Lessons From a Hotter Future
August 7, 2025
Phoenix, now facing record temperatures, will see even longer, hotter, and more frequent heat waves in coming decades, fueled by climate change, the Weather Channel reports. As part of Issues’ Future Tense Fiction series, Harrison Cook imagines what life might be like if temperatures become nearly unlivable, as his lead character, living somewhere in the Midwest, becomes a “shade technician” to help people cope. But coping might not be possible, Pope L. Moseley argues in response. “Extreme heat is pushing up against our physiological limits,” he writes. “We can’t adapt our way out of the problem—we need to confront it directly.”
The Shade Technician
In a heat-sieged city whose residents have become functionally nocturnal, an essential worker labors during the day to fix private shade structures designed to provide shelter from the grueling sun for anyone who can pay.
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The Limits of Heat Resilience
How resilient to extreme heat can humans really be? Our bodies have a limit—and our response to climate change should reflect that.
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