Last year's deadly heat wave in metro Phoenix didn't discriminate

[sl8]

https://apnews.com/article/deadly-heat-summer-victims-phoenix-arizona-maricopa-dcb8c01e3566d1737acbd60b462e5ddf

Last year’s deadly heat wave in metro Phoenix didn’t discriminate

BY ANITA SNOW
Updated 12:05 AM EDT, May 28, 2024

PHOENIX (AP) — Priscilla Orr, 75, was living in her old white Kia in a supermarket parking lot last summer after telling her family she lost her money and home to a romance scam.

But the car broke down, and the air conditioner stopped working, leaving her vulnerable to the dangerous desert heat. Orr collapsed last July as she walked on the lot’s scalding asphalt, which registered 149 degrees Fahrenheit (65 C) as the air temperature topped the triple digits.

She was dead by the time paramedics arrived.

Orr was among over 400 people who died last year in metro Phoenix from heat-associated causes during a 31-day streak of sizzling days of 110 F (43.3 C) or higher that stretched from the last day of June through all of July.

[...]

[Think. Again.]

1. yes, it did discriminate...

...the wealthiest people were spared any discomfort by their ability to make the situation even worse for the less wealthy by burning fossil fuels to run their cooling systems.

[True Dough]

2. Came here to suggest the same thing

Low income individuals are definitely the most vulnerable.

[KarenS]

3. I just think that's a weird title for the article.

While the article points to just the opposite ~ I agree with what the others upthread have noted.

[Magoo48]

4. All extreme weather discriminates against the poor and vulnerable.

The inevitable climate catastrophe will rage through those most exposed by their circumstances, and most of those are the poor. At some point though, there will be no escape but for a small minority.

The first world will not be inconvenienced until it is way past time for anything meaningful to be done. Those who survive will be those who are masters of adaptation and possess massive luck.