The United States has just gone through the hottest July on record in decades. The situation should not improve, with increasingly hot summers and more violent weather phenomena. How do American cities apprehend this overheated future?
For American municipalities, the summer of 2023 will not be without consequences. July of this year will go down in history, according to Democratic Mayor of Phoenix Kate Gallego.
“Summer is always a difficult time for us, but this year we broke records and it was particularly difficult,” she said, while believing that her city will remain on the front line of global warming.
Emergency measures
As soon as this extreme heat wave began, Phoenix authorities put emergency measures in place. Starting with organizing distributions of drinking water. Then, air-conditioned centers were opened all over the city. Municipal libraries have also been called upon to welcome people to the cool. Finally, the inhabitants were called upon to avoid outdoor activities to prevent sunstroke and discomfort.
Phoenix Fire Corps paramedics rescue a man who collapsed due to the extreme heat that battered the city throughout July. [Carlos Barria – Reuters]
The inhabitants of Phoenix, a city located in the middle of the desert, are used to being hot. But this is the first time that the heat wave has lasted so long at such high temperatures. So much so that even the cacti in the botanical garden suffered…
>> Read also: Deadly heat wave in Mexico and the southern United States
Repainted roofs
The increasingly hot summers also pushed the municipal authorities to create, a year ago, a service dedicated to the fight against the heat, a first in the country.
“If we take a thermal image of the city from space or from a helicopter, we realize that there are two hot zones: the streets and the roofs”, explains the director of this office David Hondula, interviewed by the NBC channel.
A cactus, which has lost arms due to the heat, is pictured August 2, 2023 at the Phoenix Botanical Garden. [Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo – Keystone]
A vast operation is thus underway to repaint the roofs with a material that reflects the sun’s rays. With his team, David Hondula is thus in the process of reorganizing the entire city to make it more efficient in the face of temperatures.
“We have installed over 100 miles of cooling pavement. We place great emphasis on growing plants, especially desert-adapted plants that are drought-tolerant, plants native to this region that I think are really the heart of this initiative to create an urban forest”, develops David Hondula.
New York goes green
Phoenix is not the only American city to have suffocated. Other American agglomerations are working to find a solution to these ever more frequent furnaces.
>> To read also: Las Vegas, exuberant city and model for water management
In New York, the town hall has set itself an objective: to ensure that 30% of the surface of the city is dedicated to green spaces. Even if it means installing gardens on the roofs of skyscrapers. In fact, studies show that these areas retain less heat.
In California, which has been facing unprecedented drought and devastating fires for several years, the authorities have joined forces with Native American tribes to tap into ancestral know-how. For example in encouraging preventive firesan Amerindian tradition that allows, in particular, to eliminate fuel in a controlled manner.
Joe Biden wants to act
The fight against the heat has also become one of the priorities of the White House. A few days ago, Joe Biden announced new measures, explaining that if nothing is done, the heat will continue to have a human and material cost.
A volunteer with the City of Phoenix’s Heat Response Program distributes water, July 20. [Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo – Keystone]
“Most people don’t realize that for years heat has been the number one cause of weather-related deaths. Six hundred people die from it each year in our country. That’s more than tornadoes, floods and hurricanes. “Even those who continue to deny the climate crisis cannot deny the impact of this extreme heat on Americans. Experts say this extreme heat is already costing us $1 billion a year,” the US president said.
>> To read also: In Florida, a race against time to save corals from global warming
The question of social inequalities
The first victims of this heat in the United States are the most disadvantaged communities: the elderly, the homeless, the poor…
In Phoenix, Stacey Champion has been fighting for more than 15 years for the city to invest in poor neighborhoods, often those without parks, trees and air-conditioned centers.
Two homeless people battle the heat at their camp in Phoenix. The homeless are among the first victims of the extreme temperatures that hit the United States. [Matt York/AP Photo – Keystone]
“Take any city. If you have, say, a thousand wealthy people dying every year from the same predictable thing, everyone would be up in arms! We are this wealthy country that has miserably failed to protect our communities. more vulnerable,” says the activist.
Currently, each city finances its own initiatives. This necessarily creates inequalities within them, between the rich and the poor, between the different cities, even between the States.
A demanded national policy
Currently, there is no real policy at the national level. According to Stacey Champion, for example, the federal government must do more. In particular, requests have multiplied this summer to declare the heat a natural disaster.
This definition would make it possible, in the event of a heat wave similar to that of last month, to mobilize the means of the Federal Agency for the Management of Natural Disasters (FEMA), as happens during hurricanes or floods. The States affected then receive financial and material aid.
>> Read also: When insurance no longer insures, another effect of climate change
Loubna Anaki/ami
2023-08-13 12:42:41
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