The Case of the Killer Heat
A Matter of Degrees
Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2023
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we explore the growing impact of heat on people and the planet. We talk to scientists and "climate detectives" trying to hold the perpetrators of this unprecedented global temperature increase accountable.
Leah and Katharine speak with Neza Xiuhtecutli, executive director of the Farmworker Association of Florida; Kate Marvel, climate science writer and physicist at Columbia University and NASA; and Richard Heede, co-founder and director of the Climate Accountability Institute.
Kate mentions the very first climate attribution study, which links human activity to the deadly 2003 European heat wave. Leah references two big lawsuits using attribution science to hold polluters accountable: one in Germany against RWE, and another against fossil fuel corporations in Hawai'i. Last, Leah mentions her home state of California, which just passed a cutting-edge law to improve early warnings for extreme heat.
To learn more about Neza's research, watch this video on how heat impacts farm workers, and find out how the piece-rate system works (or doesn't work) for these laborers. Explore climate action in the courts with the Climate Change Litigation Database tool. And if you want to get involved in your own political sleuthing for climate, consider joining the Documenters.
Next time, we'll explore the history, meaning, and challenges of the Justice40 Initiative — an unprecedented federal effort to promote environmental justice. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and don't miss a single episode this season!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In 2002, officials in El Salvador reported an unusual, startling trend among rural farm workers. |
| 0:09.9 | Thousands were coming down with chronic kidney disease of unknown origin, and many were dying from it. |
| 0:16.2 | Within a few years, southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, |
| 0:22.2 | all reported similar outbreaks than India and Sri Lanka. |
| 0:26.4 | We're seeing high blood pressure, kidney injuries, not just kidney injuries, but also kidney disease. |
| 0:32.5 | And then, of course, you know, some people end up with kidney failure, needing dialysis every three days. |
| 0:38.8 | What was the cause? Was it pesticides, heavy metals, poor diet? Or was it something else? |
| 0:45.2 | Something more mundane. Something that used to seem totally ordinary, but in recent years, |
| 0:50.8 | has become much deadlier. Record-breaking heat. |
| 0:55.6 | If you overlay a map of where chronic kidney disease is increasing, |
| 0:59.2 | with a map of the Earth's hottest places, |
| 1:01.6 | you'll find a tight correlation. |
| 1:04.3 | Heat is deadly, and climate change is making it worse. |
| 1:07.4 | So who's responsible for these deaths? |
| 1:09.8 | In today's episode, we're going to find out who is to |
| 1:12.8 | blame. This is a matter of degrees. Stories for the Climate Curious. I'm Dr. Leah Stokes. And I'm Dr. |
| 1:21.1 | Katherine Wilkinson. We've already warmed the planet by almost 1.2 degrees Celsius, and the effects |
| 1:27.0 | are getting worse with each year. |
| 1:29.1 | It's true, and it feels like every year we break a new record. For example, in 2021, the U.S. had |
| 1:36.1 | its hottest summer since the dust bowl. And in today's episode, I want to take us on a kind |
| 1:41.5 | of detective quest to understand what is happening to these farm workers on the front lines of climate change. I want to take us on a kind of detective quest to understand what is happening to these farm workers on the front lines of climate change. I want us to figure out who is responsible, who is to blame. And I don't want to be flip because this is an incredibly serious topic, but it sounds like you're teeing up for us, Leah, a bit of a climate murder mystery. Is that right? Yeah, sort of who done it. |
| 2:02.9 | Yes. And so I do have to wonder if I am Dr. Watson in this scenario. I think so. You know, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.