Published: 2023
Series: N/A
Author: Jeff Goodell
Illustrator: N/A
Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Climate Change, Environment, Audiobook, Nature, Politics, History, Ecology, Health
Audience (Grade Levels): Grades 11-12
Number of Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads Link: The Heat Will Kill You First
Triggers / Content Warnings: Death, extreme weather crises, eco-anxiety.
Review By: Evan Waugh
Publisher’s Summary:
The world is waking up to a new wildfires are now seasonal in California, the Northeast is getting less and less snow each winter, and the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica are melting fast. Heat is the first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis. And as the temperature rises, it is revealing fault lines in our governments, our politics, our economy, and our values. The basic science is not Stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow, and the global temperature will stop rising tomorrow. Stop burning fossil fuels in 50 years, and the temperature will keep rising for 50 years, making parts of our planet virtually uninhabitable. It’s up to us. The hotter it gets, the deeper and wider our fault lines will open.
The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90° F to 110°F. A heatwave, Goodell explains, is a predatory event— one that culls out the most vulnerable people. But that is changing. As heatwaves become more intense and more common, they will become more democratic.
As an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades, Goodell’s new book may be his most provocative yet, explaining how extreme heat will dramatically change the world as we know it. Masterfully reported, mixing the latest scientific insight with on-the-ground storytelling, Jeff Goodell tackles the big questions and uncovers how extreme heat is a force beyond anything we have reckoned with before.
Review:
There is no other way to start this review than to simply say that Jeff Goodell’s The Heat Will Kill You First was quite easily one of the most disturbing books that I have ever read.
Covering both the physiological and environmental effects of a heating planet, Goodell’s book is a well-spring of alarming knowledge that leads to the inevitable conclusion that the future of our planet is in a dire place, and that we are on a pathway towards disaster. But Goodell doesn’t come out and say this; rather, he takes his time by slowly describing both the ecological and physical ramifications of an overheating planet, weaving in anecdotes of eco-systems in crisis and people who lost their lives in heat-related deaths.
One of the most startling points raised by Goodell is that it is likely that a future global pandemic could be caused by a virus-carrying animal seeking a new home in a cooler part of the world, driven from their home by the heating earth. As we get wrapped up in our daily lives, it’s easy to ignore the ramifications of the mark that we make on the natural world, a point that Goodell illuminates so poignantly.
Classroom & Curricular Connections:
- Science & Ecology: Perfect for advanced biology, chemistry, and environmental science courses. The book details the raw physics of heat absorption, melting ice caps, and the direct physiological breakdown of human organs under severe thermal stress.
- Social Studies & Civics: Integrates seamlessly into modern politics, human geography, and economics lessons. It serves as an excellent case study on public infrastructure vulnerability, climate migration, and the political fault lines split open by resource scarcity.
- ELA (English Language Arts): An excellent mentor text for journalism, narrative nonfiction writing, and argument construction, showing students how to integrate heavily researched data with compelling, empathetic human anecdotes.
- Extension Activity / Library Application: Ideal for high school library seminars or curricular science extensions. Educators can host a “Local Infrastructure Vulnerability Audit.” After reading, have students work in small groups to evaluate their own town or school district’s readiness for extreme heatwaves—examining green spaces, cooling centers, and energy grid resilience—and draft a formal proposal outlining structural improvements.
- Diversity & Representation: The text highlights critical, real-world equity issues by demonstrating how extreme heat acts as a predatory event that disproportionately culls the most economically and socially vulnerable populations. By exploring how systemic neglect forces lower-income neighborhoods, agricultural workers, and marginalized communities into the direct line of environmental danger, Goodell provides a necessary framework for discussing environmental racism and climate justice.
