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SUSTAINABILITY Recycling • Resources • Lifestyle
The Deadly Risk of Heat
Waves and Blackouts
A s I write this column in mid-
July, the high temperature today
is expected to be a balmy 83
degrees, unusually mild for
the summer in Hot’Lanta—an
old nickname popularized by the Allman
Brothers Band in lyrics written an unbe
lievable five decades ago. Except for a few
steamy days, the temperatures have been
fairly cool, thus far, with the mercury ris
ing above 90 degrees only a few times and
moderating rain storms occurring almost
daily.
The weather has been nothing like
the summer of 1980. A record high daily
temperature of 105 sizzling degrees was
recorded on three consecutive days in July
of that year. I remember lying on my bed,
motionless and surrounded by fans, trying
to cool down in a room with a minimally-
functional air conditioner. A friend recalls
working outside that summer, renovating
an apartment building, and having to
stop work, when he became disoriented,
agitated, and dizzy — the tell-tale signs that
your brain is overheating. It was “only”
105, a number that seemed inconceivably
high then, but now, less so, as our planet
warms.
Heating Up
The Earth is heating up because we
burn gasoline in our cars, burn coal for
28 AUGUST 2021 | DU
heat and electricity, and burn natural
gas: a cleaner fossil fuel, but one that
still contributes to global warming. For
decades, scientists have projected longer,
larger and more intense heat waves;
however, the impacts of a hotter world are
no longer in the future — they have arrived.
The warmest June ever recorded in North
America occurred this summer. Globally,
we experienced the fourth hottest June
ever, as 23 countries reported temperatures
that equaled or exceeded 122 degrees; the
first, second and third hottest all occurred
in the past five years.
The western U.S. is being hammered
with relentless heat this summer.
Exceptionally high temperatures were
registered at the end of June in the
Pacific Northwest, where a “heat dome”
of high-pressure air settled over the
region. Portland, Seattle, and other cities
experienced temperatures that were 30 to
40 degrees above average for the month. A
small town in British Columbia suffered an
intense 121 degrees over several days — the
highest ever in Canada — and then literally
burned to the ground.
More than 500 deaths have been
linked to the Pacific Northwest heat wave,
which also resulted in forest fires, glacial
meltwater floods, power cuts, buckled
roads, and the death of millions of sea
creatures that were “cooked to death” on
shorelines. A global group
of climate scientists quickly
analyzed this extreme event,
concluding that the disaster
would have been virtually
impossible without the effects
of human-caused climate
change. The chances of the
region reaching such extreme
temperatures had increased
150-fold since pre-industrial
times.
Hotter World
Those of us fortunate
enough to have air-conditioned
homes and the ability to travel
to cooler climates may think
that we will not be affected a
great deal by a hotter world.
That is, until we understand
the growing risk of overlapping
heat waves and power failures:
a deadly combination,
especially in unprepared cities.
According to Dr. Brian Stone Jr., head of
the Urban Climate Lab at Georgia Tech,
power failures have doubled from 2015
to 2020 — as climate change has made
heat waves worse. The causes? Increased
demand placed on the electric power grid
during the summer, more extreme storm
events, and disinvestment in the grid.
What Atlanta Must Do
Using computer models and historical
(not future) extreme weather events to
study three large cities, including Atlanta,
Stone and his colleagues concluded that a
combined blackout and heat wave would
expose at least two-thirds of the people
in the cities to heat exhaustion and heat
stroke; that would mean hundreds of
thousands of people in the city of Atlanta
alone. Not surprisingly, heat exposure is
most likely for lowest-income households
and the homeless.
We may have escaped excessive heat in
Atlanta so far this summer, but a recent
report from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration reveals that
the city’s monthly and yearly average high
temperatures have been steadily rising. The
potential for critical infrastructure failures
during extreme weather events is also rising
here — and everywhere. Not in the distant
future, but now.
Idas the city of Atlanta taken steps
to prepare for the possibility of these
concurrent events? Dr. Stone’s response is
a resounding, no. FFe explains: “Atlanta’s
orientation toward [climate] resilience is
among the least developed of any major
city in the U.S.”
During most of the administration
of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, neither
sustainability nor climate change has
Above the Water Line
1
is the retired
executive director
of Chattahoochee
Riverkeeperand
an environmental
and sustainability
advocate.
Sally Bethea
Sally Bethea
been a priority, according to local
sustainability experts. Disturbingly, they
say that “substantial cuts” were recently
made in the budget for the city’s Office
of Resilience. When the New York Times
contacted the mayor’s office a few months
ago for comments on a story about Dr.
Stone’s findings, no one responded.
What can — really must — be done now
to prepare Atlanta for concurrent heat
waves and blackouts? Three things for
a start: (1) a more extensive network of
emergency cooling centers with mandated
backup power generation, (2) a robust
tree protection and planting program
that actually works (unlike the current
effort), and (3) a permanent temperature
monitoring system in all neighborhoods to
notify residents of heat risks in real time.
On November 2, 2021, a new mayor
will be elected in Atlanta. All mayoral
candidates and members of the city
council must make a commitment to
funding and strengthening the Office of
Resilience, so that it has the ability and
authority to take action now to help us
adapt to our changing climate.
Find more information at
urbanclimate.gatech.edu. HI]
AtlantalntownPaper.com