BOOK REVIEW : The Heat Will Kill You First : Life and Death on a Scorched Planet Author : Jeff Goodell
Published originally in 2023 by Little , Brown and Co .; Paperback edition published by Back Bay Books , July 2024
The title is alarming , but the book is pragmatic and seriously educational . The terms climate change and global warming are just too mild to fit the situations described . Jeff Goodell is a seasoned journalist and award-winning author of seven books . His focus is energy and environmental issues . He is Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow . His work is meticulously researched and much of his writing is based on first-hand observation and personal involvement . In this particular book , the focus is on heat : heat that is both life preserving and death-dealing . The latter is , unfortunately , what the author seeks to impress upon us .
Chapter 1 hits hard . It recounts the deaths in August 2021 of a young couple , their 2-year-old child and the family dog who set out for a short hike in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains . The trailhead was marked , the hike was to be an 8-mile loop that started and finished within five minutes ’ drive of their home . They set out shortly after 7:00 a . m . calculating a four-to-five-hour trek which would have them off the trail before the afternoon sun hit . Two days later , the bodies of all four were found after friends and associates had raised concerns about their disappearance . Cause of death was investigated exhaustively , including the possibility of various types of environmental toxins . After a full two months of post-mortem
26 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Review by ELIZABETH A . AMIN , MD
evaluation the conclusion was , “ hyperthermia and probable dehydration due to heat exposure .” The remainder of chapter 1 consists of a scholarly discussion of the physiology of body temperature control and the failure of those controls as core body temperature rises to 107 degrees Fahrenheit .
Chapter 2 continues with evolutionary aspects of temperature adaptation . Thereafter , the chapters broaden into environmental issues . Each has a specific focus such as crop damage or the enhancement of “ bad ” viruses and disease vectors . Mosquitoes , for example , love the heat . One attribute that Jeff Goodell brings to his writing is the obvious respect for the scientists and public officials that he works with . This allows him to be included in scientific research projects . In January 2019 , he was part of the first team of scientists that explored the western part of Antarctica and evaluated the melting of the Thwaites Glacier . He skied across Baffin Island with American and Canadian scientists monitoring sea ice and wildlife , particularly polar bears . He immersed himself in more immediate problems from food production and the sweat economy to city planning and heat mitigation .
The book is eminently readable because it is centered on individuals and groups of people whose stories the reader can easily relate to . Statistics are included as appropriate , but there are no hard to read charts or confusing graphs to create a buffer zone between us and the experts . Heat affects us all in many ways . This book focuses the mind on way more than aberrant temperature recordings .
Dr . Amin is a retired diagnostic radiologist .