Heat-related Texas deaths climb after Beryl left millions without power for days or longer.

Tar_alcaran , 5 hours ago

Theres a picture in the article, and it’s terrifying. Maybe stop stringing powerlines along rickety wooden poles? That’s something I’d expect in a random southeast Asian village, not a first world country.

catloaf , 5 hours ago

Burying thousands of miles of utility lines is prohibitively expensive. In some places, like parts of Florida, you can’t bury anything because you’ll immediately be underwater.

And if that’s what a southeast Asian village looks like in your mind, maybe look up what they actually look like: mascontext.com/…/sgn-on-the-utility-poles-of-ho-c…

Tar_alcaran , 4 hours ago

In some places, like parts of Florida, you can’t bury anything because you’ll immediately be underwater.

Greeting from the Netherlands, currently 5 meters below sealevel and all our powerlines except for (some of) the main network ones are underground, many of them sitting pretty below groundwater level. That’s actually a bonus, because it helps keep them cool. If they’re above groundwater level, you need to make sure they can lose their heat by using specially graded sand.

It might be expensive, but this method demonstrably gets people killed. If Europe can manage to bury powerlines for small villages, why can’t the largest cities in the US?

if that’s what a southeast Asian village looks like in your mind

You managed to pick a site that has the worst poles in the largest city. Many streets look like this: maps.app.goo.gl/7oUxKAx5hqX3kwNF7

JoshuaFalken , 3 hours ago

Meanwhile, politicians galore will recite the findings of the same few scientists that it’s not the heat that’s the problem - cold is the true killer.

phdepressed , 3 hours ago

It’s OK, climate change will make both extremes worse 🙃