Heat, a History : Lessons from the Middle East for a Warming Planet

With an unrelenting barrage of record-breaking temperatures dominating the headlines, an enigma arises--despite the flames licking at our feet, most people fail to fully grasp the gravity of environmental overheating. What acquired habits and mechanisms grant us the capacity to turn a blind eye with an air of detachment? Heat: A History shows how scientific methods of accounting for heat and modern forms of acclimatization have desensitized us to climate change. Ubiquitous air conditioning, shifts in urban planning, and changes in mobility all served as temporary remedies for escaping the heat in hotspots such as the twentieth-century Middle East. However, all these measures have ultimately fuelled not only greenhouse gas emissions but also a collective myopia regarding the impact of rising temperatures. Identifying the scientific abstractions and economic and cultural forces that have numbed our responses this book charts a way forward out of short-term thinking and towards meaningful action--

• | Author: On Barak
• | Publisher: Univ of California Press
• | Publication Date: Aug 27, 2024
• | Number of Pages: 336 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0520403924
• | ISBN-13: 9780520403925