Heat

‘People’s Cooling Army’ Is Giving Tenants Free Air Conditioners

July 18, 2024 'Lucas Frisancho, Next City. Create! Air Conditioning, Chicago, Heat, Housing, Tenant Union, Unions

Perhaps the most basic demand of a tenant is that the living space they pay for is, in fact, livable. Yet as extreme heat becomes the norm, organizers claim that for many low-income Chicago renters, this basic condition is not being met. An initiative called the People’s Cooling Army, launched by the All-Chicago Tenant Alliance, aims to provide and install free repaired air conditioning units for low-income tenants in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, Garfield Park and Hermosa. “Tenants across the city have been left to bake in hot apartments,” organizers announced at a July 8 press conference. “Tenants across the city have been asked to live in apartments where they could not sleep, where they were always covered in sweat, where their children were unsafe.”

Phoenix Passes Ordinance Giving Workers Protection From Extreme Heat

April 2, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! Arizona, Extreme weather, Heat, Phoenix, Worker Rights and Jobs

A historic new law in Phoenix, Arizona, will provide thousands of outdoor workers in the hottest city in the country with protections from extreme heat. In a unanimous vote, the Phoenix City Council passed an ordinance requiring that workers have easy access to rest, potable water and shade, as well as training to recognize signs of heat stress, a press release from the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) said. Vehicles with enclosed cabs must also have access to air conditioning. “People who work outside and in hot indoor environments in Phoenix suffer unacceptably during our deadly summers, with too few protections,” said Katelyn Parady.

To Beat The Heat, We Can’t Rely On Management

September 21, 2023 Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes. Organize! climate crisis, Heat, UPS, Worker Rights and Jobs

The death of UPS driver Chris Begley, 57, who collapsed in August while making a delivery in 103-degree Texas heat, was no isolated incident. Monitoring co-workers for signs of heat exhaustion has become a routine feature of the job, says fellow driver Seth Pacic, a shop steward in Begley’s union, Teamsters Local 767. Pacic has learned to discern over the phone when a co-worker needs to find air conditioning ASAP—and when they’re deteriorating so badly that he should call paramedics and brave management’s wrath.

Why Cities Are Opening Their Rivers And Lakes To Swimming

August 29, 2023 Sarah Amandolare, Next City. Create! Cities, climate crisis, Global Warming, Heat, heat islands, Water, water access

As recently as the 1940s, New Yorkers swam in floating pools in the Hudson and East Rivers. A safer alternative to swimming directly in the river, the municipal baths kept residents cool in hot summer months until they were closed over sanitation concerns. Now, as the city contends with life-threatening heat, can New Yorkers once again turn to the rivers to stay cool? The team behind +Pool, an initiative to bring a floating swimming pool to the East River, is betting on it. The organization’s proposed cross-shaped, Olympic-size pool would differ from its historic predecessors in one significant way: filtration.

El Niño, Greenhouse Gas Emissions To Push Global Temperatures Into ‘Uncharted Territory’ Soon

May 18, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Extreme weather, Global Warming, Heat

We’re fast approaching the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels that we’ve been warned about. According to the latest Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, produced by the United Kingdom’s Met Office and issued by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO), there is a 66 percent likelihood that between 2023 and 2027 the yearly average global temperature will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for at least one year, a press release from WMO said. “[I]t’s the first time in history that it’s more likely than not that we will exceed 1.5C,” said Adam Scaife, head of long-range prediction at Britain’s Met Office Hadley Centre, who worked on the WMO update, as Reuters reported.

Killer Heat In The United States: Climate Choices And The Future Of Dangerously Hot Days (2019)

July 18, 2019 Staff, Ucsusa.org Educate! Climate Change, Extreme weather, Heat

Extreme heat is poised to rise steeply in frequency and severity over the coming decades, bringing unprecedented health risks for people and communities across the country. The United States is facing a potentially staggering expansion of dangerous heat over the coming decades. This analysis shows the rapid, widespread increases in extreme heat that are projected to occur across the country due to climate change, including conditions so extreme that a heat index cannot be measured. The analysis also finds that the intensity of the coming heat depends heavily on how quickly we act now to reduce heat-trapping emissions.

Daily movement news and resources