Pocket worthyStories to fuel your mind

How Extreme Heat Is Changing Everything, From Our Dreams to Our Cars

Record temperatures are changing norms across disease transmission, the economy—even therapy.

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Amy Maoz

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

Image by milosluz / Getty Images

Climate Change is Changing How We Dream

A new survey reveals that climate change has woven itself into the “fabric of dreaming.”

Yes, Heat Can Affect Your Brain and Mood. Here’s Why

Hot summer temperatures can make you anxious and irritable and dull your thinking. Here’s what researchers think is going on.

What to Do with Climate Emotions

If the goal is to insure that the planet remains habitable, what is the right degree of panic, and how do you bear it?

In the US, a Fungal Disease Is Spreading Fast. a Hotter Climate Could Be to Blame.

The potentially fatal pathogen Candida auris has crossed the “temperature barrier” into humans, causing cases to jump by 1,200% since 2017.

Historic Texas Heat Is Breaking Cars In Weird Ways

Automotive technicians from Bosch say the Texas heat waves are breaking down rubber compounds in windshield wipers and reducing brake performance.

Heat Is Costing the U.S. Economy Billions in Lost Productivity

As much of the United States swelters under record heat, Amazon drivers and warehouse workers have gone on strike in part to protest working conditions that can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

‘Vicious Cycle’: Heat Waves Ramp up U.S. Burning of Fossil Fuels

Americans, cranking up their air conditioners, are helping to break summertime records for daily consumption of natural gas, a contributor to climate change.

A New Summer Reality: Hospitals and ERs See More Parents With Heat-Related Illness

With dangerously high temperatures across the country, hospitals are seeing more people with potentially deadly heat illness.

In Texas, Dead Fish and Red-Faced Desperation Are Signs of Things to Come

In 2019, I happened to be visiting Phoenix on a 115-degree day. I had a meeting one afternoon about 10 blocks from the hotel where I was staying downtown. I gamely thought I’d brave the heat and walk to it. How bad could the heat really be? I grew up in California, not the Arctic.