A 42-year-old Belgian tourist was taking a short walk Saturday in the sand dunes in 123-degree heat when he either broke or lost his flip-flops, putting his feet into direct contact with the broiling desert ground.

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
          9·
          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
              3·
              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%.

                • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  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.

              • ripcord@lemmy.world
                3·
                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
                  1·
                  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.