Updated 5:15 pm EDT Sep. 7, 2022

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I’m Janet Wilson from Palm Springs, California, which along with much of the Southwest is enduring a sweltering heat wave. “These dangerously hot temperatures will likely break dozens of additional daily and possibly monthly records,” the National Weather Service Service said.

The hot, dry weather sparked dozens of blazes. Four people died after being trapped in explosive wildfires over Labor Day weekend, possibly caused by electric equipment in one case. California hit a new record for energy usage on Tuesday, but while some people lost power, we managed to avoid statewide blackouts as of Wednesday. But we’ve only just begun. Record heat and drought are on tap for the rest of the century as climate change mounts, experts say.

Prisoners in New York, Texas and elsewhere are enduring rising temperatures with little to no air conditioning, as Eduardo Cuevas chronicles in a must-read piece for the USA Today network. Prisons often have older infrastructure and house an older, more medically vulnerable population, said an expert. Inmates told Cuevas about sleeping on bare metal cots and experiencing nausea, dizziness, headaches (and even passing out) during heat waves. Prison officials say they are following the law, providing fans to inmates and cooling medical and nursery areas.

Elsewhere, there’s grim news from U.N. inspectors about a Ukrainian nuclear power plant shelled in recent weeks, eliminating backup safety systems. International Atomic Energy Agency watchdogs expressed “grave concern” and said an emergency safety zone should be established immediately.