How can we center the inherent worth and dignity of every person in this extreme heat?
When we think of climate disasters, we usually think about wildfires, floods, or hurricanes. Extreme heat may not be the first thing to come to mind, but it is one of the most dangerous of all climate impacts, especially with urban heat islands common in historically segregated communities. Extreme heat kills hundreds of Americans each year and causes many more to be seriously ill.
Image 1: Parent and child swimming in a public pool. Image 2: Two first responders loading a patient into an ambulance. Text: "What Media Shows. Reality."
News of record-breaking heat is everywhere right now–you may be feeling the effects in your hometown. While some media outlets say, “everyone loves the summer heat!” with fun pictures of children playing in pools, the reality is that many of our friends and loved ones are profoundly suffering in this heat. This is not about discomfort. This about the safety, health, and sustaining quality of life that affirms the inherent worth and dignity of all. Our bodies and our infrastructure are not designed for these more frequent extreme heat events. This is why we fight for just policy and take action to care for and build resilient communities.
RSVP for our Climate Disaster Response workshop. Make a plan. Protect your community.
Sunday, July 31, 2022 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET (Note the Time Zone!)
Climate disasters impact our communities - how can UUs be prepared? Join this hands-on workshop with activities to help you identify the climate risks, understand who is most at risk, and how your community will be impacted. From there, make a plan to prepare for and respond to climate disasters in your neighborhood. This workshop is a follow up to "Fostering Local Climate Resilience through Disaster Response and Community Care'. Attendees are encouraged to watch the video of that training in advance of this workshop. Invite your congregation to watch with you!
How can we center the inherent worth and dignity of every person in this extreme heat?
We can use our gifts to offer love, to work for justice, to heal injury, to create pleasure for ourselves and others. We can recognize our mutual independence with all life. We can take actions that are grounded in justice, guided by wisdom, and sustained with hope. We can learn, act, and reflect to cultivate the beloved community.
LEARN who is at risk and how.
The EPA outlines key factors that put some at higher risk than others:
Exposure affects people who work outdoors, in buildings with no air conditioning, the unhoused members of our communities, and people who live in inefficient housing or without air conditioning.
Sensitivity to heat makes the very young, elderly, pregnant people, and folks with some health conditions more at risk.
The Ability to Respond makes it difficult for some to respond and prepare to avoid the heat. This includes our neighbors who cannot afford air conditioning or the electricity to use it because of high electricity burdens; people whose mobility issues make it difficult to access health care or get to a cooling center; and those who are exposed to extreme heat through work or lack of housing.
Extreme heat can cause heat-related illness and death, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disorders, kidney disorders, and cerebrovascular disease. Increased ground level ozone can cause asthma attacks and other respiratory problems. In extreme heat, we see increased numbers of workplace injuries, increased violence, and mental health problems. It’s hard on all of us, but some are more impacted than others.
ACT NOW and plan for the long-haul.
Things you can do today:
Offer your building as a cooling center to provide sanctuary from the extreme heat.
If your congregation is in an area with heavy foot traffic, set out bottles of sunscreen and a cooler with paper cups for passersby to hydrate.
Set up calling trees to check on elderly or sick members of your congregation every day until the heat subsides. Ask each person you call if they’re concerned about anyone else; add those people to your calling tree.
Know the signs of heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Share this information with your community. (CDC or Weather.gov)
RSVP for our Climate Disaster Response workshop. Make a plan; protect your community.
Community actions to consider:
Work with a neighborhood association or other local organization to weatherize low-income homes in your community. Weatherization can reduce energy burdens by 25%.
Partner with frontline leadership to reduce the impacts of heat islands by planting locally-appropriate trees, community gardens, or other green spaces.
Encourage your local government to install public drinking fountains or splash pads in areas with urban heat islands.
Commit to cultivating relationships with frontline communities in your area. Ask how you can help; don’t tell your neighbors what to do.
Congregational opportunities for solidarity:
Make the changes necessary to offer your buildings as cooling or warming stations in extreme weather.
Determine ways to reorganize your facilities to be able to provide emergency shelter after climate disasters, then make the changes.
Install a back-up generator so your building can provide sanctuary to your neighbors during blackouts or power outages.
Provide solar-powered charging stations to serve your community when the power goes out.
Build power for the long haul:
Advocate for local climate action.
Ask every elected official or candidate what they will do about climate change and extreme heat in your community. Make it local. Make it relevant. Make it urgent. .
Organize a campaign to press your local utility to adopt a hot-weather rule to ensure that no one has their power turned off for failure to pay during extreme heat.
Call on local officials and businesses to adopt standards to protect workers. Follow progress on the Biden Administration’s efforts to protect workers and communities from extreme heat.
Advocate for effective energy efficiency programs that prioritize lower- and middle-income residents.
Work for the equitable transition to a clean energy future through energy democracy and energy justice. The people most impacted by energy decisions should have the greatest say in shaping them.
Make sure that justice is at the core of your climate action. Update your understanding of climate action to center the experience of those most impacted by climate change. We must work together for the liberation of all. No excuses.
REFLECT.
Meditate on the ways love in action can transform our world. Breathe in love, breathe out justice.
Come together in community to create compassionate spaces for collective grief and community healing to ground and sustain our work.
Practice grace and compassion in your every interaction; consider the burdens we all carry, and be kind.
Celebrate the beauty and wonder of all creation. Seek restoration and healing in nature and in community with others.
Cultivate balance.
Prayerfully consider what radical acts of faith you can commit to personally, and how you will help lead in your congregation.
This work is hard, but we can do all of these things and more if we work together. As always, please reach out if you have ideas, need help, or want to talk through your plans. When you take action, tell us all about it. Every action counts. Thank you for your work.
In solidarity,
Rachel Myslivy
Climate Organizer for Side with Love