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Southwest Airlines is facing a unique climate change problem: exploding soda cans

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

There are things we expect from high temperatures, like sweat, increased irritability. There are things, however, that we just don't expect to hear about during a heat wave, like exploding soda cans at cruising altitude. Southwest Airlines told NPR that heat has warped some cans and caused others to burst when opened, and it seems to be unique to Southwest.

The airline doesn't tend to transport the canned drinks in an air-conditioned truck. Plus, the bulk of the airports they fly out of are in cities that have broken temperature records this summer. Flight attendants are told to avoid opening any cans that feel hot or are warped. Maybe that's good advice for all of us, or maybe we should skip the sodas altogether.

(SOUNDBITE OF WALTER WANDERLEY'S "CRICKETS SING FOR ANA MARIA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.