Urgent action is needed on many fronts - including, yes, a halt to fossil fuel combustion and its greenhouse gas emissions. It should serve as yet another alarm bell reminding us that human-caused climate change is here. for much of the summer, endangering public health, increasing wildfire risk, straining the power grid and rendering cities nearly uninhabitable. This is just an extreme example of the brutal heat wave that has gripped a good swath of the Western U.S. By 5 a.m., it had cooled down to a relatively refreshing 107 degrees Fahrenheit. But this brain-roasting temperature was recorded not at the hottest point of the day, but at midnight. That may seem unremarkable - this is Death Valley, after all, where the visitor center is named after Furnace Creek. In Southern California, the Badwater Basin weather station in Death Valley National Park reached 119.6 degrees Fahrenheit on July 17. This is an installment of the Landline, a fortnightly newsletter from High Country News about land, water, wildlife, climate and conservation in the Western United States.
