The Brief

Southern California is getting scorched this summer, and we're not alone as high temperature records break across the U.S.

Climate researchers say life-threatening heat waves around the world this year would be "virtually impossible" without the influence of human-caused climate change.

To learn more about what life looks like on a warming planet and how heat affects human health, LAist interviewed author Jeff Goodell. His new book, The Heat Will Kill You First, Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, argues that we need to be taking extreme heat way more seriously.

This conversation with LAist 89.3's Julia Paskin has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Why this book now?

LAist: You've written so many books on this topic. Why did you decide to write this one in particular?

Jeff Goodell: Well, I've been writing about climate change for 10 or 15 years, and I still didn't really understand the sort of risks of heat and heat waves. Then I happened to be walking through downtown Phoenix on a 117 degree day, and I thought I wasn't going to make it to my destination.

My heart started pounding, I started feeling dizzy, and I thought, "Wow. I really didn't even understand how dangerous heat can be." And I realized this was a subject that was worth exploring.

Global warming may sound gentle, but it is not

LAist: You report that as people react to the climate crisis, they don't seem to be concerned especially about avoiding the places where it gets really, really hot. Why do you think that is and why is that a problem?

JG: Well, I think we're very confused about how we talk about heat. I'm a native Californian and I grew up in California. Warm days are nice. You go to the beach, you hang out. Even the phrase "global warming" just sounds like this sort of quiet, gentle thing.

And one of the things that I've come to understand about heat is that it is extremely dangerous, especially as we move into this hotter and hotter climate, which is making these extremes higher and higher. In 2021, in the summer here on the West Coast, there was a heat wave [and] British Columbia was 121 degrees and a town essentially spontaneously combusted.

We're moving into an era where we don't know how extreme it can get and how quickly. And the risk to you and me and to our loved ones and to everything that we know is really misunderstood.

What makes extreme heat so dangerous

LAist: I want to ask you a little bit more locally about some of our most vulnerable areas in Southern California. I'm thinking about predictions for areas like the Inland Empire that are further away from the cooling air of the coast where we're probably going to have a lot more days over 125 degrees for longer periods of time without relief. Can you talk about why that is particularly dangerous and what happens to the body? Why does heat kill you in those kinds of circumstances?

JG: I'm glad you brought this up, because the projections especially for the agricultural regions in the Central Valley really are extreme. And there's this notion that this is not a big deal, we all have air conditioning, just turn up the air conditioning [and] everything's going to be fine.

There's a lot of problems with that, but one of the problems is that people who are working in the fields and who are harvesting our food and growing our food do not have air conditioning. And there are billions of people on the planet who don't have air conditioning. And when it's hot out … Our body temperatures are around 98. And if your temperature goes up to 100, 101, something's wrong. And if it goes up to 105, you're in the emergency room.

LAist: You don't shy away from describing how frightening life on a warming planet is. Tell us a little bit more [about] why you take this more confrontational approach on how real the effects are going to be.

JG: I think that the conversation about climate change has been too gentle. I don't feel like I'm an alarmist at all, but I really think that we do not grasp the scope and scale of the changes that are coming our way, despite the fact that it's been in the news for decades, despite the fact that everybody is more or less familiar with it.

But I'm not talking about climate deniers and things like that. People who think that it's some kind of conspiracy thing run by the Chinese or Bill Gates or whatever. Even people who are relatively educated about the risks of climate change don't really get what's happening. And these extreme heat waves that we're seeing right now are one manifestation of that.

We're moving into a new climate era in which the rules of these extreme events are very unclear and it's getting worse fast and we need to understand that.

Tips and resources

Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie Moonlight, but don't expect to see him at this year's Oscars ceremony.

"I tend to stay away from the awards show," McCraney said. " I think I might have PTSD."

McCraney is referring to the viral moment from the 2017 Oscars ceremony, where La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner instead of Moonlight.

McCraney isn't new to theater. In fact, you could consider it his original home before his play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue launched him into the Hollywood spotlight. But when the Geffen Playhouse asked him to be their artistic director two years ago, it called him back to the stage in a different way. Tapping a screenwriter for the position was a first for the theater, but McCraney said the roles actually overlap in more ways than one.

 "The job of the screenwriter most times is to make sure that everybody is understanding where the story is going and what the 'action' of the piece is," McCraney said. "So it's not that much different than being an artistic director.  My job here is to set the artistic goal for the organization. [To] point out its virtues and pitfalls, the dangers and the obstacles, and then move collectively as a single storyteller towards that goal."

McCraney said one of the great things about living in Los Angeles is its nuanced racial and ethnic communities, and he rides his bike around the city to better experience them.

"The landscape is constantly shifting and changing," McCraney said. "For example, Westwood has drastically changed over the past 15 years and will change irrevocably with the coming of the new train station down on Wilshire. It will change again with LA28 happening."

Just like Los Angeles, the Geffen Playhouse has had multiple transformations over its more than 30 year existence. Their world premier show, Silvia Silvia Silvia, is playing until March 8. Dragon Mama, starring Sarah Porkalob, begins March 4.

"Sarah is an incredible singer and writer and has created this incredible arc through a family that is both powerful and witty, but also deeply nuanced," McCraney said. "She's sharing that family with us, and family is our first community. They are the people we learn the most from. We learn unconditional love. We learn collective bargaining. Investigating family, investigating why we stay together and how we stay together through dire circumstances is a critical investigation for us right now."

When it comes to this year's Oscars ceremony, McCraney said he's rooting for all the nominees.

"It's been an incredible season," he said. "But Sinners is an incredible film that I've seen three or four times, so I'm really excited to see how it does."

The Long Beach Community College District has agreed to pay $18 million to more than 1,450 part-time professors to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged they were forced to work unpaid hours outside the classroom, grading papers and tests, meeting with students, preparing lessons and other duties.

The settlement, which the district board quietly approved last month, still needs the judge overseeing the case to sign off. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 1 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It’s likely that Judge Stuart Rice will approve the deal. Last year, he ruled that the part-timers, commonly called adjuncts, were entitled to the pay they sought, writing he found “a myriad of problems” with the district’s claims that its practices did not violate state law.

The case has made “a major impact throughout the state already,” as some districts have begun negotiating contract terms to give adjuncts what they’ve long sought — pay for time they spend prepping and grading, not just for class time, said the plaintiffs’ lawyer Eileen B. Goldsmith, in an interview. (EdSource published an investigative series in the issue, Gig By Gig At California’s Community Colleges, in 2022.)

The Long Beach district recently set aside $20 million for the settlement and associated costs, its spokesperson, Stacey Toda, told the Long Beach Post in an email. “Resolving this matter allows the District to avoid prolonged litigation and manage risk responsibly, consistent with standard practices across public higher education,” Toda wrote.

The settlement “is a big deal, it is tremendous,” said John Martin, chair of the California Part-Time Faculty Association, and a community college adjunct professor in Shasta and Butte counties.

Martin, a long-time advocate for better pay for adjuncts, is also the plaintiff in similar ongoing lawsuits, including one against the state Community College system.

In legal papers filed in the Superior Court, Goldsmith wrote that the proposed settlement, if approved, will result in 1,456 class members receiving more than “$11,000 — a very meaningful result for these class members, particularly given the novel issues in this litigation.”

The Long Beach Post contributed to this story.