Understanding Wet-Bulb Temperature, Climate Extremes, & Systemic Risk—& How We Build Resilience - Colin Raymond | #56
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
-
Wet-bulb temperature
11 min read
The core scientific concept of this interview - understanding how wet-bulb temperature measures the combination of heat and humidity that determines human survivability, and why certain thresholds pose lethal risks even for healthy people in shade with water
-
The Ministry for the Future
1 min read
Kim Stanley Robinson's 2020 climate fiction novel explicitly referenced in the article, which opens with a devastating wet-bulb temperature event in India that kills millions - providing narrative context for why this scientific concept matters
-
Heat wave
1 min read
Provides broader context on extreme heat events, their increasing frequency due to climate change, historical death tolls, and the infrastructure challenges mentioned in the article regarding mitigation systems
Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
👉 Never miss an episode! 👉 Subscribe to Urgent Futures now: Youtube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify.
And if you’re loving the show, please share it with a friend who you think would as well!
My guest this week is Colin Raymond.
Dr. Colin Raymond is a research scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work centers on understanding the intricate interactions of weather, geography, and human systems that drive extreme humid heat and its impacts, now and in the future. He draws upon a variety of approaches, from direct observations and climate models to storyline development, in the service of producing and communicating accessible and actionable climate information.
As many of you know by now, I’m currently working on a book manuscript called How to Survive the 21st Century. Modest, I know. It’s a journalistic effort, in which I draw from the insights of experts in various fields to sketch the major crises we face today and what more effective responses to them might be. I’ve been fortunate to speak with many experts whose ideas I’ve already included in the book, but as I set out to work on my “Heat, Humidity, and Fire” chapter, I realized I’d never actually had a guest on who could speak to the issue of wet-bulb temperatures—the temperatures at which it is hot enough to cause the human body heat stress and humid enough to prevent it from cooling off through sweat. Without getting into spoiler territory, a wet-bulb event plays a key role in Kim Stanley Robinson’s superb Ministry for the Future—by the way, if you haven’t read that book yet, take this as your sign to jump it to the top of your list.
Given how much of a threat wet-bulb temperatures already pose—and the fact that their likelihood is unfortunately going to intensify, alongside degradation of the infrastructure that would mitigate the harms they produce—I knew I needed to address this immediately. Which is why I was so excited to discover Colin’s work.
Not only is he deeply knowledgeable about the topic of wet-bulb temperatures, and guides us through the risks they pose to us—but he also has expertise in
...This excerpt is provided for preview purposes. Full article content is available on the original publication.