this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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That is the opening chapter of Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry For The Future". Scary how fast that became real...
It's not quite there — there is a combination of heat and humidity which will kill some people, but it's not going to look like an everybody-dies situation unless the next day is hotter.
It still scares the shite out of me, we need those ministry black ops folks ASAP!
There are no ministry black ops folks; it's down to what you, joining with the people around you, can do to alter policy
It was the cult of Kali that got things started by murdering oil executives.
It hasn't happened this time, but all it takes is a heat dome to persist for a few hours or days with 10-20% higher humidity &/or temp and BAM... thousands to millions dead. Once evaporative cooling reverses and you start absorbing heat from the atmosphere it's only a matter of time. So maybe the next El Nino, or the one after; possibly in between, but less likely.
The embellishment with the ministry for the future is the first wet bulb event was extreme, when in reality they're most likely to start smaller and less intense — only killing thousands — not reaching those types of extremes until we're at 2-3c (in decades). The resilience of the bioshpere, and slow crawl of climate change, is what is ultimately leading to our undoing.