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.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      People need to reconsider modern indulgences. Things the people did without 100 years ago. I’m not talking about medical advancements, but this type of hyper convenient travel isn’t really necessary.

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Travel itself isn’t necessary. This Belgian traveled half way across the globe to burn his feet in the desert. I won’t travel an hour to hang out with friends that can’t figure out discord.

          We can demand the 1% fix their shit and fix our own shit. Not reducing our own consumption only feeds more profits to the 1%.

          • ripcord@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Do you also post comments on any article involving beef chastising people for eating it? Do you eat it? That has a dramatically higher carbon impact than people occasionally (or even frequently) taking a vacation.

            Edit: from what I can tell, his share of the greenhouse impact of his flight to and from, is roughly equal to eating two 1/3 pound hamburgers.

            ~1650kg impact per flight each way / 200 passengers (low estimate) * 2 (to and from) = 16.5kg

            Estimated 60kg of impact, per kg of beef produced / * 1/3 pound * 2 burgers = ~18kg of impact.

            Edit2: found another source that estimated hamburger beef at 21.88kg of impact (the difference seems to be partly how they estimate the methane produced and its relative impact compared to carbon). If so, then it’d be 6 burgers for that round-trip flight.

            • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              The first 2 or 3 months of the covid lock down was the most optimistic I’ve ever been. The air cleaned up immediately and you could almost see the temperatures start to plateau. We will never achieve something like that again.

                • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  I never mentioned food. I mentioned the needless conveniences that were created in the recent 100 years. Sure, we should be eating less meat.

                  I’m just sick of all the people in my life who role play as progressives without thinking about their own actions. There’s a friend group that I pretty much dropped contact with because they’re too boomer to figure out Discord and I’m too climate anxietied to drive an hour just to watch youtube videos and have the same dozen or so conversations again. I’ve dropped hollywood movies, partly because of the drive as well, but also the carbon foot print from its production. I literally can not travel for myself without some form of guilt.

                  I’ve had climate anxiety for the past 30 fucking years. Been sabotaged by my guidance counselor when I wanted to pursue a college that would be interested in that rather then just producing more consumers. FFS, is that all college is for? Sounds like the highest achievement anyone wants for us is to be good little consumers and make their lines go up.

                  Should I feel vindicated when my crops fail because of the heat?

                  Also, not everyone works on the same schedule. I have more important things to do than reply to you on your timetable.

                  • ripcord@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    You didn’t mention food, no.

                    I asked you a specific question, brought in a relevant point, explained why it was relevent, and you’re still ignoring it with some random streams off consciousness.

                    Also, not everyone works on the same schedule. I have more important things to do than reply to you on your timetable.

                    What? But…you did reply. That was the point. I wasn’t complaining about the timing, just that you blathered some reply that ignored what it was replying to.

                    You clearly just want to talk at people, I won’t be getting your reply.

                • ripcord@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  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.

            • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              And there are people like me that live in the US, but live in dense efficient housing and don’t own cars and take hybrid/electric buses everywhere, so you can fuck off if you think I need to keep sacrificing my happiness while the rich burn the world down. If you live in an house or drive a car, you’re doing more damage to the planet than I am, so maybe take a look in the mirror before you throw a fit about one German family that visited America (and died here) 28 fucking years ago.

              I live a mile from work, converted my farm to biodiesel, got as much solar installed as allowed and heat with firewood. I’m pissed about keyboard warriors who complain about the rich, but don’t do anything but complain online about it.