The Daily Lives, Livelihoods, and the High Cost of Heat
104 snips
Aug 10, 2023 
Coral Davenport, an energy and environmental policy correspondent for The New York Times, and Dana Smith, a health and science reporter for the same publication, tackle the staggering impacts of recent heat waves. They discuss how extreme heat is crippling worker productivity, costing the U.S. economy billions annually. The pair highlights the lack of federal regulations to protect workers and sheds light on physical responses to heat, underlining the urgency of adopting effective cooling methods as the climate crisis intensifies.
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Indoor Workers and Heat
- Extreme heat impacts indoor workers more significantly than outdoor workers in the US.
- This is due to the sheer number of indoor workers and the lack of air conditioning in many factories.
AC in Factories
- Many US factories lack air conditioning because they were built in cooler climates.
- Retrofitting AC is expensive, posing a challenge for businesses facing heat-related productivity losses.
Meatpacking Plant Example
- Workers in a Kansas meatpacking plant, facing extreme heat, reported difficulty seeing due to fogged goggles.
- This raises the risk of food contamination due to reduced visibility and impaired thinking.