Was working earlier today, with the TV on in the background. And heard an MSNBC news item about "cooling centers for cows" in the Fresno, California area.
For COWS!!! Couldn't find an online story, but a San Joaquin Valley CBS-affiliate TV station lists
cooling centers in the broadcast area, and the
ABC affiliate reports the city of Fresno also deploying air conditioned buses as mobile cooling centers.
I don't think I'd ever heard of a cooling center before this month. But nowadays, they're everywhere, thanks to the current heat waves across broad swaths of the country. With the weather getting hotter, energy getting more expensive and less reliable (as in rolling blackouts), the future is NOW in these days of peak oil and global warming.
Sidebar: July 27th is Sleepyhead Day in Finland, where the laziest person in the house (or village) gets thrown into the sea:
Unikeon Päivä - Sleepyhead Day is a public holiday in Finland. But that doesn't mean that you can sleep until late. On Sleepyhead Day the last person to get up is the laziest of the house and must be woken up by water, either right on the bed, or by carrying and throwing the Sleepy Head into the sea or a lake nearby.
Also: Tomorrow is Hurricane Supplication Day in the Virgin Islands.
OK, back to the heat wave:
From ABC affiliate:
Fresno Mayor Alan Autry says the extended heat wave has now reached a crisis level. To help residents, the city is now offering free rides to anyone who needs to get to a cooling center. "A lot of the cities in unincorporated areas have these swamp coolers that just don't cut it after 100 degrees, they just don't work. Use this service, call before it becomes a life threatening situation," says Mayor Autry. To help overheated residents in Fresno County, 14 FAX busses will also be parked to serve as mini cooling centers.
In Richard ("drill-drill-drill") Pombo's hometown, the Tracy Press reports that milk production at dairy farms is down due to the heat. And that so many cows are dying it's causing real problems trying to dispose of the carcasses:
The record-setting heat wave blamed in the deaths of at least 50 people has also killed thousands of dairy cows and other livestock, leaving farmers with piles of carcasses and creating a backup at factories that turn the dead animals into pet food.
A combination of sweltering temperatures, growth in the state's dominant $5 billion dairy industry and fewer plants to properly dispose of the animals have forced several counties to declare a state of emergency, allowing the dumping of dead livestock in landfills -- something usually outlawed because of the health risks.
Other valley towns are reporting about their cooling centers, too: Merced and Lodi for two. Los Angeles Times reports on a snazzy big city cooling center for seniors in Long Beach, complete with dance floor.
The Tabu and Emeraude perfume wafted perhaps more strongly in the heat. But Wednesday's draining humidity dissuaded none of the 150 dancers swinging to a live big band at El Dorado Park Senior Center, one of two cooling centers Long Beach opened as a respite from the enduring high temperatures.
Though a few households in Long Beach were still without electricity, Southern California Edison said that it expected to restore power to the last of its customers known to be affected by outages there by late Wednesday.
Tuesday night, when as many as 350 customers were without power, only two people took advantage of the large senior center's cooling station. Yet Wednesday, its dance floor was filled as a sea of pastel twirly skirts, cabana-wear and wool suits glided across the air-conditioned room as the 17-piece band performed -- without irony -- such tunes as "Sunny Side of the Street" at the twice-weekly soiree.
Modesto Bee's even reporting shortened working hours for the Central Valley's migrant farm laborers because of the heat wave. No discussion as to these workers' immigration status:
Pickers work earlier, shorter day
The sun was just beginning to reach Glenn Arnold's lush peach orchard in Merced County on Tuesday morning, but workers were hurriedly plucking fleshy fruit from the trees. ... "As soon as we have enough light to see the maturity of the fruit, we start picking," Arnold said. "You can't pick in the afternoon in this heat, so you start early." That's typical for peaches, a crop that ripens as the Northern San Joaquin Valley's heats up. What's different this July, however, is temperatures are climbing higher and faster, putting the harvest and workers in peril.
...
Hundred-degree days and farm work can be a recipe for heat-related illnesses, according to doctors. The combination also kills. At least five farmworkers died in California last year, prompting the state to enact rules that require growers to train supervisors to recognize heat-related illnesses and allow workers to rest in the shade if they think the heat is extreme. The rules also apply to construction workers and others who work outside.
And it's not just in California, either.
New York Times (free registration required) attempts a national summation:
Twenty-one states had at least one location exceed 100 degrees on Sunday, with California's Death Valley the hottest at 126 degrees. Record temperatures in the high 80's were set on Sunday along the California coast, which is usually much cooler than interior regions of the state....
At the cooling center today, Ms. Atkins passed the time reading a romance novel and the newspaper, doing crossword puzzles and drinking water. By the early afternoon, she had only eaten Cheerios all day that she got from another visitor at the cooling center. She said she was bored but that it felt good to be in air conditioning.
...
A cold front is expected to move across parts of the upper Midwest, breaking the heat and humidity there at least for awhile. However, the front could touch off severe storms in the western and central Great Lakes area and in Iowa.
Whether the weather be cold
Whether the weather be hot
We must weather the weather
Whatever the weather
Whether we like it or not
Or do we? The obvious challenges require changes in how we live, no matter how deep the Bush Administration has their heads stuck in the sand. (Or someplace else less polite to mention someone's head being stuck.) In fact, now that cooling centers are becoming a fixture in our social landscape, one could argue that we're already changing how we live. The only question is how much of the change will be reactive, like cooling centers, and how much will be proactive.
As the Modesto Bee reminds us, the best defense is to drink lots of water. So tip back a cool wet glass o'water now, and toast the Brave New World of global warming and peak oil.