We can't adapt fast enough to keep up with the heating planet

The Earth is hotter than it's been in some 125,000 years. Canada's boreal forest is aflame, the American Southwest recently experienced an epic heat dome, and global temperature records keep falling. It's clear that humans can't escape the heat that we unleashed on the planet. And it turns out we can't adapt fast enough to the heat either.

As bestselling nonfiction writer Jeff Goodell explains in an excerpt from his astonishing new book, The Heat Will Kill You First, humans have adapted remarkably well to heat since our ancestor Lucy first learned to stand up about 3.2 million years ago. She did that, perhaps, in order to stay cool and get away from the heat radiating off the ground. Since then, our bodies have adapted remarkably well to the heat thanks to developing sweat glands to cool our bodies and losing hair to keep from overheating. But now the planet is warming faster than we—and many other living things—can adapt.

Some quotes from Goodell's piece that stood out to me and tell the story:

READ MORE