One of the lessons we've all learned this summer has been that extreme heat happens in every part of the country, as well as all over the world. Having a one stop shop where people can go with ideas and challenges around heat really gives us more momentum to get things done.ĭo you think there's any misconceptions among people from other parts of the U.S. Having a heat office that is focused completely on this challenge has been a great success for us. And that makes a really significant impact and allows people to move about more successfully. One that has been very popular is in our key transit corridors, such as our downtown, we are pushing towards 75% shade cover-that will be a mix of planting trees and using things like canopies in the built environment. We have a variety of programs on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We're looking at a variety of different programs in the water area, which range from protecting our water supply to just getting out water to our community. We have a cool pavement program where we do a lighter colored sealant on city streets, and Arizona State University has found about a 10-12 degree cooling impact. We have found that really looking at the built environment, including the materials you choose, can be very important. What else have you learned about what solutions really work, and which aren’t as useful in dealing with extreme heat? On the monitor in the background is Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix, Arizona. During the event Biden announced additional actions to protect communities from the effects of extreme heat. President Joe Biden speaks during an event on extreme heat Jin Washington, D.C. So yes, we are spending more than we have before, but we're also getting smarter and tracking which solutions really deliver. We've learned new techniques that our firefighters use to cool people down, including getting ice baths out in the field. We've learned a lot about mobile cooling units being very positive.

We have a lot of long term investments to try to increase the amount of affordable housing and shelter, and then we continue to invest in new programs every year. Has this extreme heat meant that the city had to spend more on programs like those to keep people safe? Another advantage of the shipping container housing is that it can be manufactured indoors so that the construction workers who are building it have a little bit more protection from the summer heat. It's powered by solar energy with onsite batteries, and it's just one example of how we're trying to get shelter built quickly. As we speak, people are moving into a shipping container project that the city of Phoenix purchased with American Rescue Plan dollars. We are working as hard as we can to develop new shelter options-that's everything from hotels to creating housing out of shipping containers. We have a network of volunteers that can hand out cooling kits throughout our community as well as maps or resources related to heat. We have a program called Cold Callers where we can check on people who are likely to be most vulnerable to heat, including people with health challenges and older adults. We have a network of more than 60 cooling centers where individuals can go. In the aftermath of the unprecedented stretch of extreme heat, TIME spoke with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego about the response to the brutal heat wave, and what the city has learned going forward. Still, it remains to be seen if one of the country’s fastest-growing cities can adapt faster than temperatures rise. It’s also building new air-conditioned homeless shelters out of shipping containers. It’s painting roads with a reflective coating designed to absorb less heat, and it has launched an initiative to improve tree cover in poorer parts of the city. in 2021, and appointed a former environmental sciences professor as its leader. Phoenix created the first publicly funded heat response office in the U.S. And even after Phoenix residents make it through this summer and into the balmy winter months, global climate change likely means that yet more super-heat waves will be back in the years ahead. The first two weeks of August saw slightly cooler temperatures in the city, but they are projected to rise again in the coming days.

Such conditions are likely to come again soon. All told, Phoenix’s Maricopa County reported 39 heat-related deaths in July, with more than 300 others being investigated. rose above 110☏ for 31 straight days last month, a record-breaking spell of extreme heat that raised sidewalks to scalding temperatures, keeled over mighty saguaro cacti, and inundated hospitals with patients suffering from heat-related ailments.

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