The heat surge in the Pacific Northwest has, among other things, killed people. In the US, the preliminary estimate is hundreds; in British Columbia it is 500. Those are people who died from heat itself.
Of all the direct and dire effects of global heating, death and illness from heat itself has been the least noticed or discussed. Why is that? Why in fact do people die from heat every year and very little attention is paid to these deaths?
There are likely a number of sociological, psychological and political reasons, but one stands out: no pictures.
Another effect of climate disruption is drought and fire, and some attention is paid to that. Likewise to flooding. Both can be grasped as disasters from seeing skillful photographs and video. But visual news and newspapers haven't come up with a way to show heat surges as dangerous. They use the same kind of photos they use for summer activities or ordinary hot weather. Nothing that looks even very unpleasant, let alone lethal.
That's generally been a problem with communicating the dangers and therefore the urgency of the climate crisis. Not only weren't there a lot of good images, the words that were sold as the right ones were--either accidentally or deliberately or both--very non-threatening. What's wrong with warming? Greenhouses are nice. What's wrong with a change in climate? It doesn't much sound like a slow motion never-ending global nuclear war.
The most effective description of death from the heat is the opening chapters of Kim Stanley Robinson's latest novel, The Ministry of the Future. If anyone ever has the guts to really film it, then maybe the danger will be easier to see.
Update: For several of the dire followup stories on the Northwest heat attack, the photos used to illustrate it were long shots of cooling centers. These don't say anything about heat deaths but they do say "emergency." The cooling centers look like the evacuation centers and shelters for people fleeing floods and fires or other disasters that prevent them from being where they normally would be: at home. These huge spaces, crowded with cots and disordered possessions, also suggest the deeply feared refugee centers. Nobody wants to be a refugee. This is an image that people are apt to take seriously.
