Anyone out there with real medical knowledge, or industrial hygiene knowledge, of how much heat a human and their society can take before people just die and society crumbles?
Because looking at the situation from the USA, things are looking grim in India. Severe weather about to get worse and the closure of the straits of hormuz means less power for Air conditioning, no pumped water and no way to handle sewage. All this in a country with lethal air quality levels.
Better yet, is anyone on this site actually there, and have some ground truth they are willing to share.
How much heat can we take before things fall apart and we just die.
I’m not looking for a political discussion, or doomer porn, this is more of a concern for humanity question.
Been doing some digging. Answer seems to be “it depends”.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/how-hot-too-hot-humans-record-temperatures-rcna160261
The reason why I don’t think there can be a definitive answer to your question is that wealth, infrastructure and healthcare can do a lot to mitigate the issues with deadly heatwaves.
In a region with no AC, no potable water, and no healthcare, society probably wouldn’t survive a week with wet bulb temperatures above 35C for more than 8 hours every day.
So if that happens in an undeveloped region, a lot of people die, but a lot do find some kind of relief that lets them survive. In a developed, industrialized region, like Arizona or Texas, you can have that kind of weather for months, and most people will just hate the heat but otherwise live and work normally. You could picture a hypothetical technically advanced civilization which exists in a climate that is persistently lethal to humans.
Places that face extreme heatwaves need to build countermeasures, but societies tend to be able to do that, even in the global south.