Photonix #6: Perhaps humanity can this.

{600 words, 1 figure, 3 minutes}

There is a heat wave in Europe.
There is a heat wave in East and Southeast Asia.
There is a heat wave in New England.
There is a heat wave in Canada.
There is a heat wave in North Africa.
Basically, the entire Northern Hemisphere is experiencing record high temperatures.

A heat wave in Japan has killed 70 people.
A heat wave in Canada has also killed an estimated 70 people.
I honestly don't have heart to google how many more have died in Africa and the Middle East, which have seen temperatures of 50 °C (122 °F) and probably are less equipped to handle the public health crisis of a heat wave.
More will die. And mostly, be forgotten as statistics in the grand course of history.

The Swedes have resorted to using fighter jets to bomb a forest fire near an old firing range with unexploded ordnance, using the blast waves to put out inaccessible fires.

On Twitter, I am reading about students and researchers in scientific chemistry laboratories all across Europe are struggling to keep their labs operating, volatile solvents under control, and experimental conditions constant.

On Facebook, I watched a viral video of a British man who filled a pool in his living room because the heat was so unbearable.

The high temperature forecast for Norway tomorrow is 34 °C (93.2 °F), certain to be a record-breaker and what should be the hottest day of the summer. Much of southern Norway has been under the highest alert for forest fire since May. It has been so dry, these blueberries have shriveled up on bush (although this may also be disease-related). But there will be rain this weekend. Things will be OK, I think. It's what I want to believe. It's what we all want to believe. But truthfully, I doubt the Nordic countries are prepared to handle anything worse than this. Most detached homes do not have air conditioning. Most Norwegians are used to rainier summers, carrying umbrellas for the days and jackets when the temperatures would drop to 15 °C (59 °F) in the evenings.

In reality, no one is prepared for climate change. In extreme heat, one can only drink more water, stay indoors, and pray there is enough electricity. But air conditioning is hardly a solution. Air conditioning only moves heat around and makes more heat in doing so. We play a game with thermodynamics that we will always lose and most of us only survive by the sheer amount of energy we throw at the problem. But it treats a symptom, not the cause.

I cannot tell you what you to do. I don't know what is best for you or what hardships you can bear (although economists would say they are not hardships if we benefit in the long-term, I know that is not how humans habitually behave). I no longer even have the confidence I had years ago when I believed there was hope to stop climate change. I only ask that you think about your choices and that you do something to aid the cause of climate stability. Change what you can afford to and be invested in your choices. Read, learn, fight, act, commit. For the sake of those who can't, for those who have died, for those will die. For ourselves, for whom the worst is yet to come, to save what we can. To save who we can. To survive however we can. No human ever truly survives everything, but by our collective action, perhaps humanity can this.