Your thoughts on heat shelters

My comfort level must have changed from last year then because a year ago I was sunbathing a d walking the outdoor mall this year it is way to hot for me to think about doing either one all my steps come from the treadmill
 
I'm scratching my head about this. While I agree that there should be places to get out of the extreme heat or cold, I remember growing up with no A/C in the house or cars. No one ever really thought about going somewhere to get cool in the summer. Occasionally, we'd go to the grocery store or mall, but that is because Mom had something specific to buy. We weren't browsers by any means. Why be tempted by what you couldn't afford? Oh, and the A/C-less car had vinyl seats that would burn your butt when you sat on them. Fun times.

What has changed over the years? The homeless population, or climate changes or just people's attitudes towards comfort? I'm not asking because I want to pick a fight with anyone. I'm asking because I'm genuinely curious.

I don't like remembering the days of sweating in our house because it was so hot out. My DD's BFF lives without A/C in her house and her family survives.

I would think the elderly would require these cooling centers even more than the homeless.

People as a whole are a lot less fit now - obese people create a lot of body heat, trapping it their bodies, and excess heat from the environment can tip one over the edge into heat stroke - just by walking a bit. Fat is the body's natural insulation (think whales, polar bears, seals) and stores heat. While in the past people still died during heat waves, the issue is only getting worse as our weight increases.

Interesting info on how we are getting heavier:

https://www.livescience.com/36470-human-population-weight.html
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2017/058.pdf
 
People as a whole are a lot less fit now - obese people create a lot of body heat, trapping it their bodies, and excess heat from the environment can tip one over the edge into heat stroke - just by walking a bit. Fat is the body's natural insulation (think whales, polar bears, seals) and stores heat. While in the past people still died during heat waves, the issue is only getting worse as our weight increases.

Interesting info on how we are getting heavier:

https://www.livescience.com/36470-human-population-weight.html
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2017/058.pdf
I was a lot less fit last year and I tolerated the hit better I bet if I googled the heat index last year compared to this year it would be higher
 


We have both here in Portland Oregon, although our summers are pretty mild compared to the rest of the country. I think its really important for seniors to have a place to go also if they don't have AC. When I was young I worked in a restaurant and knew a lot of older folks who could not handle the heat. I found more than a few of them sleeping in their running cars in the parking lot. When I was 16 they found one older man had died from a heat stroke while walking to my place of business on a back trail.
 
I know here we have places for the homeless to go to warm up, emergency shelters open up when the temp drops below 0*C for 3 days in a row. We don't have them in the summer as the the hottest temperature occurs during the day when there are plenty of places for the general public to seek refuge from the heat. This is not the case in the middle of the night during the winter.
 

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