I noticed this Summer I started transitioning my morning walks to pre-sunrise hours to try to escape the heat (since even mornings in Ohio are getting to be hot). Since global warming (or climate change in general) is happening and there’s apparently nothing to be done to fix it in our lifetimes, it made me wonder if our overall society might move towards more nocturnal working hours instead of the standard 9–5, just to escape overheating during the day?
There’s probably no incentive currently, since workers aren’t dropping like flies yet, but I could see it coming into play as global warming gets worse over time and it causes legitimate production issues. Probably some jobs wouldn’t have the option, but most I think would be able to benefit from it. Does this sound like something realistic, or are we cursed to have to endure extreme temperatures because we’ve always worked in the daytime and we can’t/won’t change now?
No, because humans are hardwired to be diurnal and there is very little we can do to change that. We have a prominant window of circadian low, and it’s one of the biggest threats to pilots that fly at night (among other safety critical jobs) even if they have slept for 8+ hours right before their shift.
You might think you can function just fine at night, you might even think you function better at night, but science says otherwise.
Sure, but would it be possible to artificially simulate a daylight cycle indoors, opposite of the outside one?
Sure, you wouldn’t be able to go outside very much, but you’d at least have your active hours in the coolest part of the day.
Add in a bit of of CRISPR to smooth out the rough edges, would it be enough then?
I would be happy to see morning people get the shit end of the stick, finally.
No human society in any climate has ever been nocturnal: https://web.archive.org/web/20030318032208/http://condor.depaul.edu/~mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm
No, but a lot of communities in hotter climates have integrated habits like siestas, where breaks including are taken in the hottest part of the day. I can see that being adopted more, especially in cases when wet bulb temperatures exceed the human body’s capacity to cool itself.
I also know that a lot of construction activities in Phoenix and Las Vegas in the summer months are scheduled towards early morning due to the heat. They might work an hour or two in twilight and then finish work by early afternoon.
I expect schedules to change, but I don’t see going full nocturnal.
and there’s apparently nothing to be done to fix it in our lifetimes,
This really isn’t true, and treating it as true will lead to a much nastier future than “it feels really hot out most of the time”. It has implications for agriculture and ecological collapse, with entire societies being destroyed and some of the more privileged ones turning to eco-fascism. It’s a much darker future than you give it credit for, but also much less inevitable.
Sure, there’s plenty that could be done, but chances are nobody that has the power to affect change is going to start taking substantial action on it until things get absolutely catastrophic. I imagine we’ll some sort of environmental 9/11 moment, something like a major American city gets flooded and rendered permanently uninhabitable, and then suddenly everyone will be like, “Holy shit, this is bad, like bad-bad.” And then we’ll start seeing actual serious action on it. Before that though, it’s something that will see half-hearted action or non-binding resolutions or platitudes or wishy-washy carbon offset schemes, but little that actually forces companies to stop polluting. We see more forceful action taken against environmental protesters than against corporate polluters.
It’s certainly true that politicians and the owning class oppose environmental action very strongly, but that doesn’t make it hopeless. We, the working class, are the basis of their power and wealth; we concretely have the power to force them to cooperate or topple them entirely. Clearly, the enviromental movements aren’t that strong yet, but they are getting stronger and the decaying environment will provide a basis for accelerating their growth as more people like you and I begin to take these issues seriously.
laughs in British
