Miami without AC? That’s impossible today

“Hot enough for you?” This throwaway greeting was something I used to toss at friends without a second thought. Now the line has become a lament, an alarm, the inevitable recognition that our current summer scorchers foreshadow a future where the heat won’t be anything to joke about.

As I write this, my Miami hometown has broken temperature records two days in a row. We’re scheduled for a reprieve today, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. I had to cut short my morning ritual of coffee in the great outdoors because the humidity was oppressive. A few minutes in the backyard were enough for sweat to pool in all the wrong places — and it wasn’t yet 8 o’clock.

I’ve lived most of my life in the tropics, a woman well-accustomed to damp underwear, melting makeup and frizzy hair. I’m old enough to have lived in a house without central air conditioning, a detail that my children and grandchildren consider an exaggeration. In fact, I clearly remember my parents buying our first window rattlers, and the glorious miracle of climate-controlled nights.

Now, my air conditioner runs most days, helped along by fans in every room of the house. But the minute we get cool weather — anything below 70 degrees qualifies — I rush to open windows. The sound of chirping crickets and whistling wind helps me sleep better, though they disturb my bedmate who prefers the mechanical hum of air forced through ceiling vents.

For the past few years, I worried that my brain’s heat regulating system had slipped into malfunction mode, an inevitable result of aging. I had repeatedly complained to The Hubby that summers at home had become unbearable. I couldn’t climb into the car without fearing heat stroke, and heaven forbid I touch any metal object — trowel, shovel, bike — left out in the sun.

Now I know that I wasn’t imagining anything. The world is overheating dangerously, and not just in South Florida. Reports about record-breaking temperatures top newscasts, and even those once immune to rising temperatures are feeling the swelter.

My BFF, who owns a second home in western North Carolina, tells me temps have dropped back to normal only in this past week of her seasonal sojourn. Of course, normal is relative. The folks in these mountain burgs consider 82 degrees hot. Down in the swamps, that’s where the mercury bottoms out for us.

The scariest part of these heat waves is what they tell us about what’s to come. Models show that high temperatures are likely to increase over the next 30 years and few places will remain untouched. Though Miami-Dade, home sweet home, heads the list of counties that will experience more dangerous days (when the heat index passes 100 degrees), a sizable “heat belt” cuts across the U.S. The assessment by the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that studies how climate change will affect us, predicts residents in 430 counties in 16 states could see their hottest temperature days more than triple by 2053.

I probably won’t be around by then, but I shudder at what this means for future generations. How will my grandchildren cope? Will my own kids, elderly by then, survive the No. 1 weather-related killer? This much I know: I can no longer play ostrich in the comfort of an artificially controlled environment. None of us can, none of us should.

We must advocate for lower global carbon dioxide emissions and boost national investments in clean energy, of course. But most of all, we should take a hard look at how we live our lives. Can we walk or take public transportation instead of driving alone? Isn’t it better to eat less meat? Should we repair and recycle more often? Can we save energy by switching to renewable sources?

The longer I live (and the hotter I feel), the more I realize that we need to fight global warming both collectively and at home. Taking those small, individual steps might be the best — certainly the coolest — legacy we leave for the people we love most.

Email Ana Veciana-Suarez at avecianasuarez@gmail.com or visit her website anavecianasuarez.com. Follow @AnaVeciana.

All the puzzles on this page were prepared for publication on Saturday and ran in our digital edition. They are repeated here as a courtesy for print readers.