From “Global Warming” To Local Heating: Lessons from the Middle East for a Warming Planet

Rework Fellows 2017/18

Despite the flames of record-breaking temperatures licking at our feet, most people fail to fully grasp the gravity of environmental overheating. What acquired habits and conveniences allow us to turn a blind eye with an air of detachment? This talk draws from the recently published Heat, A History (University of California Press, 2024) and examines examples from the Middle Eastern hotspot. It explores how scientific approaches to measuring heat and contemporary acclimatization techniques have dulled our sensitivity to climate change and stripped global warming of its political dimensions, despite the underlying ethnic, class, and gender tensions it exacerbates.