The Heat That’s Here to Stay

You may have found yourself trying to stave off the staggering heat last summer, and you’re not alone. Over 75 million people in the U.S. were under heat advisories by June. Though heat waves and unusually warm temperatures are normal variations in weather, climate change is making heat more intense, prolonged, and deadly. People around the country are experiencing the extreme heat season sooner and for longer—46 days longer, in fact.

This increase in extreme heat has dire impacts on our public health, claiming over 2,000 lives in the U.S. each year—that’s more than hurricanes, tornadoes, or flooding. Death from heat exhaustion and heat stroke are the most common, but heat-related illnesses worsen underlying medical conditions and also contribute to deaths from strokes, heart attacks, and other forms of cardiovascular disease.

Although extreme heat affects all of us, it doesn’t affect us equally. Indigenous communities, rural and immigrant communities, communities of color and low income communities, pregnant people, people experiencing homelessness, outdoor workers, and the elderly disproportionately suffer from the impacts of extreme heat.

Due to decades of displacement and disinvestment, many of the people in these communities are more likely to experience pre-existing health conditions, to live in buildings without adequate ventilation or air conditioning, in areas with insufficient tree cover and green space, or in close proximity to fossil fuel and industrial plants—making them more vulnerable to heat-induced fatalities.

Luckily, we have the solutions to mitigate and adapt to extreme heat.

The effects of climate change are catching up with our reality on the ground. To stop extreme heat and other impacts of climate change from worsening, our collective focus should be on both drastically reducing and removing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as employing adaptation methods that help protect ourselves in an uncertain future.

Check out our extreme heat storymap to learn more about the effects of extreme heat on public health and how communities are adapting.

Here are some communities working to combat the rise of extreme heat.

Green and Healthy Schools

In Milwaukee, a local environmental nonprofit called Reflo is on a mission to address urban heat islands at schools and build a healthy community through sustainable water use, education, and resources. Through the Green and Healthy Schools program, they work with Milwaukee-area schools to do holistic redevelopment of primarily asphalt-covered schoolyards into much more engaging green spaces.

Replacing impervious surfaces with green infrastructure like bioswales, native Wisconsin plants, and trees, better manages stormwater runoff and provides urban habitat for wildlife and pollinators. Increased shade cover and vegetation help lower surface temperatures, addressing the urban heat island effect.

It also gives students better access to nature which has improved social and emotional connections through outdoor classrooms and learning elements. Teachers have even seen a decrease in behavioral referrals, fewer playground injuries, and more engagement in their environment.

Beyond the schoolyard, these projects help reduce flooding and improve water quality across the city. Because Milwaukee has both combined and separated sewer systems, Reflo employs stormwater management strategies strategically based on where each school is located. Bioswales—landscape features that collect polluted stormwater runoff, soak it into the ground, and filter out pollution—are used to reduce the amount of pollutants that enter the underground system and contaminate Lake Michigan.

With 31 completed projects so far, five in construction, and 10 in planning or fundraising phases, Reflo is making great strides to improve the local water system and education opportunities.

Going Green, and Underground

On the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe are building underground greenhouses to address food insecurity and difficulty farming amidst increasing heatwaves and severe storms. Before the U.S. government forcibly removed the Lakota people from their land and decimated the buffalo population in an effort to starve them, they were skilled gatherers and hunters.

Today, the reservation’s residents live in food deserts with only a few grocery stores. Extreme heat makes farming conditions difficult, while high winds and hail from increased severe storms can decimate food crops—as well as grocery stores.

The greenhouses offer new hope and security. Bryan Deans, president of Oglala Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative, used salvaged materials to construct a 1,200 square foot underground greenhouse. His structure uses a passive solar system to absorb heat during the day and release it into the building at sunfall.

Thanks to this innovation, Deans’ greenhouse can grow at least 65,000 plant starters and has been able to feed hundreds of community members. “You can either look at it as if it’s hopeless, you can’t do anything … Or you can look at it as well, nothing’s been done here, so anything can be done here,” he says.

Protecting Farmworkers

Outdoor workers, such as construction workers, agricultural workers, and fisherfolk are also at a higher risk of heat-induced illnesses. With a typical work day under the blazing sun and little to no shade, outdoor workers face some of the highest health risks during heat waves.

Lupe Gonzalo, a senior staff member with the non-profit Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), works with farmworkers to address safety issues including working in extreme heat. “A lot of places in the field, you don’t have access to shade, to clean and fresh drinking water. It’s getting hotter and hotter as climate change continues, and it will continue to be an issue for workers”, said Gonzalo.

Seeing how lengthy and political the process of government regulation could be, Gonzalo and other CIW members set up the Fair Food Program that works with large companies to ensure farmworkers’ rights to safe and fair standards are met. Among other provisions, the heat-related measures include guaranteed protections around shade, water with electrolytes, bathrooms, pesticide exposure, excessive heat, and other health and safety issues. 

At this time, there is no federal law mandating similar worker protections from extreme heat, thus making this program a vital bridge to ensure the most vulnerable are safeguarded from rising temperatures.

Greening of Detroit

Detroit was known as the “Paris of the Midwest” because of its tree-lined boulevards until around 1950. Over the following 30 years, Detroit lost 500,000 trees to urban development, Dutch elm disease, and the Emerald ash borer. Despite attempts to replace what was lost, inadequate community engagement and concerns about the long-term costs of tree stewardship stalled planting efforts.

Then, in 2022, the City of Detroit, the nonprofit Greening of Detroit, and the city’s utility DTE Energy partnered on a tree planting program. Thanks to thousands of volunteers, and robust community engagement, the partnership has successfully removed dead trees and planted over 25,000 new trees with a goal of 75,000 by 2027.

The Greening of Detroit will not only relieve communities suffering from extreme heat by cooling urban heat islands, it will also benefit the climate by absorbing carbon dioxide and retaining rainwater that would otherwise run off into the sewer system.

Staying Cool in Seattle

Seattle’s mild summers and proximity to the Sound made air conditioning far less common and less necessary, especially in older buildings. But the recent increase of heat waves in Seattle has led the city to create a new extreme heat response plan which includes expanding access to air conditioning.

Last year, Seattle was awarded a $5.5M Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to install air conditioning at five branches of the Seattle Public Library. These will serve as cooling centers during heat waves and clean air shelters during wildfires. Arranging adaptation solutions like this would be much more difficult without federal assistance that understands the severe impact rising global temperatures is already having on our public health, wildlife habitat, and infrastructure.

“The Seattle Public Library has made great strides in modernizing the systems of our 27 locations to continue serving as safe and comfortable public spaces for generations to come,” said Chief Librarian Tom Fay. “Thanks to FEMA’s important and generous funding, all Seattle libraries will be able to serve as reliable cooling shelters and clean air centers once this work is complete.”

Raising Awareness in Los Angeles

In Los Angeles County, record-high temperatures happen almost every year, with some neighborhoods hitting 120 degrees. Raising awareness about the health risks is vital to keeping communities safe during extreme heat waves.

To do that, the University of California Los Angeles is leading an outreach program on avoiding the dangers of extreme heat in collaboration with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, nonprofit Rising Communities, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and more than 75 additional partners.

The program, called “Los Angeles Regional Collaborative: Heat Education, Ambassadors, and Training”, seeks to help improve public understanding about and response to the risks of extreme heat. By creating materials in English, Spanish, and Armenian, the program hopes to reach more of its residents.

“As stewards of our ancestral lands, we recognize the urgent need to confront rising temperatures and extreme heat in L.A. County,” said Rudy Ortega, Jr., president of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. “This project embodies our commitment to environmental stewardship and community resilience, ensuring a sustainable future for all.”

Read more about the rise of extreme heat.