Ep 25 – Heat Death

Episode 25 - "Heat Death"

As climate change accelerates, much of the media attention is given to effects like rising seas, super storms, and increased weather variability. Often overlooked is the temperature itself and the direct impact warmer temperatures will have on our ability to maintain infrastructure, agricultural effects, our health, and even the very ability to live in much of the world.

As the temperature rises, so does the risk that the very fabric of modern society simply evaporates. Maybe it's time to ask the question, "How hot is too hot?"

Chapters

• 08:58 How will Modern Infrastructure Adapt to Heat?
• 10:18 Transportation
• 17:45 Energy
• 22:56 Renewable Energy
• 25:24 Animals and Crops
• 32:50 Human Health
• 44:20 Pakistan and India
• 46:24 Wet-Bulb
• 52:41 Future Temperatures
• 1:01:23 Variable Benchmarks
• 1:02:53 What Can We Do?

A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

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Listener Correction:

Correction submitted by a listener with education in metallurgy and material science, and experience in a metals heat treating facility:

I wanted to correct a small detail in your show "Heat Death". ... You mentioned that rails change crystal structure in increased heat. That is not correct in the environment that rail roads would be subjected to. Steel does not undergo a phase transformation until around 1500 F (slight variations on that temperature depending on the alloy of steel). The friction from the car moving on the rail would not generate that much heat to cause that transformation. Even if the pressures were huge it would actually suppress phase changes. ... What does cause the rails to warp from high temperatures is that the steel expands slightly. The expansion will generally happen in the direction the steel was rolled during manufacturing. Miles and miles of rails expanding along the track direction generates enough compressive stress for the steel to buckle outwards. This expansion isn't the crystal structure changing, but atoms just becoming more energetic and taking up slightly more space in their lattice multiplied by the huge number of atoms there are in rail road tracks.