Just turn up the AC yeah?
This is the wrong question:
America’s hottest city is nearly unlivable in summer. Can cooling technologies save it?
America’s hottest city shouldn’t be a city at all, because it’s in a desert. We shouldn’t be expanding cities in deserts as global warming gets worse, we should be shrinking them. It’s stupid to squander resources on cities that are doomed by global warming.
Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is accustomed to a hot desert climate, but day and night temperatures have been rising due to global heating and the city’s unchecked development, which has created a sprawling urban heat island.
It’s the unchecked development that’s the problem. The development needs to be checked, starting yesterday.
“Phoenix is already unlivable in summer for far too many of our residents, who literally didn’t live because it was too hot. Every death is preventable and shows that there’s much much more for us to do to make the city livable and comfortable for everyone,” said David Hondula, the recently appointed director of Phoenix’s heat response and mitigation office.
There’s much more for them to do to discourage people from moving to Phoenix and to encourage people who have to move away.
Phoenix is the country’s hottest and fifth most populous city, where businesses and people began flocking when affordable air conditioning became available in the 1950s. The population growth has led to a huge expansion in concrete infrastructure (buildings, roads and carparks) and a reduction in green areas, which has created heat islands – dangerously hot urban areas that absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes.
In other words it was all a huge mistake and the goal now should be to undo the mistake as far as possible.
Another sensitive and critical area is the city’s property development gravy train, which for years has been forging ahead faster than its ad hoc mitigation efforts.
What I’m saying. Cut that whole thing off first, because trying to mitigate it when it’s already there is wasteful and stupid.
Smog there too, I was quite surprised when I flew through there, the brown haze is thick. I think the bigger issue is water, yet they keep building water evaporation farms disguised as golf courses.
Bigger issue than what? Water is of course a major part of why Phoenix should be shrinking instead of growing.
Phoenix really does have much to offer. But even in the five years that I lived there it seemed to get hotter each year. I miss it in many ways, especially now in January when the weather is beautiful, but there are too many people moving there. I lived in Sunnyslope, which until the A/C boom was an unincorporated village north of Phoenix. The canal I ran I along was the northern border of Phoenix, and there were citrus groves before the development started. Now that’s less than halfway between downtown and the northern city limits.
I understand why people move there, but it’s just too many people. The city gets the water from the Colorado River and we all know what’s happening there. It’s good to see these efforts at mitigation, but really, until growth is handled, they won’t have much effect. I don’t know how to stop it, though.
The brown haze is trapped by an inversion layer that flows along the South Mountain range. It gets really bad sometimes, so much that I couldn’t see downtown from my perch on the North Mountain refuge. But in the evenings in the summer I would climb up there and the city is beautiful, with the lights and peaks and a zephyr breeze blowing softly with just enough force to cool to tolerable.
@2 Bigger than sheer heat I think.
Michael @3 I must have been through there when it was particularly bad, it looked worse than the LA basin in the summer.
And Phoenix is one of the biggest water users in the country – along with Las Vegas. Also a city in a desert. Green lawns. Fountains. Where do they think they’re living?
Driving north out of Las Vegas a few years ago my car thermometer said 117°. It was August and it was hot to be sure, but I could still get out and walk around fairly comfortably. If I didn’t have water with me though I would have been in a panic. The air conditioning in my car was on it’s highest setting and still didn’t manage to keep the cabin cooler than about 90°. Air conditioning can only do so much when ambient temperatures are that high. A damp towel works better.
Never mind that the deserts themselves will be expanding to engulf more cities. And oh yes, farmland, too.
Related: I spent a good bit of time in Santa Fe some years ago, and I recall that water rights were a huge battle. The rich homeowners were angry that they were not allowed to use as much water as they wanted (“because we’re willing to pay for it”) to keep their lawns green in the summer. They simply could not fathom the notion that there was a limited supply of the stuff, and that the poor/largely indigenous members of the area deserved a share of it, too.
The ditches along Central Avenue in “north” Phoenix, meaning south of me, would often be full of run off from overwatered lawns belonging to rich people. even during the droughts.
It works really well. I used to spend long periods of time in environments that were very dry and in temperatures ranging from the mid 30C to low 50’s C (say 90 – 125F). In addition to drinking lot’s of electrolyte and still getting dehydrated, I used a neckerchief that was filled with a water absorbing Gell – the sort of thing used for pot plants I assume. You’d hydrate and then refrigerate that and put in on just before setting off. Made a huge difference.
The misuse of resources is what’s going to destroy us ultimately. Not having nice things and using energy. Just the sheer profligate waste of all resources.
twiliter @ 4 – ah right. That’s what I think too, and why I was picking a fight with the whole article – yes Phoenix is too hot but that’s far from its only problem so talk about the big picture instead of just “Oooh it’s hot here.”
Towels & neckerchiefs – my cunning ploy when I worked in the parks and the weather got hot was to have a rag in my pocket so that I could soak it and tie it around my head when the mercury rose.
Ophelia, yes this is a big picture problem for sure. Some of the ideas for heat mitigation are interesting, but the main one, that of planting more trees, is going to require better use of water resources. Green lawns are huge water wasters with little climate effect. Still in all, turning a desert environment into something more comfortable for humans is daunting. For example, for Las Vegas to exist at all requires enormous infrastructure in the form of water redirection, and then only to be largely wasted to evaporation with all the frivolous usage for human comfort and entertainment, as ikn noted @6.
“Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is accustomed to volcanic conditions, but day and night temperatures have been rising due to the city’s unchecked development and the frequent eruptions, which have created a sprawling urban heat island.
“Phoenix is already unlivable in summer for far too many of our residents, who literally didn’t live because lava is too hot. Every death is preventable and shows that there’s much much more for us to do to make the city livable and comfortable for everyone,” said David Hondula, the recently appointed director of Phoenix’s lava response and mitigation office.”
Not just Phoenix. Much of the Midwest and south May become unlivablebecause of the combination of heat and, critically, humidity. It’s a dry heat is a meme, but anyone suffering through a Georgia or a Indiana summer would understand.
The big issue here in California is “not enough housing”. In the back of my mind I do wonder why a drought plagued, fire prone, earthquake threatened state should be encouraging “growth” but…
Humidity, oy. I’ve been in Corpus Christi, TX in May (1989 or 1990) and in Tucson, Az in May (2012). Corpus Christi was worse. The humidity was stifling. The air felt heavy, oppressive, suffocating. In Tucson, I definitely felt the heat, but it didn’t feel nearly as bad. I don’t remember what the temperatures were.
Having grown up in New Jersey and lived in Iowa for a couple of years I can confirm – humid heat is intolerable.