Chief Heat Officer

It not much of a secret that global temperatures are rising. Even the rising heat in the Arctic region is what is pushing cold Polar Vortex air down south, producing a seeming contradictory result. But, oh those warmer months. I’ve blogged about how the extended heatwaves in the Western states has produced the worst drought conditions in 1,200 years, but today I’d like to focus on the rise of killer heat in so many cities, and what one city, Miami, is doing to focus its urban leadership on the concomitant problems.

Rising temperatures are causing unexpected problems. The cluster of high rises had made cities effectively “urban heat islands,” cutting off breezes, dark buildings and street absorbing and then retransmitting heat. The world is dramatically unprepared for these issues. As Talib Vishram writing for the June 16th FastCompany.com tells us, harsh realities have produced unique changes in urban administration:

“Impacts of extreme heat on cities have ranged from disruptive to devastating in recent years. In 2017, planes in Phoenix couldn’t physically take off in 120-degree heat. In Washington, D.C., and London, metro and tram tracks have melted. And during the pandemic, as people spent more time outside, even public health took a hit, as COVID-19 testing was shut down in areas of D.C. and New Jersey because the heat was too dangerous for those lining up in the sun.

“While many are aware of heat risks, they’re perhaps not taken as seriously as more visible climate disasters like hurricanes and floods, leading many experts to call heat the ‘silent killer.’ A 2020 study suggests that it contributes to the deaths of 5,600 people every year. Data on such deaths is sparse, since they’re often attributed to other conditions, but severe heatstroke can lead to coma or even death. In an effort to raise awareness and put into place concrete actions on local levels to combat heat’s effect on human health and economies, three cities are appointing chief heat officers, who’ll also share best practices with other cities in their regions.

“Miami was an apt place to start: Known for its vulnerability to sea-level rise, the coastal city broke its own heat records last year, reaching a June high of 98 degrees, the hottest ever for that month. ‘It’s killing more people than any other climate-driven hazard in the U.S.,’ says Kathy Baughman McLeod, senior vice president and director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, a nonprofit that works with cities around the world to fund climate-resilience solutions. It’s under the group’s Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance program that the mayors of Miami-Dade, Athens, Greece, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, agreed to appoint CHOs (the organization helps fund the position). Miami-Dade’s mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, was the first to announce the role. Jane Gilbert, who worked for many years on the city’s climate resilience initiatives, is the first person to hold a position of this kind in the world.”

Miami’s CHO has a staff of 13 with instructions to coordinate responses to extreme heat among the various city agencies. Across the country, we’ve not only seen fires and other vestiges of punishing heatwaves but coupled with rolling power failures from overtaxed electrical grids, food spoilage and an inability to escape into any air-conditioned alternative create critical problems. For those without access to air-conditioning at all, from homeless encampments to bare-minimum construction housing, the results can be devastating. How did folks cope with this in the pre-air-conditioning era? Fans? Staying in shade? Opening fire hydrants? Maybe, but climate change was not an issue back then. It sure is now.

Vishram notes: “Though the CHO title is new, none of these cities is the first to take on the issue: New York is currently funding air conditioners for eligible residents; Los Angeles counties are fitting cool roofs and pavements; Phoenix is redesigning its most affected low-income neighborhoods—cool roofs reportedly won’t work in the Arizona city due to interfering dust storms. But labeling the role ‘chief heat officer’ is smart branding—and not just because of the obvious association with the Miami Heat. (Perhaps they could join forces with the local basketball team in the future to help with outreach, Gilbert suggests with a laugh.) It shows the public that heat is now an explicit city priority, especially as global warming continues to increase. ‘It’s just going to get hotter. It’s going to sneak up on us,’ Baughman McLeod says. ‘We are not cooling this planet.’” 

There is one obvious question: Does generating the extra electricity needed to power those extras just make the global warming issue worse? It sure suggests that using fossil fuels to create cooling is an unworkable vicious circle. But the problems, especially in urban areas where heat has always been an issue, the need to find immediate leadership-driven coping mechanisms has arrived.

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless and until the earth gets really serious about this exploding global warming issue, we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of killer heat-related problems.