Science & Math
Earth Sciences
![Jeff Goodell - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B001IU4RYQ.jpg)
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet
Most Anticipated by The New York Times
The Washington Post
The Los Angeles Times
A Next Big Idea Book Club Selection
The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
New York Times bestselling journalist's "masterful, bracing" (David Wallace-Wells) investigation exposes "through stellar reporting, artful storytelling and fascinating scientific explanations" (Naomi Klein) an explosive new understanding of heat and the impact that rising temperatures will have on our lives and on our planet. "Entertaining and thoroughly researched," (Al Gore), it will completely change the way you see the world, and despite its urgent themes, is injected with "eternal optimism" (Michael Mann) on how to combat one of the most important issues of our time.
"When heat comes, it's invisible. It doesn't bend tree branches or blow hair across your face to let you know it's arrived…. The sun feels like the barrel of a gun pointed at you."
The world is waking up to a new reality: wildfires are now seasonal in California, the Northeast is getting less and less snow each winter, and the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica are melting fast. Heat is the first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis. And as the temperature rises, it is revealing fault lines in our governments, our politics, our economy, and our values. The basic science is not complicated: Stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow, and the global temperature will stop rising tomorrow. Stop burning fossil fuels in 50 years, and the temperature will keep rising for 50 years, making parts of our planet virtually uninhabitable. It's up to us. The hotter it gets, the deeper and wider our fault lines will open.
The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90° F to 110°F. A heatwave, Goodell explains, is a predatory event- one that culls out the most vulnerable people. But that is changing. As heatwaves become more intense and more common, they will become more democratic.
As an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades, Goodell's new book may be his most provocative yet, explaining how extreme heat will dramatically change the world as we know it. Masterfully reported, mixing the latest scientific insight with on-the-ground storytelling, Jeff Goodell tackles the big questions and uncovers how extreme heat is a force beyond anything we have reckoned with before.
The Washington Post
The Los Angeles Times
A Next Big Idea Book Club Selection
The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
New York Times bestselling journalist's "masterful, bracing" (David Wallace-Wells) investigation exposes "through stellar reporting, artful storytelling and fascinating scientific explanations" (Naomi Klein) an explosive new understanding of heat and the impact that rising temperatures will have on our lives and on our planet. "Entertaining and thoroughly researched," (Al Gore), it will completely change the way you see the world, and despite its urgent themes, is injected with "eternal optimism" (Michael Mann) on how to combat one of the most important issues of our time.
"When heat comes, it's invisible. It doesn't bend tree branches or blow hair across your face to let you know it's arrived…. The sun feels like the barrel of a gun pointed at you."
The world is waking up to a new reality: wildfires are now seasonal in California, the Northeast is getting less and less snow each winter, and the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica are melting fast. Heat is the first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis. And as the temperature rises, it is revealing fault lines in our governments, our politics, our economy, and our values. The basic science is not complicated: Stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow, and the global temperature will stop rising tomorrow. Stop burning fossil fuels in 50 years, and the temperature will keep rising for 50 years, making parts of our planet virtually uninhabitable. It's up to us. The hotter it gets, the deeper and wider our fault lines will open.
The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90° F to 110°F. A heatwave, Goodell explains, is a predatory event- one that culls out the most vulnerable people. But that is changing. As heatwaves become more intense and more common, they will become more democratic.
As an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades, Goodell's new book may be his most provocative yet, explaining how extreme heat will dramatically change the world as we know it. Masterfully reported, mixing the latest scientific insight with on-the-ground storytelling, Jeff Goodell tackles the big questions and uncovers how extreme heat is a force beyond anything we have reckoned with before.
Editorial Reviews
"Entertaining and thoroughly researched, Jeff Goodell brings the subject of climate-driven extreme heat to life in his comprehensive look at heat's substantial impact on humanity's past, present, and future."―Former Vice President Al Gore
"Through stellar reporting, artful storytelling and fascinating scientific explanations, Goodell brings to life heat as a world re-making force. In his skillful hands, the climbing temperature is revealed as an invisible, planetary animator that is already pushing landscapes, bodies, and social systems to their limits – and, unless we change course, it will take humanity to an oven-like climate that will feel more like a war than a home. This searing plea for a better, fairer and cooler future should be read by anyone with skin in the game – which is every single one of us."―Naomi Klein, author of the New York Times bestselling This Changes Everything
"In his fast-paced new book about climate change. . .Goodell denounces the term 'global warming' for sounding 'gentle and soothing.' As this terrifying book makes exceptionally clear, thinking we can just crank up the A.C. is a dangerous way to live. This is a propulsive book, one to be raced through; the planet is burning, and we are running out of time."―Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
"The climate crisis brings no greater threat than the prospect of deadly extreme heat. In The Heat Will Kill You First, Jeff Goodell brings a mix of fantastic storytelling, lucid science communication, and eternal optimism in detailing the profound threat we face with the climate crisis and what we can still do about it."―Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor, University of Pennsylvania and author of The New Climate War
"It is already a new world, hotter than ever before in human history and getting rapidly hotter still. The Heat Will Kill You First is a masterful, bracing, vivid portrait of the future we now know will be shaped, like clay, by that heat-a godlike force, as Goodell writes, governing all life conducted under its profound and brutal reign." ―David Wallace-Wells, author of The New York Times bestselling The Uninhabitable Earth
"This is a scary book. It humanizes global warming by telling amazing stories of individuals already affected by it, making very clear the danger we are putting ourselves in. We all have a cognitive map in our head t...
"Through stellar reporting, artful storytelling and fascinating scientific explanations, Goodell brings to life heat as a world re-making force. In his skillful hands, the climbing temperature is revealed as an invisible, planetary animator that is already pushing landscapes, bodies, and social systems to their limits – and, unless we change course, it will take humanity to an oven-like climate that will feel more like a war than a home. This searing plea for a better, fairer and cooler future should be read by anyone with skin in the game – which is every single one of us."―Naomi Klein, author of the New York Times bestselling This Changes Everything
"In his fast-paced new book about climate change. . .Goodell denounces the term 'global warming' for sounding 'gentle and soothing.' As this terrifying book makes exceptionally clear, thinking we can just crank up the A.C. is a dangerous way to live. This is a propulsive book, one to be raced through; the planet is burning, and we are running out of time."―Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
"The climate crisis brings no greater threat than the prospect of deadly extreme heat. In The Heat Will Kill You First, Jeff Goodell brings a mix of fantastic storytelling, lucid science communication, and eternal optimism in detailing the profound threat we face with the climate crisis and what we can still do about it."―Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor, University of Pennsylvania and author of The New Climate War
"It is already a new world, hotter than ever before in human history and getting rapidly hotter still. The Heat Will Kill You First is a masterful, bracing, vivid portrait of the future we now know will be shaped, like clay, by that heat-a godlike force, as Goodell writes, governing all life conducted under its profound and brutal reign." ―David Wallace-Wells, author of The New York Times bestselling The Uninhabitable Earth
"This is a scary book. It humanizes global warming by telling amazing stories of individuals already affected by it, making very clear the danger we are putting ourselves in. We all have a cognitive map in our head t...
Readers Top Reviews
Kelly Gottschalk
Wow. This book makes me optimistically depressed. Is that a thing? Jeff Goodell’s The Heat Will Kill You First is a very readable book about one of the largest consequences of climate change, heat, and the consequences of the heat. He avoids being highly scientific and data driven, incorporating this information into a book that is more readable for the average reader. He does a great job of mixing in stories of real people and real communities impacted by the rising temperatures, ranging from a family on the outskirts of Silicon Valley to the deadly heat wave in Paris in 2003 - and how history, culture and politics can make it so difficult to adapt. With the highs of knowing the things we can do to naturally stay cooler and avoid the energy suck of air conditioning to the lows of actually making changes, Goodell leaves the reader with hope for practical solutions and frustrated with everything impeding those solutions. He brings awareness to just how deadly heat can be to the human body, sometimes unexpectedly. He reminds the reader of the many different ways trees are a difference maker, while pointing out how hard it seems to be for us to appreciate their value. And he makes me never want to spend time around standing water (and the mosquitoes that breed in it) during the heat of summer. This is really well done, connecting an impending crisis in deeply personal ways without ever coming across as overly preachy or angry.
Nancy Adair
Jeff Goodell’s last book, The Water Will Come, was pretty alarming–but living in the Midwest, it wasn’t personal. The Great Lakes are not going to flood Michigan. But, The Heat Will Kill You First is downright frightening. Especially this year when Canadian forests are burning. The smoke kept us indoors for the first days of our vacation, masked when outside–while back home, Detroit had the worst air quality in the world. Is this the future? Uncontrolled burning of the forests, sunlight blocked, the air too polluted to breath? Grey skies that the sun can’t penetrate? But the real threat of a hotter world is broader and more devastating. And Goodell serves it all up in a book that will raise the hair on your neck better than any suspense thriller you could read. In the news today we read about temperatures higher than ever recorded. Our bodies, Goodell tells us, were developed for the climate of East Africa: dry and 72 degrees. What happens when our body temperature rises isn’t pretty. Last May, I experienced early heat stoke while at a local garden center. It was in the 90s outside, the sun relentless outdoors and the greenhouses stuffy and airless. I didn’t feel well. My fitness watch showed my body temperature had risen two degrees! I fled to the air conditioned car, and hubby drove us home, where I cooled in air conditioning with an icy glass of water. What first world, middle class luxury. Air conditioning. It is the poor of the world who really suffer, and those who must work outdoors, and even those living in housing built for the moderate climate of the past. And that, my friends, is most of the world. Climate refugees are already part of dystopian fiction, and will too soon become reality. As will the impact on agriculture resulting in crop loss, the migration of species bringing new diseases North, the destruction of ocean life because of warming waters… If you aren’t alarmed, you aren’t listening. And yet….and yet…Goodell holds on to hope that we CAN build a better world. There are people imagining better ways to live and perhaps answers to be discovered. We are all on this journey together, he ends, humans and animals and plants and trees. Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
Terrie Brader
Author is extremely knowledgeable and goal is obvious for educating the masses with little time left for positive outcome for our world. Very critical information.
Myredc6
Here in Houston it's been over 100 each day for week. This boo really drives home the issue of heat and what it does to people, planta, and animals. Not an easy read as the truth is not easily digested.
Anthony Restuccia
As I write this review in Boston the air quality is poor from Canadian fries. I sit in my room in the AC doing work as down the street a crew puts in a new driveway on this humid 90 degree day, I hope they have water and take breaks, I feel worse for them than I did before starting this book. The country is in the middle of a heat wave, o nevermind make that most the northern hemisphere. The book puts the personal touch on the biggest problem facing our species and civilizations, and it does it well. Easy to read, and powerful once consumed, I'm glad I took the flyer on this great book
