Unchecked Climate Change Will Be Hell On Outdoor Workers

Unchecked Climate Change Will Be Hell On Outdoor Workers

As temperatures in the Pacific Northwest soared above 110 degrees in late June, workers in Oregon flooded the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Division with safety complaints. In Klamath Falls, roofers worked in blistering heat and thick smoke from nearby wildfires “with little to no shade and no breaks for a long period of time,” one complaint read. At a job site in Clackamas, workers reportedly installed fencing without access to fresh water and with only a total of 35 minutes of breaks throughout the day.

The devastating heat wave, which killed more than 100 people in Oregon alone, offers a sobering glimpse at what lies ahead for outdoor laborers. Without an aggressive global effort to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, extreme heat will wreak havoc on construction, agricultural, extraction, delivery and other outdoor sectors, warns a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.