54 pages • 1 hour read
Jeff GoodellThe Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 12-AfterwordChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: “What You Can’t See Won’t Hurt You”
Extreme heat poses a significant and often underrepresented threat to communities around the world, especially in regions like Jacobabad, Pakistan, where temperatures can exceed 126 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity. Despite contributing minimally to global CO₂ emissions, these areas suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change and lack widespread access to mitigating resources such as air conditioning. Communicating the severity of extreme heat is challenging because it is an invisible hazard with few visual cues, making it difficult for media and photojournalists to effectively convey its impact on human life.
Efforts to depict the human struggle against extreme heat focus on illustrating how it affects daily activities: people employing makeshift methods for cooling, workers exhausted from laboring in high temperatures, and communities adapting to survive under relentless conditions. However, public awareness is hindered by inconsistent definitions and measurements of heat waves, such as varying temperature indexes and a lack of standardized warning systems. Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, heat waves lack clear metrics and visual representations, leading to confusion and inadequate responses to heat-related threats.
Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, prioritized making extreme heat a visible and urgent concern. She proposed a system to name and rank heat waves, aiming to enhance public awareness and encourage preventive actions. Collaborating with heat researcher Laurence Kalkstein, she developed a methodology that categorizes heat waves based on predicted mortality rates, utilizing historical data on air masses and their health impacts on specific communities.
They faced resistance from some scientists who viewed naming heat waves as unscientific, but cities like Seville in Spain adopted the initiative. Seville implemented a pilot program that ranked heat waves into categories, assigning names only to the most severe events. In July 2022, the city experienced Heat Wave Zoe, the first to be named under this system. The campaign involved disseminating clear guidance on protective measures, such as staying hydrated and reducing physical activity. Surveys conducted afterward indicated that residents who were aware of Zoe were more likely to engage in heat-safe behaviors and felt more supported by governmental efforts. The success in Seville spurred other cities to consider similar approaches. Legislative actions, like those in California directing the development of a health-based heat wave ranking system, show that there is a growing recognition of the need for better communication strategies.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Roast, Flee, or Act”
Summers in Paris were traditionally mild, with temperatures rarely necessitating air conditioning. In August 2003, however, an unprecedented heat wave struck the city. Approximately 15,000 people died across France, nearly 1,000 of them in Paris. Many victims were elderly individuals living alone in top-floor apartments under zinc roofs, which intensified the heat and effectively turned their homes into ovens.
In response to this crisis, urban planners and policymakers have started to rethink how to make Paris more resilient to extreme heat. They have initiated projects to green the city, planting trees, increasing green spaces, and retrofitting buildings to withstand higher temperatures. However, these efforts face considerable challenges. Paris’s historic architecture, especially the zinc roofs, makes retrofitting difficult and costly. Preservationists strongly oppose any alterations to the city’s appearance, making it nearly impossible to install modern heat-mitigating technologies like external shutters and insulation or even to replace roofs with more heat-friendly materials. One promising approach is the creation of green roofs and rooftop terraces, which can provide shade and reduce heat absorption. Yet, while the city has mandated that all new buildings incorporate green roofs or solar panels, retrofitting older structures remains a significant hurdle. For many Parisians, altering these iconic zinc roofs or streets would be seen as a defacement of the city’s identity.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo initiated projects to reduce car traffic, increase green spaces, and plant more trees to combat urban heat. Planting trees can cool urban areas, as they provide shade and reduce temperatures through transpiration. However, maintaining urban trees is complex and costly. Trees in cities often have shorter lifespans due to harsh conditions, and there is a disparity in tree cover between wealthy and poorer neighborhoods.
The growing recognition of the need for climate adaptation has spurred action from local politicians like Alexandre Florentin. He believes that nothing in Paris will change without a political movement to push for more aggressive adaptation measures. In the end, Paris, like many other cities, faces a difficult choice between preserving its past and ensuring its future livability.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The White Bear”
David Keith is a scientist exploring controversial methods to address climate change. Keith developed a machine that can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and is also investigating solar geoengineering—a proposal to spray sulfate particles into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight and cool the Earth, mimicking the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions. While acknowledging the risks of geoengineering, such as potential disruptions to monsoons and increased air pollution, Keith argues that it could provide temporary relief from extreme heat, especially for the world’s poorest populations, while efforts to reduce carbon emissions continue. Though the idea of geoengineering raises ethical and environmental concerns, Keith believes it should not be dismissed without study. Geoengineering, while dangerous, could offer a way to temporarily mitigate the effects of climate change as the world struggles to curb its reliance on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions.
Goodell went on an expedition to Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic with Keith and another scientist, Geoff Holmes. They lived in constant fear of encountering a hungry polar bear. Polar bears are losing their habitat to changing global climate systems. Initially, the expedition believed they were safe from bears while staying near the shore but soon began noticing bear tracks and sightings, indicating the bears were closer than they had believed. This created a constant sense of unease, especially in poor visibility, when the threat of a bear attack felt even more imminent. As the expedition continued, the warming Arctic became more dangerous, with melting ice increasing the risks of falling into the water and facing hypothermia. They remained vigilant, particularly at night, relying on a bear wire alarm for protection while camping.
At the end of their journey, they reached the rendezvous point only to find the area littered with remnants of a polar bear’s recent kill. Exhausted and low on supplies, they camped nearby despite the danger. The following morning, as they waited for their guides, the bear alarm sounded, and a female polar bear with two cubs approached the tent. After a tense standoff, the bear ultimately retreated, leaving the group shaken but unharmed.
Epilogue Summary: “Beyond Goldilocks”
Goodell concludes the book with a warning that humanity is on the brink of leaving its Goldilocks Zone. The heat driving this transformation is a direct result of burning fossil fuels. Though we have not fully crossed this threshold, the world is already changing, and unless drastic action is taken, the environment will be altered beyond recognition. While the world is slowly decarbonizing and clean energy is now more affordable, political inertia and the influence of fossil fuel industries hinder faster progress.
As the planet heats up, familiar landscapes will disappear, and life will be shaped by the thermal divide, where access to cooling and safe working conditions will determine survival for many. Goodell argues that the rich may be able to insulate themselves from extreme heat, while others will suffer and die, with these deaths potentially becoming normalized. The growing thermal gap will highlight the disparity between those who can cope with rising temperatures and those left vulnerable.
While technological advancements may provide temporary solutions, the current trajectory risks pushing the planet into an uninhabitable state. The lessons from history, especially evidence from places like Guadalupe Mountains National Park, show that the Earth has experienced catastrophic warming before, and Goodell believes that it could happen again.
Afterword Summary
In 2023, Earth experienced its hottest year on record. The unexpected intensity of the year’s heat caught climate scientists off guard, driven primarily by record-high levels of CO₂, the emergence of El Niño, warming oceans, and a reduction in atmospheric aerosols.
These climate changes are accelerating impacts worldwide. In 2023, Phoenix saw a surge in heat-related deaths, Brazil’s Amazon dried up, and malaria returned to the US. Crop failures, rising food prices, and increasing global hunger all demonstrated the strain on agricultural systems. The continued rapid melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, with severe consequences for sea levels and ocean currents, added to the mounting urgency.
Despite the grim outlook, Goodell believes that some progress was made. The US Inflation Reduction Act spurred billions of dollars in clean energy investments, while global renewable energy and electric vehicle sales saw significant growth. Innovations like electric heat pumps and city initiatives to cool urban areas also gained traction. However, fossil fuel consumption persisted at record levels, with major oil companies backtracking on emissions cuts and global leaders at COP28 falling short of committing to phase out fossil fuels.
The year revealed a growing divide between those insulated from the worst impacts of heat and those suffering from its effects. Cultural battles around climate change deepened, with declining public belief in human-caused climate change. Activists and scientists insist that each action, vote, and attempt to lower emissions plays a vital role in addressing the climate crisis. Goodell concludes with a call to action, urging people to fight for a habitable planet while they still can.
Chapter 12-Afterword Analysis
In the final chapters, Goodell revisits the idea of heat’s invisibility, using it as a metaphor for society’s neglect of climate change, including the Inadequacy of Current Responses to Extreme Heat. Heat lacks the visual drama of other natural disasters, and this absence of spectacle makes it easy to ignore. Goodell argues that society’s perception, shaped by visually driven media and compelling imagery, fails to grasp the danger posed by less visible threats. This critique of society’s response to invisible dangers highlights one of Goodell’s central points: that both heat and climate change operate silently, eroding stability without the immediacy needed to mobilize action.
Goodell inserts himself more directly into the narrative in these chapters, recounting his own encounters with extreme heat to underscore the text’s personal dimensions and humanize the climate crisis. When he describes his own physical responses to heat, he makes the impact of climate change tangible and relatable, which also enhances his credibility as an author: His firsthand experiences with heat give his narrative an immediacy that theoretical discussion alone could not achieve. By placing himself within the story, Goodell shows that his insights are not only based on research but on lived experience. The choice also serves as an implicit warning: Even those who study and write about climate change are not insulated from its effects.
In the Epilogue, Goodell returns to a broader, universal view, reflecting on heat’s pervasive impact across different lives and systems worldwide. This global perspective connects the individual stories and scientific analysis in the book, underscoring that no one is exempt from the effects of climate change: Vulnerable groups may face the immediate impacts due to Socioeconomic Inequality in Climate Resilience, but heat will ultimately affect all forms of life. The Epilogue is also a closing call to action, reiterating that the heat crisis requires a unified, collective response. By shifting from specific stories to a broader reflection on climate change’s global impact, Goodell suggests that the solution must be as all-encompassing as the problem. His focus on the interconnectedness of ecosystems and societies calls for shared responsibility and reminds readers that addressing climate change needs global coordination, not just individual actions. This ending ensures that the reader leaves with a sense of agency, understanding that while the crisis is dire, it is not yet too late to act.
The Afterword, written a year after the book’s publication, allows Goodell to stress the urgency of climate change by addressing recent developments and personal growth. He opens with the fact that 2023 is “the hottest year humans have ever experienced” (301), pointing to the rapid advancement of the climate crisis and indicating that the risks described throughout the book have grown significantly more severe in a comparatively short amount of time. Goodell’s choice to include statements from scientists like NASA’s Gavin Schmidt, who describes the conditions as “frankly astonishing,” emphasizes that even experts are taken aback by the speed of climate change—a fact meant to provoke alarm in readers. Overall, the new data adds to the urgency of the book, reminding readers that the threat is worsening.
The Afterword also allows Goodell to refocus the reader’s attention on actionable solutions, redirecting the narrative from an examination of climate impacts to a call for response. Goodell references developments like the US Inflation Reduction Act to acknowledge progress in climate mitigation and stress that “every ton of CO2 we avoid […] matters” (308). This pivot to action aims to empower the reader, countering the sense of helplessness that can accompany discussions of climate change.
