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Wednesday 2 March 2022
Heat wave a glimpse of climate change’s impact in N. America

Continued from Front After last summer’s deadly
heat wave, Portland offi-
The sweltering stretch cials are considering alarm
across the normally cool re- systems in public housing
gion offers a glimpse of the that would alert building
types of extreme weather managers when tempera-
events that will acceler- tures climb above 100 de-
ate in North America within grees. City officials also ap-
30 years without a coor- proved a plan to distribute
dinated effort to slow cli- 15,000 heat pumps, which
mate change, according are an energy-efficient
to a United Nations report way to cool spaces. Or-
released this week. Even if egon lawmakers are also
global warming is limited to considering $15 million in
1.5 degrees Celsius, people funding to boost distribu-
across the U.S., Mexico and tion air purifiers, air condi-
Canada will be at increas- tioners and heat pumps.
ing risk of catastrophic Longer-term discussions in
weather events. the Pacific Northwest and
The report by the Intergov- elsewhere include painting
ernmental Panel on Climate roof tops white and using
Change lays out how wors- lighter-colored pavement
ening global warming will to repel sunlight, planting
endanger people’s health, Cars stranded in a Walmart parking lot after a flash flood on Nolensville Pike in Nashville, Tenn., more trees in urban cen-
drive food insecurity, spur Sunday, March 28, 2021. Associated Press ters and creating neigh-
economic upheaval and borhood cooling hubs that
trigger migration from in- to get more destructive er and damaged cropland mean lower yields of key could also be social spots.
creasingly uninhabitable hurricanes and rising sea in Ohio and Indiana. A dif- crops such as corn and The measures will be key for
places. Low-income and levels. In the Midwest and ferent downpour and flood soybeans and drought will the groups hit hardest by
minority populations will be Northeast, heavier rains are months earlier crippled Of- cause livestock losses as last summer’s deadly heat
the hardest hit, according expected to cause more futt Air Force Base in Ne- animals have less ground wave — the elderly living
to the report, exacerbating flooding and damage to braska. to forage, the report found. alone, the disabled and
existing inequities. crops. The economic impacts will Since 1980, there have the poor.
In the West, the report fore- In the summer of 2019, be profound. Warming wa- been 35 floods not asso- None of those who died
casts intensifying drought, flooding in the U.S. Midwest ter and ocean acidifica- ciated with hurricanes in in Portland had central air
extreme heat and wildfires. and South disrupted barge tion will disrupt commercial the U.S. that have caused conditioning, more than
The Gulf Coast is expected traffic on the Mississippi Riv- fisheries, extreme heat will more than $1 billion in dam- half lived in apartments
age and more than half and 10% lived in mobile
of those have been since homes, according to data
2010, according to the Na- released by Multnomah
tional Oceanic and Atmo- County. The city’s light-
spheric Administration. rail train stopped working,
“We’re exposed to untold making it difficult for low-
damage,” said Kathleen income residents to reach
Miller, a lead author of cooling centers hastily set
the report’s North Amer- up in public libraries.
ica chapter who studies An analysis of data from
the economic impacts 1,000 residences found the
of climate change at the average temperature in
National Center for Atmo- richer homes was 75 de-
spheric Research. grees, compared with 125
“It’s time to step up and degrees in poorer homes,
start thinking about what said Vivek Shandas, a cli-
are our priorities and how mate professor at Portland
can we address these State University.
mounting threats,” she Renee Salas, an emergen-
said. The report still holds cy room doctor and a fel-
out hope that people can low at Harvard University’s
slow climate change — or Center for Climate, Health,
at least adapt to blunt its and the Global Environ-
effects. Prioritizing society’s ment, noted that health
most vulnerable will have risks are increasingly not
the greatest impact on cli- only from heat, but from
mate resiliency, it said. worsening wildfires that
The type of adjustments send smoke plumes thou-
cited in the report are al- sands of miles across North
ready underway in the Pa- America and rising tem-
cific Northwest, which was peratures that could foster
not built for hot weather. In the spread of diseases by
Seattle, for example, 44% mosquitoes and ticks such
of homes have air condi- as dengue fever, West Nile
tioning. and Lyme disease.q