Tag: heatwave

An OT (of course) recently introduced me to phase change cooling clothing and the tech is so interesting!

Unlike water ice packs that take forever to freeze and then are so cold that you can only safely touch them for 10 minutes at a time, some genius made gel packs that freeze at 15C. So you can freeze them in the fridge and then wear them continuously for hours without frostbite.

They are pricey but there aren’t many other options for people who need to be outside in the heat.

One example of PCM/phase change material cooling clothes.

Promotional photo with several people standing in front of a neon sign that says EZ Cool Down: a cosplayer, a person in jeans, someone in motorcycle gear with a helmet, a construction worker, an older woman with a husky dog, a worker in a hi-viz vest, a fursuiter fox, and someone in athletic gear

I love that their product photos go construction worker, road worker, fursuiter.

What counts as lucky in a polycrisis

Reading up on aftercare for chemical weapons exposure and I can’t decide how to feel about the way it overlaps my existing practices for wildfire smoke season… Take the win, I guess.

It really is a relief when the necessary defenses to different aspects of the polycrisis are not in conflict. I remember dealing with wildfires and a heatwave during early covid lockdowns in 2020. Back then before the PNW heat dome, hardly anyone had a/c so we needed to open the windows to deal with heat, but we needed to keep them closed to keep the smoke out. We couldn’t socialize indoors due to covid and couldn’t socialize outdoors due to smoke.

The Beaverton spoke to my heart:

“Marginalized communities are often hit hardest by situations like this,” says Cablebill, “because they do not have easy access to resources that would enable them to be neither in nor outside.”