The year 2020 is already on track to be the world’s hottest on record. With the heart of summer fast approaching, the communities confronting the highest COVID-19 infection and death rates, the worst hardships from the ongoing economic crisis, and the most pervasive incidents of injustice and police brutality will have to contend with yet another public health threat: heat waves
Heat waves are responsible for more deaths than any other weather-related event in the United States. And as climate change warms the planet, they are only projected to become more frequent and more intense. Without further action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the average number of days per year with temperatures above 105 degrees Fahrenheit is expected to quadruple by midcentury. One model found that, under a high-emissions scenario, U.S. heat-related deaths from 2031 to 2050 would be 57 percent higher than they were from 1971 to 2000.
Most at risk to these increases in extreme heat are low-income communities, tribal communities, and communities of color. These are the same groups of people who endure disproportionate levels of environmental pollution from power plants, industrial facilities, diesel trucks, landfills, and pesticides. They are the people who—without equal access to affordable and quality health care—have been hit the hardest by the pandemic. And they are the people who must continue to mobilize in the face of institutionalized oppression. The recurring threats to health, safety, and quality of life in these communities are not a coincidence but rather the compounding symptoms of systemic racial and economic inequities within the United States. Continue reading.