Furnace Creek (California).- In the American Death Valley -considered one of the hottest places on Earth- breathing is something like inhaling fire, car tires threaten to melt and the lines that separate the two directions of the road seem to curve like a mirage.
The climate crisis is punishing this Californian area, where the World Meteorological Organization registered 54.4 degrees Celsius in 2020 and 2021, and 53.3 degrees this year, in the midst of the TikTok and Instagram era, which is considered by some as an opportunity to succeed in the competition for “likes” more than a threat to the habitat.
Mobile phones, selfie sticks and even drones are some of the odds and ends that the almost 3,300 tourists who visit the valley daily, especially Europeans during the summer, bring to immortalize their experience under the extreme heat, which is reviving tourism in the area. after the havoc caused by the coronavirus in the sector.
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“Before the pandemic, we received between 1.2 and 1.5 million visitors a year. This figure fell with the covid-19, but this could be the first in which we return to our usual levels,” he explained to EFE. Ranger Matthew Lamar.
Since 2017, this enclave, which is also the driest and lowest point with respect to sea level in the US, has experienced seven of the 10 hottest summers in its history in a row, according to the Desert Research Institute. from the University of Nevada.
SELF-ATHON IN ONE OF THE HOTTEST PLACES ON EARTH
Relieved by the air conditioning of their rental cars, travelers begin a kind of marathon that includes stops at the best places to take a selfie, starting with Furnace Creek, a community where just 30 seasonal workers live and where the thermometer of the records.
“They say that in the afternoon we will exceed 52 degrees last week. We have to come back later,” a French tourist lamented in statements to EFE in front of the mercury, after being disappointed with his photo next to the 39-degree mark that was registered by the tomorrow.
From there: Mesquite Dunes, Badwater Salt Flats, Dante View, Zebriskie Point’s eroded landscape, and “Heat Kills” institutional signs will be the most tagged sites in their networks.
EFE
Framed in the Mojave Desert, the land that for the last millennium belonged to the Timbisha Shoshone Amerindian tribe, of which very few members remain in the surroundings of the national park, is now the fleeting heritage of the networks.
A trend that worries the staff of the protected area so much that, according to the ranger, this summer emphasis is being placed on “respecting nature” to allow “other people to enjoy” Death Valley for years to come.
From Furnace Creek, Leo and Karoline, a young Belgian couple who visit the park, acknowledged to EFE that “it’s like frivolizing with the environment and thinking only about pretending and pretending.”
GOLF COURSES AND SWIMMING POOLS IN A PLACE HAZARDED BY DROUGHT
The heat gets worse after noon and the alternatives are limited to spending the night in nearby cities like Las Vegas or staying at the only hotel in the Californian valley.
An establishment opened in 1933 that is fed by Lake Mead, the largest artificial reservoir in the US, located between Nevada and Arizona, to irrigate its golf courses, fill its pools and supply its 275 rooms.
“We are returning to the path of normality, we have everything busy,” confirmed to EFE one of the hotel workers who preferred not to comment on the use of water in the hotel complex.
Beyond that idyllic wet paradise, water has been scarce for a decade in the area and thousands of 1,600-year-old trees have disappeared on Telescope Peak, the highest point in Death Valley.
This is reflected in a study by the US Forest Service. published in 2022, which also denounced that 70% of the “bristlecone” pine variety has become extinct due to prolonged drought.
Animals are not kept safe either: For example, the rare specimens of the famous “pupfish”, known to withstand very hot and salty water in Devils Hole, are in critical danger because rising temperatures have altered their reproductive cycles.
EFE
THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURE IN HISTORY, WITHIN SHOT “THIS SAME SUMMER”
According to climate scientist Daniel McEvoy of the Desert Research Institute, this is just a “demonstration” of how far extreme events can go and what “their consequences” can be.
And even the specialist in this class of phenomena of the World Meteorological Organization Randall Cerveny does not rule out that the unofficial historical record of 1913 of 56.67 degrees Celsius could be surpassed “this very summer” by the “acceleration of climate change”.
In the Death Valley National Park, new sensors have already been installed so that this time they do not miss the evidence of a new world record that would revive selfie tourism and golf courses, while nature screams enough in one of the hottest places on the planet.
