Climate Solutions In an Age of Deadly Heat

I asked Candice Fortin of 350.org, "How do you respond to some of the op-eds and editorials that we're seeing in the major media, that the reason why so many Europeans are dying in record-breaking heat waves, isn't climate change, it's the fact that they eschew AC, that they have essentially relied on getting by without air conditioning?"

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FEATURING CANDICE FORTIN - Heatwaves all across the northern hemisphere are smashing weather records as the long-predicted impacts of climate change emerge. In Europe, studies show thousands have already lost lives from climate-change-related impacts.

Scorching heat and humidity from Asia and Africa to the United States are testing the limits of the human body’s ability to adapt to excess heat. And still, fossil fuel companies continue to reap massive profits from energy sources whose emissions could kill off the human species. While politicians claim that transitioning away from fossil fuels is not possible, pundits claim that the solution is more air conditioning. 

Candice Fortin is the US Campaigns Manager with 350.org, a global climate justice organization. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about what it will take to adopt real climate solutions.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: So it is definitive that climate change is at the heart of this, even though we don't often see it being mentioned in news coverage of these record-breaking heatwaves. Yeah. Let's first start with all of the ways in which we could be doing better just in terms of dealing with climate change. Could reporting and journalism on our heatwaves be better? 

Candice Fortin: I really appreciate that question. And I can say this, starting from the US context, I think, first of all, it's important to position the federal administration that we're operating under right now. Drill, baby, drill, bring back coal, et cetera, tends to take the headlines and that's the Trump administration, et cetera, that are really pushing that messaging, and they're serious about it. 

They do not want to permit new renewable energy projects or anything else. But I think, essentially where we are as far as the media, we oftentimes do feed into what people want to see and the immediacy. So, we're a consumer-oriented sort of culture in the US.