For millions of Americans in the Southwest, the extreme heat from climate change is a literal life-and-death matter. Just ask Amy Dishion, whose 32-year-old husband Evan unexpectedly died from the heat while hiking six miles with friends in Phoenix. Dishion was left to raise their three-month-old baby.

“I lost my partner in life and my favorite person and the father of my child to extreme heat because he went on a hike during hot weather," Dishion told Salon. “My life is never going to be the same. It’s been incredibly difficult and I’m not sure how I’m ever going to bounce back from this loss. Evan is someone no one would have expected this to happen to. He was extremely fit, he was a marathon runner in the prime of his life. My husband was exceptional — he overcame so much to become a physician. And now, because of the heat, he doesn’t get to see his baby girl grow up and I’m left to pick up the pieces.”

Even when it's not deadly, the heat has a way of diminishing the quality of life for people in the desert. Hazel Chandler, a 77-year-old Arizona field organizer for the climate advocacy group Moms Clean Air Force, lives in Phoenix with stage-four cancer and has many other health issues that make her especially sensitive to heat. As a result, when goes outside she has to bring oven mitts with her in case she is forced to touch metal railings, since the metal will burn her hands.

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“My metal internal spinal fusion heats up when I’m outside for even a minute or two and feels like someone is holding a hot poker on my spine,” Chandler said. “Two summers ago, the air pollution was so intense that I coughed so much I fractured my spine. We must take heat safety seriously and do everything we can to clean up the air we breathe ”

There are no doubt many other stories like Dishion’s and Chandler’s which are simply not known to the general public. The American Southwest has been experiencing unprecedented heat waves throughout 2024, due in large part to human-caused climate change. Even when the heat is not at its peak, it can still be cruel for those stuck in it.

"Many areas of the country are predicted to experience many more dangerous heat days per year."

Lisa Materna and her husband moved from one Arizona city to another in July — specifically, from a third story apartment in Goodyear to a single story home in Glendale — and did not expect an arduous move because it had not yet hit peak temperatures in the Phoenix metropolitan area’s West Valley. Yet they moved right at the start of the monsoon season, with high humidity and 100 degree temperatures.

“We had no elevator, and I was little to no help as I had just found out I was........

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