Thursday, March 28

The hottest city in the United States is almost uninhabitable in summer. Can refrigeration technologies save it? | Climate crisis in the American West


TO The surge in heat-related deaths amid record summer temperatures offers a “peek into the future” and a stark warning that one of America’s largest cities is already uninhabitable for some, according to its new heat czar. .

Nearly 200 people died from extreme heat in Phoenix in 2020 – the hottest, driest and deadliest summer on record with 53 days topping 110F (43C) compared to the previous high of 33 days. Last year saw fewer scorching days, but the death toll remained staggeringly high, with people experiencing homelessness and addictions dying disproportionately.

Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is used to a hot desert climate, but daytime and nighttime temperatures have increased due to global warming and uncontrolled development in the city, which has created a sprawling urban heat island.

Scorching temperatures have made summers increasingly dangerous for the city’s 1.4 million residents, with mortality and morbidity rates on the rise over the past two decades, but 2020 was a game changer when related deaths with the heat they increased by about 60%.

Last year, after another deadly summer, the mayor announced the region’s first dedicated unit to tackle the growing danger of urban heat, which also threatens the city’s economic viability.

A person found some shade at a bus stop in Phoenix, June 2021.
A person found some shade at a bus stop in Phoenix, June 2021. Photograph: Ross D. Franklin/AP

“Phoenix is ​​already uninhabitable in the summer for many of our residents, who literally didn’t live because it was too hot. Every death is preventable and it shows that there is much more we can do to make the city livable and comfortable for all,” said David Hondula, newly appointed director of the Phoenix Office of Heat Mitigation and Response.

“2020 was a glimpse into the future: It’s the kind of summer that could be normal by 2050 or 2080, so we need to be ready to make Phoenix livable and prosperous.”

The Phoenix area is expected to experience 25 more days above 90F by 2050

Phoenix is ​​the hottest city and the fifth most populous in the country, where businesses and people began to flock when affordable air conditioning became available in the 1950s. Population growth has caused a huge expansion of the concrete infrastructure (buildings, roads and car parks) and a reduction in green space, which has created heat islands, dangerously hot urban areas that absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes.

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Between 95% and 99% of homes in Phoenix have air conditioning, however, in some surveys, such as Up to a third of residents in the largest metropolitan area, more than a million people reported experiencing adverse effects from the heat, suggesting that many cannot afford to turn on or repair their refrigeration units.

Hondula will lead a four-person team with two broad goals: to protect residents in very hot weather (the heat response part) and to come up with long-term strategies to cool the city and make it more comfortable (the mitigation part). Both require better data, better coordination between government and money.

For example, the local health department has a highly rated surveillance system, but even so, the final count and details of summer heat-related deaths are released the following February or March. “That leaves a very short window to plan for the next hot season, and the deaths represent just the tip of a big iceberg… We hardly know what conditions people are experiencing in their homes,” said Hondula, a climate scientist and health that has spent more than a decade researching the risks and vulnerabilities associated with heat.

The team’s success will be measured in numbers of deaths and illnesses, but the problems and solutions are interconnected: saving lives will require redesigning the city’s heat-trapping concrete landscape, as well as improving access to cooling centers, hydration and paramedics.

There are quick changes of fire, or ripe fruit as Hondula says, which he thinks could have an immediate impact. For example, too many people have trouble accessing cooling centers when they need them; more signs and longer opening hours would help, as would public health campaigns asking residents who call 911 to stay with the person until first responders arrive.

But much broader changes will be needed to address the root causes of deaths in the most vulnerable group: middle-aged men experiencing homelessness and substance abuse. “To reduce deaths, we must think bottom-up and take action to alleviate the housing affordability crisis and improve access to substance abuse and recovery services.”

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Hondula recently submitted the 2022 heat response plan to the city council, in an attempt to coordinate the existing patchwork of services. “I’m impressed by the number of programs, but the death and disease numbers are moving in the wrong direction, so there’s a disconnect that we need to address,” he said. “If we want to take a risk seriously, relying on good fortune, luck and chance is not the best model.”

Mitigation will focus on trees and infrastructure, which will be carried out by an urban forester and a built environment expert who have not yet been hired.

New trees were planted in the Edison-Eastlake neighborhood of Phoenix, where shade is minimal.
New trees were planted in the Edison-Eastlake neighborhood of Phoenix, where shade is minimal. Photograph: Caitlin O’Hara/The Guardian

Planting trees is hugely popular and has been touted as a relatively painless solution to combating climate change by world leaders like Donald Trump, Britain’s Boris Johnson and Turkish President Recep Erdoğan.

In Phoenix, the city published a tree master plan in 2010, committing to increase canopy cover to 25% by 2030 (from an estimated 11% to 13% at the time). The city is not on track to meet that goal, and the goal may eventually be revised to reflect the city’s broader sustainability and equity goals, such as targeting low-shade neighborhoods and public transit routes where people walk and wait.

“The trees are an important part of the plan that residents have been asking for for years, but they are not a panacea for the city,” Hondula said. “But if we could have 30% of a 20-minute walking trail shaded, it would provide health protection for most summer days,” Hondula said.

Money is a problem. So far, the unit does not have a program budget, but there are options.

The heat unit has bid for a portion of the second installment of the city’s American bailout plan, due in May, to fund a residential tree-planting program targeting 25 less shaded neighborhoods.

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Workers at the Phoenix Department of Transportation spray “pavement cool” over the asphalt to reduce the heat island effect.
Workers at the Phoenix Department of Transportation spray ‘cool pavement’ over the asphalt to reduce the heat island effect. Photograph: AP

Engineered shade, like cool pavement, a reflective compound painted on asphalt that reduces the amount of sun absorbed, is being tested across the city. The the results are encouraging, but again Hondula warns against clinging to this as an easy fix.

“I don’t think we can go all-in on fresh pavement because that commits us to strong infrastructure in places where there might be better uses,” he said. “Our office needs additional land for tree planting that could be land that is currently streets…but any talk of reducing or eliminating lanes is a sensitive conversation.”

Another sensitive and critical area is the city’s real estate development, which for years has outpaced its ad hoc mitigation efforts. Hondula recognizes that it will take time to deal with the gaps and loopholes in every part of the construction process, from zoning and permitting to shade requirements and enforcement.

“There is a very fast train moving forward with regards to development and it may be too late for the office of heat mitigation to weigh in on existing plans. It could be three years before our digital footprint appears, but we need to accept that these are longer-term processes and start working as quickly as we can.”

Climate disasters such as deadly heat waves, wildfires, droughts and torrential rains are becoming more frequent. frequent, costly and deadly and experts agree that drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to limit global warming.

But towns and cities are not defenseless. In fact, Hondula argues, tackling district heating could help reverse the decline in city livability. “All cities have tiny hands on the great lever [of global heating] but the dominant driver of regional climate change has been urbanization, and that is a lever that we have in our hands as local governments.

“Some models suggest that with the widespread deployment of cooling technologies like trees and reflective surfaces, we could end up with a future city that is cooler than we have today, even with continued global warming, which is a very encouraging sign.” .


www.theguardian.com

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