The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for many parts of the U.S. this week.
As more than 100 million Americans are headed for triple-digit temperatures this weekend. Heat negatively affects some people more than others — UCLA Heat Lab Director Bharat Venkat looks at it as “thermal inequality.”
It’s simple to advise people to turn on air conditioning, but in low-income communities of color, where the percentage of renters is high, A/C availability is low, he points out.
Even if A/C is an option, people hesitate to use it because it’s expensive, which scholars call “energy poverty.”
That’s where the federal government has stepped in, offering the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which has helped more than 6 million U.S. households lower their energy bills, Venkat notes.
And across the country, there’s a push for a right to cooling, laws requiring building owners and landlords to provide for, or at the very least allow, air conditioning in residential rental units can protect vulnerable communities from extreme temperatures.
“Air conditioning may not be the climate-forward cooling solution that we want, but it is a highly effective resource that we already have,” said housing advocate Lisa McCormick, who has also called for aggressive action to transform toa clean energy economy. “A 2012 study found that home air conditioning usage in the United States has decreased heat-related deaths by nearly 80 percent since 1960.”
State and local governments that experience cold weather have nearly universally adopted minimum heating and hot water requirements in cooler months.
The pervasiveness of cold weather-oriented habitability requirements in contrast to the paucity of hot weather-oriented habitability requirements raise growing concerns about the reach and potential of these laws in the context of increasing global temperatures.
While minimum heating requirements in cold weather are ubiquitous (even in warmer places like Florida), standards for cooling are rare, despite the fact that heat kills more people than cold.
Extreme heat is responsible for more deaths globally than any other climate disaster and is the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States.
Moreover, heat waves are occurring more often than they used to in major cities across the United States. Their frequency has increased steadily, from an average of two heat waves per year during the 1960s to six per year during the 2010s and 2020s.
Summer is now being coined “danger season” because of the confluence of extreme temperatures and other climate-related disasters (drought, wildfire, hurricanes, etc).
Even regions known for their temperate climate are feeling the effects of extreme heat: A historic heatwave in the Pacific Northwest resulted in dangerous temperatures, which was made 150 times more likely because of climate change.
“We tend to think about air conditioning as a luxury. It’s something that if you’re wealthier, you can enjoy. But really, as we see increasing temperatures, air conditioning is going to become a necessity,” Venkat emphasizes.
But if everyone is running A/C, blackouts can happen, pointing out that some jurisdication shut down facilities last year to ensure that the power grid wasn’t overstretched.
He says in the future, there must be a push for renewables, and priority given to low-income communities of color when deciding where energy should flow amid heat waves.
Although some regions have many cooling facilities — including libraries, shopping malls, and community centers with A/C — it can be tough to get people there, especially seniors and unhoused Americans.
“Going door to door or even going around to unhoused communities and saying, ‘This is available to you, and you can bring your stuff with you’ — is going to be a really critical way to make sure that those people are kept safe.”
What signs should people look for when it comes to heat-related illnesses?
“It could be something as simple as feeling a bit dehydrated, or feeling tired, or feeling just a little bit too hot,” said Venkat. “What I say to folks is that if you start to feel a little bit uncomfortable, take a minute and pause and consider: What are your surroundings? Are you in a place that’s hotter? Do you have a way of getting cooler? Can you drink water? Can you put on lighter clothes? Can you go be with others in a place that is cooler? Because the symptoms are really hard to distinguish from ordinary, everyday symptoms for a range of other conditions.”