According to a National Park Service news release, the 42-year-old Belgian tourist was taking a short walk Saturday in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in 123-degree heat when he either broke or lost his flip-flops, putting his feet into direct contact with the desert ground. The result: third-degree burns.
“The skin was melted off his foot,” said Death Valley National Park Service Ranger Gia Ponce. “The ground can be much hotter — 170, 180 [degrees]. Sometimes up into the 200 range.”
Unable to get out on his own and in extreme pain, the man and his family recruited other park visitors to help; together, the group carried him to the sand dunes parking lot, where park rangers assessed his injuries.
Though they wanted a helicopter to fly him out, helicopters can’t generate enough lift to fly in the heat-thinned air over the hottest parts of Death Valley, officials said. So park rangers summoned an ambulance that took him to higher ground, where it was a cooler 109 degrees and he could then be flown out.
Cool anecdote about how reducing needless traffic between homes and offices, to satisfy micromanaging executives and the real estate investors who own their office buildings, reduced pollution superficially in populated areas.
Not sure what this has to do with planes, which have a negligible effect on pollution compared to personal automobiles, but I do advocate for going car-free (and still being able to get around), and work from home for the growing population of employees whose jobs don’t require a physical presence.
Or, like the beef thing I mentioned, which for many people is a worse contributor than cars. Or a number of other high-prioritt things.
I do believe that we all have a role in greenhouse gas reduction, but it’d really help if they were focused on the things that really actually matter. And not being a condescending, unrealistic jackass would probably have helped them make a point too.