By Ralph E. Moore Jr.,
Special to the AFRO
The heat of the sun is beyond punishing these days. Triple digit temperatures are being felt all over the world and they are extremely dangerous. Just for the record, there have been hot temperatures occasionally in the past reminiscent of what we are currently experiencing.
The most exceedingly hot reading ever was 131 degrees Fahrenheit (F), recorded in Kebili, Tunisia in 1931 –not surprisingly– in Africa. But Asia came closest with a recorded temperature reading of 129 degrees in Iran in 2017. And the hottest temperature officially recorded in Europe was August 2021, with a reading of 119.8 F in Sicily, Italy. These measures were reported by Aljazeera News on its website.
People are dying from the intense heat in this country and abroad but too little is being done about dealing with fossil fuel emissions which puncture the ozone layer and cause climate change for the worst.
According to the National Weather Service, at least 100 million Americans, at any given time, are under heat alerts throughout the United States these summer days. Temperatures were recorded at 128 F in Death Valley, Calif. on July 23. The western and southern parts of the country remain sweltering under the heat dome, while the East and Northeast receive occasional relief.
Dealing with such high heat and humidity is difficult, to say the least: the children cannot go out in it very long and we fret for those in construction and other professions that require people to work outdoors under the beating sun. I worry about the student and professional athletes who are practicing stretches of time in the late summer-early fall for their respective football seasons. Why can’t they workout indoors somewhere?
In my opinion, too little gets done about the unforgiving rays of the sun and another relentless challenge: the over possession of guns in America. Both climate change and rising gun violence are exceedingly dangerous–both torture and kill us due to human neglect. With a record 400,000,000 guns in possession of America’s 330,000,000 citizens, it is time for a moratorium on gun and/or bullet manufacturing.
Like gun violence, we cannot wait to do something about climate change. We need to speed up –with lower prices and places to recharge– the sale of electric vehicles.
A definite solution remains to be seen, but one things is clear– doing little or nothing about the sun and the gun is suicide.
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