solid copper

The human factors

Thursday, 30. July 2009, 09:40:09

Tonight it suddenly struck me that two human factors contribute to the current unbearable heat wave.

One is the ongoing large-scale international firework competition held on coastal Vancouver. Another is the breakouts of huge mountain fires in the areas to the east of Vancouver. Living in between locations of these explosive, hot and murky air creating events means I am trapped in a living hell for a while.

The large mountain fires have been determined to be man-made. The firework competition is certainly man-made. Both will continue for a while and their effects will last even longer, aggravating whatever environmental factors.

How I paint the worldWow

Comments

daxonmacs # 30. July 2009, 10:39

Well, the firework competition is bound to end soon. I hope the other fires will be under control soon, too. Hang in there. It's hard to predict the environmental consequences. I'm lucky enough to not live in an area that suffers from such hazardous events. The south of Europe though ...
And every once and a ten years, the heathlands are threatened, too.

solid copper # 30. July 2009, 10:49

The competition lasts for weeks. And it is in massive scale.

daxonmacs # 30. July 2009, 10:52

Wow, that sounds like one big event. What are those, world championships?

solid copper # 30. July 2009, 11:02

Two weeks at least, one country a night. A few nights apart. In recent years four countries participating regularly. I think Spain won last year. Massive garbage found on the beach the next morning. Viewers including Americans who come by boats and international tourists.

daxonmacs # 30. July 2009, 11:51

Spain had a great year, last year, winning the world cup football and many others.
I guess Chinese fireworks were reserved for another occasion last year, weren't they?

only-a-yard # 30. July 2009, 11:55

Think yourself lucky, we'd like a bit of your heatwave over here where it's rained at sometime nearly everyday this month and temperatures are struggling to get up to 20C(68F)

solid copper # 30. July 2009, 12:02

Persistent rain is equally annoying. We had that before this heatwave. It was depressing.

jcstephjr # 30. July 2009, 12:24

It's always interesting to me how differently we perceive heat and humidity based on where we live and what we are accustomed to. Our coolest day here in the last month has been 31C and our hottest has been just a touch over 39C. I am about 80 km from the Atlantic Coast and about 240 km from the Gulf of Mexico so our humidity drives the felt temperature up a few degrees past there. Sadly, I never get to experience your lovely cool springs and falls and I really never get a hint of snow. Maybe once a decade a brief centimeter or two. I hope things cool soon for you and for my friends in Portland too.

derWandersmann # 30. July 2009, 14:08

It's been a fairly good summer here ... an el niño summer: relatively cool. Unfortunately, very dry.

Shaunak # 31. July 2009, 19:34

Heat-waves are terrible.

Its quite pleasant here this time of the year. The skies are a little overcast, but atleast the heat is down.

solid copper # 1. August 2009, 07:26

Thanks Jim, I managed to have a good night sleep by placing a straw mat on top of my mattress. It is a whole lot better outside in the evening, so I guess it is the building itself.

derWandersmann # 1. August 2009, 15:06

Emergency measures to make it possible to stay alive in weather like that:

1) Get into an empty bathtub. Clothing optional.
2) Turn on the cold water … ALL cold; do not temper it.
3) Plug the drain; be sure the overflow is not blocked.
4) Lean back; relax.
5) Let the tub fill and the cold water creep up over you. I guarantee this method won’t be too big a shock. And DON’T shut off the water … the overflow will take care of it.
6) Stay covered with the water as long as you can; you’re trying to bring your core temp down a bit.
7) When your lips or fingernails (hard to see your own lips) turn blue, get out. You’ll feel ‘WAY better, and the effect lasts quite a while.

Take care, and save your pennies to but a small window unit.