The Heat Will Kill You First – A Book Review
Janelle Velina
17 November 2024
LLCO.org
Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human conquest over nature. For each such conquest takes its revenge on us. Each of them, it is true, has in the first place the consequences on which we counted, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel out the first. The people who, in Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor, and elsewhere, destroyed the forests to obtain cultivable land, never dreamed that they were laying the basis for the present devastated condition of these countries, by removing along with the forests the collecting centres and reservoirs of moisture. When, on the southern slopes of the mountains, the Italians of the Alps used up the pine forests so carefully cherished on the northern slopes, they had no inkling that by doing so they were cutting at the roots of the dairy industry in their region; they had still less inkling that they were thereby depriving their mountain springs of water for the greater part of the year, with the effect that these would be able to pour still more furious flood torrents on the plains during the rainy seasons. Those who spread the potato in Europe were not aware that they were at the same time spreading the disease of scrofula. Thus at every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature – but that we, with flesh, blood, and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other beings of being able to know and correctly apply its laws.
(Engels, 1883, Dialectics of Nature, ch. 9)
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death On a Scorched Planet is a non-fiction book written by journalist and author Jeff Goodell, published in July, 2023. The book is about how climate change is quickly changing our planet over time in extreme ways, and it examines this ongoing crisis using heat waves as a large, cohesive case study. As well as demonstrating – by citing the work of climate scientists – how climate change is reflected more strongly in heat waves. The goal of the author is to convince readers to think differently about heat, to see more clearly the social impacts of the environmental problem it poses, and to consider why we shouldn’t underestimate its lethality. Goodell aims to convey the consequences of having temperatures that are rising “too far, too fast…” (p. 20), and that this rapid, climate change-driven extreme heat will make our planet uninhabitable. Hence, his key argument is that climate change is making heat waves more intense, more frequent, and more deadly, and should thus be seen as an extinction force in the long run. With this in mind, the takeaways from this book are that everything on Earth – all life, and even things that are not alive such as our phones and power lines – have a temperature limit; and that we are not a long way from another mass extinction event from which Earth may take many years to recover, if it manages to survive it at all.
The Scientific Facts
To achieve his aim, Goodell combines scientific explanations that are easy to understand, literary journalism, and social commentary to help illustrate and support his arguments. These range from summarizing real-life news stories about heat-related deaths to anthropological and paleoanthropological research in addition to climatology findings. Chapter 2 in particular discusses human and animal evolution, as well as Earth’s geological formation and evolution, as they relate to how species evolved and adapted to be able to self-regulate body temperatures and be able to withstand and survive the temperatures of their environments. However, Goodell points out that there is a significant difference between evolution and climate change: while the former is a gradual process of change, the latter is happening too fast for evolutionary selection to be able to keep up.
In addition to that, the author discusses a 2013 climate catastrophe event, colloquially referred to as ‘the Blob’ (pp. 144-146), and uses it as an example to help explain that heat waves aren’t just a terrestrial event and that they are tied to the heating of oceans as well. All life on Earth is linked to our oceans, and what happens in them could have a major impact on the future of our planet. At the end of this chapter, he makes sure to drive home the point that fossil fuels and CO2 emissions are major problems because they are drastically changing the chemistry of the Earth’s natural structures and biomes, including coral reefs; and the rapid changes are happening at a pace that life forms are unable to keep up with and adapt to accordingly. Two chapters later, in Chapter 9 – which is perhaps appropriately titled, “Ice At the End of the World” – Goodell reinforces the point made about heat waves being tied to the heating of oceans and why it is a major concern that should raise alarms. It should be noted that Chapter 9 is formatted like a series of diary entries where he presents his observations and recollections (with added commentary and summarized scientific explanations) from a 2019 Antarctica research expedition he went on with a team of climate scientists. More importantly, this chapter examines the deglaciation of West Antarctica, particularly the Thwaites glacier, where the warming of ocean currents are passing under these glaciers and their ice sheets and shelves and thinning them out. When these ice sheets and glaciers melt, the sea-level rise will be catastrophic and could possibly reach two hundred feet. The chapter ends with a quote from one of the researchers whom he interviewed during the trip to lend some perspective for readers where a simple paraphrase would not suffice: “Seeing this glacier makes you realize that things you think will always be there might not be. That’s quite a thing to get your head around,” (p. 196).
Continuing within the vein of the heating of oceans is Chapter 14, “The White Bear,” which is obviously referring to polar bears. Goodell reinforces the climate change discussion around polar bears, but redirects the reader to look at them beyond the “cute, cuddly,” mascots that elicit heart-wrenching emotional reactions which they’ve been turned into, thus avoiding a cliche. He does this by contextualizing the endangered apex predators’ climate-driven suffering and hardships by discussing the significance of the warming of the Arctic, their natural habitat. To further drive home the point about climate change driven heat rapidly transforming our planet, Goodell reminds readers that the Arctic’s disappearing sea ice and melting permafrost is not just a symbol of climate change, but that it also has consequences that will affect the entire planet:
A warmer Arctic alters the thermodynamic balance of the Earth’s atmosphere, changing the pressure gradients that create heat waves, and altering rainfall patterns, especially in Europe and Asia, which will have big implications for food production. Rapidly melting ice sheets in the Arctic also accelerates sea-level rise, inundating coastal cities around the world, stranding billions of dollars’ worth of real-estate and forcing tens of millions of people to move to higher ground.
[…]
…A warming Arctic is also speeding up the melting of permafrost, releasing vast quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that is twenty-five times more potent than CO2. More methane means more warming, which will release still more methane – when scientists talk about a looming climate catastrophe, this is one of the scenarios that worries them the most. And it’s not just methane and woolly mammoth bones that are locked up in the Arctic permafrost – there are also viruses and pathogens from an earlier time, which, as I mentioned in a previous chapter, when thawed and released into our world, could unleash a global pandemic… (pp. 293-294)
With these scientific facts on the troubling ways that our planet is changing in mind, one might ask: how does this impact the class interests of the proletarian masses globally? Why should these findings concern Marxists and labour movements? How does one connect this to the global working class struggle?
Heat and Social Murder
For starters, the author explores the link between climate change and infectious diseases – including COVID-19 which disproportionately affected and killed the poor and working classes – in Chapter 10, stating: “The more contact these bats have with other animals, as well as people, the more opportunities the viruses they carry have to spill over,” (p. 206). Bats are able to harbour so many deadly viruses because their immune systems are built for tolerating infection that allow them to host them without getting sick. Not only that, but they live up to forty years on average and are very mobile, which is important for the author to point out because as the Earth’s climate continues to warm, they can easily relocate and can do so even more frequently since they are forced to. Climate change is impacting their food sources and environment, thus causing them more physiological stress and placing them into more frequent contact with humans (as well as livestock and other animals), which means more opportunities for various viruses to spill over. Quoting epidemiologist Raina Plowright, “…the quicker the climate changes, the bigger the risk grows,” (206) which should be seen as a threat, exacerbated by capitalists and their profit-making interests, to the collective well-being and living conditions of the global working class.
In relation to that, Goodell discusses the heat’s impacts on the health and safety of workers in a chapter titled, “The Sweat Economy”. For any Marxist who decides to read this book, the chapter is reminiscent of what Engels calls ‘social murder’ in his work, Condition of the Working Class in England, which is the systemic practice of “plac[ing] the workers under conditions in which they can neither retain health nor live long; that it undermines the vital force of these workers gradually, little by little, and so hurries them to the grave before their time.” The author has stated in the book’s prologue that most poor and working class people just simply don’t have the luxury of having bunkers or to be able to move as many times as possible to cooler homes. And when the poor from the Global South flee from their home countries as climate refugees, it is ultimately economic factors that force them to do so, such as the decline in food productivity due to climate change, bringing to mind Marx’s words:
On the other hand, large landed property reduces the agricultural population to a constantly falling minimum, and confronts it with a constantly growing industrial population crowded together in large cities. It thereby creates conditions which cause an irreparable break in the coherence of social interchange prescribed by the natural laws of life. As a result, the vitality of the soil is squandered, and this prodigality is carried by commerce far beyond the borders of a particular state…
(1894, Capital Vol. 3, pt. 5, ch. 47).
But this particular chapter shows a deeper understanding that class does indeed play a large role in climate change because it is often the toiling, labouring masses who bear the brunt of it – whether it is working too long outdoors under extreme heat as a farmworker, going to and from a poorly air conditioned van as a postal service worker during the summer, or working in a poorly ventilated warehouse where there is little to no air conditioning. Goodell goes even further when he debunks the assumption that Mexicans and other racialized peoples from generally warmer geographic regions or who have darker skin can withstand heat and prolonged sun exposure better than whites – an assumption, as he discusses, that continues to persist and has been used to justify exploiting migrant labourers who mostly work physically labour-intensive jobs outdoors (particularly jobs that many people do not want to do, and where capitalists want little to no state regulations or union pushback). He makes it very clear that persons with darker skin can still get skin damage, get skin cancer, suffer from heat strokes, or die from heat exhaustion as he covers cases of migrant workers from Mexico in the United States who face these hazards – which are exacerbated by the fact they have even less job protections and are paid below minimum wage. He points out that this myth and racist construct around certain ethnicities or darker skin in relation to sun exposure is rooted in the Atlantic slave trade and was one of several things used to justify the use of slave labour historically. For good measure, he also goes on to debunk a common Hollywood portrayal of Mexico being a monolithic extremely hot desert, stating that it actually has a diverse range of ecosystems; while at the same time, still feeling the effects of climate change such as seeing rising temperatures that are too hot for it like many places. And so another takeaway from this passage is that it is easy to either overlook or completely dismiss the fact that climate change and climate change driven extreme heat does indeed affect people regardless of race, not just white Europeans or North Americans, and that environmental racism, rooted in colonialism and imperialism, does exist and manifests itself quite clearly in the modern day exploitation of migrant labour.
Later, in another chapter (Ch. 12, “What You Can’t See Won’t Hurt You”), he makes it a point to underscore that the extreme heat is not something that the working masses around the world brought on themselves because they are much more likely to suffer while the rich pollute. And that on a per capita basis, the masses in the Global South are generally responsible for less than one-fifteenth as much CO2 as the richest Americans. As an example, Goodell points out that Pakistan produces about only one half of one percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. Thus, it is refreshing to see the author is pushing neither the usual “green” consumerist individualist lifestylism nor the neo-Malthusian narratives often promoted by mainstream media. It is also refreshing to see that his explanations do not rely too heavily or solely on critiquing individual consumerist habits, and instead examines the climate crisis on a wider systemic level.
Band-aid Solutions and the Paradox of “Eco-Capitalism”
Another refreshing idea that Goodell presents to readers is found in Ch. 11, “Cheap Cold Air,” which challenges us to think differently and more critically of the legacy of air conditioning, a lucrative business venture and popular band aid solution which “…enabled the building boom not only in Texas, but throughout the South. Goodbye big porches and flow-through ventilation. Hello mass-produced suburban development with cheap construction, low ceilings, and zero airflow,” (p. 224). He elaborates further on these particular downsides of air conditioning:
The rise of air-conditioning accelerated the construction of sealed boxes, where the building’s only airflow is through filtered ducts of the air-conditioning unit. It doesn’t have to be this way. Look at any old building in a hot climate, whether it’s Sicily or Marrakesh or Tehran. Architects understood the importance of shade, airflow, insulation, light colors. They oriented buildings to capture cool breezes and deflect the worst heat of the afternoon. They built with thick walls and white roofs and transoms over doors to encourage airflow. Anyone who has ever spent a few minutes in an adobe in Tuscon, or walked on the narrow streets of old Seville, knows how well these construction methods work. But all this wisdom about how to deal with heat, accumulated over centuries of practical experience, is all too often ignored. In this sense, air-conditioning is not just a technology of personal comfort; it is also a technology of forgetting. (p. 235)
Undoubtedly, air conditioning has a very complicated legacy, to say the least. Of course, no one should have to suffer from the heat within their own homes, and the author is certainly not saying that people need to abruptly turn off their air conditioners; but it is apparent that with the dawn of air conditioning, housing market profiteers have seized that opportunity to essentially cut corners in building design. As he chronicles the history of air conditioners in this chapter, he highlights the energy processes used for air conditioners, specifically these two compounds: chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). CFCs – chemicals used as refrigerants – used to be in most if not all air conditioners, freezers, refrigerators, and aerosol cans. But in 1974, a group of scientists published research that suggested that CFCs could deplete the Earth’s ozone layer, which protects against damaging effects of the Sun. In 1985, a hole in the atmosphere was found over Antarctica, leading to public outcry and the 1987 international treaty, the Montreal Protocol, to cut CFCs in half. CFCs are now outlawed by 197 countries, and the ozone layer did recover slowly. However, CFCs were replaced by HFCs, which contain carbon, hydrogen, and fluorine. They do not destroy the ozone layer, but they are greenhouse gases that are up to 15 times stronger than CO2. Air conditioners don’t burn HFCs, but the problem arises when gas often leaks out of them during repairs or disposal, or when the piping in the units become old and start to leak. HFCs are being phased out over the next several decades, but air conditioning units that still contain them will linger for a long time. Many air conditioners also use up a large amount of electricity – about 20% used up in buildings globally – which contributes a significant amount of greenhouse gas pollution. With the planet getting hotter, it feels more necessary to turn up the air conditioner, which means more electricity being used up. And because some portion of that electricity is generated by fossil fuels, that means more greenhouse gas pollution, leading to further heating up of the climate. This is even worse in older, poorer neighborhoods with old, inefficient window air conditioners which protrude out of many buildings and suck heat out from the inside and blow it out into the street. Global dependence on air-conditioning is so immense that most people do not really think too much about it, to the point where the risk of brownouts or blackouts arise along with it because of the tendency to increase the intensity of air conditioners during heat waves – and a massive power failure means many deaths, especially of the poor and the vulnerable. Goodell’s critique of air-conditioning may understandably come across as somewhat harsh to some, but it is very much needed, and it certainly can help to inform the building of truly sustainable, not-for-profit housing in a socialist future. He continuously and consistently manages to avoid placing the blame squarely on the individual, and it shows when he demonstrates how capitalists’ profit-making decisions with regards to housing and the air-conditioning industry have conditioned us to be so dependent on air-conditioners to the point that the dependence is almost akin to an addiction.
This global addiction to ‘cheap cold air,’ as Goodell calls it, should be kept in mind when reading Ch. 13, “Roast, Flee, or Act,” where he summarizes the horrific deaths that occurred during the 9-day heatwave of August 2003 in Paris, France. The iconic zinc roofs of the city’s old building structures which were constructed in the mid-19th century, while aesthetically pleasing to many, were clearly not built to handle this new epoch of extreme heat. “Like every other city in the world, Paris was built by people who believed that the Earth’s climate was stable,” (p. 263) Goodell writes. Not only were these buildings poorly ventilated and poorly insulated, but they were made even more deadly by the zinc roofs which essentially conducted heat like ovens and literally cooked many residents – particularly those who lived in top floors – to death. Once again, he points out that homes can be constructed or retrofitted so that they do not need artificial cooling at all, and can sustainably withstand heat (and cold). But, in the case of Paris and many cities with iconic historic structures, retrofitting – which includes big public works projects to make greener cities overall – is a challenge namely because of costs, maintenance, structural integrity concerns, and adamant historical preservationists. Besides the conundrum over what to do with the zinc roofs in Paris, he also points to the practice of mass tree-planting which faces similar challenges. Planting trees, while easily agreeable and commendable – as well as being good for photo-ops for politicians, as Goodell is quick to point out – is not necessarily going to always be effective because it is a matter of which trees are suitable for certain environments, and which trees can handle fluctuating temperatures. There is also the issue of being able to care for them, particularly higher maintenance ones. But even more importantly, Goodell explains that tree-planting and urban greenery planning in general are quite paradoxical in today’s society because it gives the impression that we can just as easily create nature or replace ecosystems that have been destroyed, pointing to Singapore – and its massive green space planning that make it look like a jungle – as an example:
All the greenery certainly helps Singapore keep cool for the people who live there. But it’s hard to argue that cities like Singapore, which have massive ecological footprints through their oil refineries and supply chains that stretch across the globe, actually contribute to the cooling of the planet. “Singapore can make itself into a garden because the farm and the mine are always somewhere else,” writes Richard Weller, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. “I would call Singapore a case of Gucci biodiversity, a distraction from the fact that they bankroll palm oil plantations in Kalimantan, the last of the world’s great rain forests.” (p. 280)
Unmentioned by the author, however, is the fact that most if not all levels of government are not actually willing to put much effort into these ambitious projects, despite the well intentioned efforts of well-meaning, environmentally conscious architects and urban planners, fundamentally because of the profit motive and the capitalists that they serve. At best, they will take half-hearted measures that meet the bare minimum when it comes to addressing climate change, if they are not outright denying the reality of it. He does agree that political action needs to be taken, and that the current status quo is not a viable option for the long run for a rapidly warming planet; and yet does not explicitly name capitalism or capitalists. It is a shame because throughout the book we can see why “eco-capitalism” is an oxymoron.
Conclusion
I would highly recommend that Marxists to add this book to their reading lists and to use it as a literary resource to help educate others. Of course, there is the caveat that the author himself, unfortunately, is not a Marxist and, although coming very painfully close, he has not explicitly named capitalism as the system that has largely accelerated the climate crisis. While it is commendable that he examines the climate change crisis as a systemic problem rather than placing the onus on individual responsibility, it is a missed opportunity that capital is not named as a fundamental cause. And so, Marxists should not expect to see any calls for a socialist revolution in this book. However, despite that shortcoming, the book is still largely successful in accomplishing its aim. Marxists in particular should use this book as one of many educating opportunities to show how social abuses, from war, bourgeois domination of the political process, climate change, and pandemics, are inevitable consequences of capitalism; further showing how capitalism is hostile to the interests of the majority, and how it militates against the implementation of effective solutions to significant problems. More specifically, the concepts in this book should also be a reminder to Marxists that one of the challenges that they will most likely still face during the transitional stage of socialism is the lingering environmental destruction left over by capitalism, which will require a considerable amount of work to combat. The paradox of “eco-capitalism” in the context of heat waves reminds us that capitalism is the root cause of many problems that ultimately make the survival of humanity on Earth increasingly difficult. While poorer countries are already suffering greatly today, richer countries can afford to make climate catastrophes less visible for the time being, as seen with the examples of the air conditioning industry and Singapore’s elaborate green space planning. But these problems can only remain “out of sight, out of mind,” for so long. The LLCO has always been of the position that ecological protections and fighting climate change are integral to the liberation of workers and oppressed peoples around the world. Therefore, it is important to emphasize once again that fighting climate change under the banner of Leading Light Communism and the guidance of Marxist revolutionary science, which seeks to end capitalism, is the path that can save humanity from the next mass extinction.
Featured image at the top: NASA. The Effects of Climate Change triptych. 2024. Left – Mike McMillan/USFS, center – Tomas Castelazo / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, right – NASA.