ failure.
Heatwaves are particularly dangerous for elderly people or kids, or anyone with a compromised immune system, diabetes, kidney disease, lung disease, neurological disease heart disease or a mental illness.
We need a reality check. We’ve had four fatal shark attacks in the last few weeks, and there’s a buzz on the news, and talk on social media groups, about nets and culls. Shark attacks are brutal and shocking, but the sea is the habitat of sharks. They’re not lurking on our streets or in our homes. We can avoid shark deaths by avoiding the ocean.
The real killer, the biggest danger to human and environmental wellbeing is heat.
Heat stress is the leading cause of weather-related deaths. In an article published in The Guardian, they cite Monash researchers finding that from 2016 to 2019 in Australia, heatwaves caused 1,009 deaths.
From 2010 to 2019 there have been 21 deaths by sharks. Yet it’s sharks we’re frightened of, not climate change. Why aren’t we culling big fossil fuels? Why aren’t we holding our governments to account, for letting the real sharks into the water? The big profit-making polluters who are powering the climate catastrophe and authoring these record-breaking heat waves?
Because those sharks control the narrative. They bought it years ago.
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