Holocaust of Heat

Maybe it's too obvious that everything is too hot... and maybe holocaust is too strong a word? I coulda said scourge of heat but not sure that makes the point. A holocaust is a strong word, usually implies lots of death and is most strongly associated with the Holocaust conducted by the Nazis, the mass killing of Jews. But maybe this present holocaust of heat presents a new kind of problem. We don't like to think of ourselves as the evil-doers, the killers, the dispensers of death. And so we rationalize the intense heat being felt most everywhere. I've traveled to four distinct corners of the US over the last year-- Texas, where I live, New York, Los Angeles, Montana and Daytona Beach, Florida. Texas, always known for high temperatures, has reached new levels of scariness. The summer has a monolithic feel like a journey through hell. The sun rises and a few seconds tick by, it seems before you get past 90-95 degrees. Then you wait for 100 degrees. I just got back from New York. They called their incredibly uncomfortable weather... a heat wave. Or after the wave lingered it was referred to as "excessive heat." My aunt tells me things have cooled off a bit in the Big Apple. I went to Binghamton, New York and it was hot in the mountains of upstate. Last fall when I visited Montana the scent of forest fires hung in the air, like a hint of apocalypse for the American West. But this problem is so frightening it gets short shrift if any shrift at all. Understandably we don't like to discuss the problem that is us-- the holocaust of heat we have brought upon ourselves with no clear way to get the genie of heat back in the bottle.