By Helen Gloege ’23
Staff Writer
Built with the climate and weather conditions of the 20th century in mind, today’s infrastructure is not adapted to the changing climate. Unprecedented heat waves in the Pacific Northwest are threatening the local infrastructure, causing warped highways, closed public transit and rolling blackouts. Local residents, many of whom lack air conditioning, are facing power outages due to the heat.
There are visible impacts on infrastructure in states experiencing heat waves. In downtown Portland, Oregon, the Portland Streetcar service closed during the heatwave due to the melting of the power cables the service relies on. High-traffic roads in Everson, Washington cracked under the sweltering sun. On the other side of the U.S., New York City residents were urged to decrease their energy consumption to prevent blackouts. Cities across the United States are struggling to manage increased power consumption with ill-equipped power grids.
To address a lack of air conditioning in the Pacific Northwest, cities like Portland are opening cooling centers — air-conditioned spaces set up by authorities. Cooling centers in Portland are currently open 24 hours due to concerns about high temperatures during both the day and night. The city is also opening library locations as cooling spaces to assist those experiencing homelessness, those without air conditioning and the elderly. Those most vulnerable to the heat can access transportation to cooling centers as well as other resources through the local government. Cooling centers were closed last year due to the pandemic, but are now open with social distancing and masks required at the centers. The cooling centers promise no one will be turned away according to Kate Yeiser, who works at the Multnomah County Joint Office for Homeless Services.
The City of St. Louis Department of Health has reminded residents to check in on friends and neighbors during heat waves and to educate themselves on the signs of heatstroke. They additionally emphasize not leaving young children and pets in vehicles, which has already led to several fatalities this year. A local initiative, Cooldown St. Louis, helps seniors and people with physical disabilities access new air conditioning units and utilities. The program also aims to aid low-to-moderate income households.
Cooling centers are only a short-term solution to a greater infrastructure issue. A major issue identified within infrastructure is the existence of heat islands. Heat islands are urban areas that experience higher temperatures than the surrounding area, because they have more structures to absorb and reemit heat than “greenspace,” or areas with trees and other vegetation. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, heat islands in the U.S. are as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than outlying areas during the day and 5 degrees hotter at night.
In Boston, most heat islands are located in low-income neighborhoods where fewer people have air conditioning or tree cover. A report by D.C.-based conservation group American Forests found neighborhoods with mostly residents of color have on average 33 percent less tree canopy than mostly white neighborhoods. It also found that neighborhoods with 90 percent or more residents living in poverty have 41 percent less tree canopy than neighborhoods with 10 percent or less of the residents in poverty. The development of heat disparities across racial and socioeconomic strata may be attributed to a history of racial inequity and redlining. This is because neighborhoods with less greenspace and government spending were determined to be hazardous for loans by banks, and gradually became warmer due to that lack of greenspace.The city is currently planning on adding cooling zones in libraries within the affected neighborhoods to address heat disparities.
Today’s infrastructure was not built with climate change in mind, bringing rise to calls for change. Whether this happens by adjusting current infrastructure to face new levels of heat or building cooling centers to protect human health, infrastructure changes would need to consider the needs of vulnerable communities to permanently reduce heat disparities.