[The Editors' Verdict] The Romance of Summer Will Not Return

Collapsing at Workplaces Amid Extreme Heat
Gravesite Visits Unbearable Even for a Minute
Heatwaves Emerging as a Social Disaster
Taking Action on the Climate Crisis Is Our Only Way Forward

Jo Young-chul, Opinion Team Leader

A monkey fell from a tree. On May 21st (local time), off the coast of Tabasco Province in southern Mexico, 83 endangered Yucatan black howler monkeys were found dead, having fallen from trees like apples. The cause of death, revealed by the biodiversity conservation group Covius on social media, was severe dehydration and high fever. At that time, Mexico was experiencing a heatwave with temperatures soaring between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius.

A person fell at a workplace. On the 9th, at Hanwha Ocean’s Okpo Shipyard, a 41-year-old male subcontracted worker fell 32 meters to his death during a night shift. An unprecedented “September tropical night” was raging amid the longest-ever heatwave warning. This workplace had also experienced a suspected heat-related death just a month earlier. Over the past five months (April to August), Hanwha Ocean reported more than 30 cases of heat-related illnesses.

The heatwave has become a climate disaster that no one can escape. During last Chuseok holiday, the sunlight felt like a flamethrower aimed directly to burn us. Visiting ancestral graves with parents was unbearable even for a single minute due to the scorching sun. It was a summer when the entire nation sought refuge in air conditioners and shade.

The 2023 book The Heat Will Kill You First clearly explains the situation the Earth is facing. Climate journalist Jeff Goodell traveled across Pakistan, Paris, Texas, and Antarctica to document the so-called “planetary boiling” phenomenon in detail. Goodell laments, “What we have brought forward is not summer but death.” It is said that 500,000 people worldwide died from heatwaves in 2019 alone. The author states that the “heat” we are experiencing is not the romance of summer but the very “heat” that is boiling the planet. He reveals that with every 1-degree Celsius rise in global temperature, mortality rates from heart and kidney diseases increase, along with suicide rates.

In South Korea, heat-related illnesses increased 3.5 times last year, with 32 deaths. This year, since the heat illness surveillance system was activated on May 20th, the cumulative number of patients has exceeded 3,630, and deaths have risen to 34 (Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency).

Climate experts unanimously point to fossil fuels as the primary cause of the Earth’s increasing heat. They agree that burning oil and coal for 250 years since the Industrial Revolution has filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. Halting fossil fuel-based power generation could change temperatures 30 years from now, but fossil fuels still account for 82% of global energy use. More worrisome is the “2050 Global Outlook Report” released by Big Oil ExxonMobil last August. The report states that “investment in oil and natural gas is essential” and predicts that demand will peak at over 100 million barrels per day starting in 2030.

There is also encouraging news. The Constitutional Court has made a progressive ruling supporting the rights of future generations in a “climate lawsuit.” On the 29th of last month, the court ruled the lack of phased reduction targets despite setting 2050 carbon neutrality as a national vision to be unconstitutional, stating it infringes on citizens’ environmental rights. This confirms that responding to the climate crisis is a national duty. Now, the government must create strong climate crisis response policies. It has the obligation to protect the lives and safety of citizens from social disasters like heatwaves.

When The Heat Will Kill You First was published, the question Jeff Goodell was asked most often was, “Are we doomed as we are?” He always answered, “Do you want Earth to remain a livable planet? Then act.” Indeed, do we really have any other choice?

Jo Young-chul, Opinion Team Leader