Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Our Daily Planet is a daily morning email (M-F) to keep you informed of the stories shaping our environment. If these issues matter to you, we’d like to be the best ten minutes of your morning.
The number of heat-related deaths in Arizona spiked last year, a dangerous combination resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the hottest summer on record. State officials suggest that in 2020, at least 494 people died of heat-related complications, a marked increase from the previous record of 283 heat-related deaths in 2019.
Last year, Phoenix broke records for the most days with temperatures of 100 degrees or hotter (145 days) and the most days that hit 110 or hotter (53 days).
Why This Matters: Last year’s extreme heat offers a preview of a potential worst-case scenario, as climate change increases temperatures in the Southwest. Extreme temperatures are a particularly deadly result of global warming, as more people in the United States die from heat-related emergencies than all other weather-related hazards.
Moreover, society’s most vulnerable tend to be the most likely to suffer from heat-related ailments: older residents, those living unsheltered on the streets, outdoor workers and people who live in mobile homes or without functioning air conditioning.
Overheating is also an environmental justice issue, as research has found that low-income and nonwhite neighborhoods tend to have fewer trees, which has rendered formerly redlined neighborhoods at least five degrees hotter in summer than other neighborhoods. Low-income Americans also often lack access to air conditioning due to the unaffordable nature of home energy costs.
Though this problem will be particularly devastating to Southwestern cities, extreme heat will affect the entire world. Dr. Juan Declet-Barreto, senior social scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists told Salon:
“Every single place where there is a built environment, where there are cities and roadways and glass and pavement and buildings and highways and cars and air conditioning and so on, are going to be hotter than the surrounding areas where it’s a little more rural or less. We see cities not just like the ones you mentioned, — Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson — but many in India, many in the Persian Gulf, that, as climate change continues unabated, are facing significant threats to the population.”
Some potential solutions include specialized cooling centers with good enough circulation that the coronavirus doesn’t fester, expanding the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, creating more sources of affordable housing, and letting residents postpone rent and utility payments. In addition, researchers advocate weatherizing low-income homes, and setting up a heat alert system inside the house of someone that lives alone.
To cover the cost of these solutions, Arizona must prioritize funding climate-change mitigation projects. This funding could avert future disaster spending: a 2018 study from the National Institute of Building Sciences found that every dollar spent on hazard mitigation over 23 years saved $6 in future disaster costs.
Patricia Solís, a researcher who leads ASU’s Knowledge Exchange for Resilience, emphasized the urgency of the problem in an interview with AZ Central: “I don’t believe that there’s ever been a disaster in the United States declared for heat waves or extreme heat. We normally see that as something that just happens and we have to adjust to. But if there was every year a hurricane coming through in which 200 people perished, we would call that a disaster, and we might declare a disaster.”
by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer This March will continue to bring more severe weather to the United States. An atmospheric river event — the “Pineapple Express” — is forecast to induce a rainy season in Washington and Oregon, as well as an increased risk of avalanches in the Pacific Northwest. As the Pineapple Express […]
We feel so badly for everyone in Texas suffering through days of bitter cold, many without heat. But the people at the northern U.S. end of the polar vortex are reeling from the cold as well. Low-temperature records are being broken in the northern plains — it’s so cold there that even Siberia was warmer. […]
After snowstorms swept across the South this week, 14 states are expecting power outages, frozen roads, and dangerous conditions. Hundreds of millions will be impacted by the storm. Millions will be experiencing rolling blackouts in the coming days due to stress on the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).
Why This Matters: Although it might seem that this polar vortex is an exception to global temperature rise, research says that erratic, far-reaching polar systems like the one we’re seeing now can be directly related to warming temperatures in the Arctic.
Subscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
Want the lastest climate news summarized for you each morning?
Our Daily Planet is your daily dose of the stories shaping our world and the ways that you can take action. From the climate crisis to the protection of biodiversity, if these issues matter to you then please subscribe & stay informed!
Your privacy is Important! We promise never to use your email address to send you spam or advertisements.