[Music]
believe it or not US census data now
indicates that around 80 percent of
Americans and well over half of the
human population live on Islands now
these aren’t your quintessential Islands
perhaps not surrounded by ocean and sand
and in palm trees I’m instead talking
about urban heat Islands human
landscapes that we’ve built out of
cement and brick and asphalt absorb more
of the sun’s energy throughout the day
and then remit it back into the air as
heat throughout the afternoon and into
the evening this raises urban air
temperatures relative to now natural
landscapes and particularly in
neighborhoods with people who are
disproportionately affected by this heat
because they can’t adapt to it now this
is bad because climate scientists
understand that hot heat waves are going
to get hotter and longer because of
human-caused climate change so how do we
prepare our urban heat islands for the
longer stronger heat waves of the future
that’s where I think you come in but
first a little bit about myself I was a
big kid growing up I wore husky clothes
and I sweat a lot I still sweat a lot
which is probably why I remember so
vividly a heat wave that hit the city of
Chicago Illinois in 1995 now my family
threw a big yard party you know
watermelon popsicles slip-and-slide air
conditioning whole nine yards but
temperatures soared to well over a
hundred and fifteen degrees in the city
of Chicago depending on the estimate you
see well over 700 people died due to the
heatwave now follow-up studies of who
died in the heatwave indicated that poor
elderly
african-american neighborhoods were more
likely to suffer mortality than their
affluent white neighbors remember that
because we’ll come back to it now I’ve
always been fascinated by extreme heat
because it kills more Americans every
single year on average than any other
weather-related hazard we face even more
than the big charismatic storms like
hurricanes and tornadoes combined this
is particularly worrisome because
climate scientists understand that heat
waves are going to get longer and
stronger for example here in Richmond we
could see about eight times as many days
that go at or above 95 degrees
Fahrenheit those are the days that feel
like you’re walking around inside
someone else’s mouth now that doesn’t
have to happen until we you know
significantly reduce our heat trapping
gas emissions for burning fossil fuels
but anyway we know that those 95 degree
days are made worse in our cities
because of urban heat islands so let’s
take a look at that if we were gonna fly
into this picture and find the hottest
spot to the touch think in your head
where would you go to find the hottest
spot to the touch and say it on three
one two three great ok now where would
you find the coolest spot on three one
two three awesome I made you make
hypotheses you didn’t get a scientist on
stage and not expect to do a little bit
of science now what we can do is we can
actually explore this with a thermal
camera we can test our hypotheses so
let’s take a look at that the brighter
colors are warmer temperatures and the
cooler temperatures are the darker
colors congratulations the asphalt
parking lot was the hottest place and
under the big mature oak tree was the
coolest but there’s some interesting
detail here the dead grass is the same
temperature as the cement in the native
plant garden that we have at the Science
Museum of Virginia is cooler than the
grasses that we put around it and then
the colors of the cars dictate what the
temperature is coming back to
that thermal-imaging camera now what
would we learn from a picture like this
if we wanted as a to design a city that
actually reduced heat during a heatwave
we’d probably one throw shade all over
the place then any exposed surface we
might plant native plant gardens on or
make it a reflective color is our city
built like that let’s take a look the
city of Richmond much like many cities
around the United States have very
concentrated areas where there are trees
and shade and those areas that do not
have trees and shade if there’s anything
that we learned from that previous photo
those areas could be much warmer during
heat waves than those areas with a lot
of trees ah we have another hypothesis
so let’s test it with my friends at the
universe Portland State University and
several organizations around Richmond
including groundwork r-va VCU u of r the
city of Richmond we actually drove
around the city all at the same time
during a major heatwave we sent cars all
over the place with these little
thermometers hanging out of our windows
this is a jhana James the senior at open
high school of fixing the temperature
sensor to the window and we went around
the whole city and what did we find
well some areas of Richmond the hottest
in coolest place the difference was
about 16 degrees Fahrenheit that’s a
very different heat wave for two people
in the same city at the same time
looking closely at the census data of
the areas that were warmer indicated
that these areas have higher populations
of african-americans have higher rates
of poverty have lower rates of ho no
mercy own ownership people take more
public transit transportation to work
and there’s a lot of vacant homes around
them the same time the cooler
neighborhoods have higher white
populations they have lower rates of
poverty they own their homes they take
their own cars to work now this is not
only a problem here at Richmond this is
a systemic climate change equity issue
across this entire country in other
that we have this same kind of data now
we had to check our answer
we asked the Richer an ambulance
authority where do you go to the most
often for heat related illnesses during
the summer what did we find
well the hotter areas have higher rates
of people calling for an ambulance
during a heat related illness during the
summer now this leads to more questions
what can we do as a city to prepare for
the hotter longer heat waves of the
future and what can we do to design our
city better to make heat less of an
issue I think that’s where you come in I
like to challenge you to think about
what it is to have a right to a
resilient healthy City in the face of
climate change be the first city among
many in the cellar of the first in the
southeast to hold a youth climate summit
most of all bring this into the
limelight the 20 70s are not a threat to
the people in power today they are a
threat to you and me and all of the
young generations across this country we
are the ones inheriting this country now
don’t let the haters get you down you
can change the world and I think it
starts with throwing a little shade
thank you [Applause]
believe it or not US census data now
indicates that around 80 percent of
Americans and well over half of the
human population live on Islands now
these aren’t your quintessential Islands
perhaps not surrounded by ocean and sand
and in palm trees I’m instead talking
about urban heat Islands human
landscapes that we’ve built out of
cement and brick and asphalt absorb more
of the sun’s energy throughout the day
and then remit it back into the air as
heat throughout the afternoon and into
the evening this raises urban air
temperatures relative to now natural
landscapes and particularly in
neighborhoods with people who are
disproportionately affected by this heat
because they can’t adapt to it now this
is bad because climate scientists
understand that hot heat waves are going
to get hotter and longer because of
human-caused climate change so how do we
prepare our urban heat islands for the
longer stronger heat waves of the future
that’s where I think you come in but
first a little bit about myself I was a
big kid growing up I wore husky clothes
and I sweat a lot I still sweat a lot
which is probably why I remember so
vividly a heat wave that hit the city of
Chicago Illinois in 1995 now my family
threw a big yard party you know
watermelon popsicles slip-and-slide air
conditioning whole nine yards but
temperatures soared to well over a
hundred and fifteen degrees in the city
of Chicago depending on the estimate you
see well over 700 people died due to the
heatwave now follow-up studies of who
died in the heatwave indicated that poor
elderly
african-american neighborhoods were more
likely to suffer mortality than their
affluent white neighbors remember that
because we’ll come back to it now I’ve
always been fascinated by extreme heat
because it kills more Americans every
single year on average than any other
weather-related hazard we face even more
than the big charismatic storms like
hurricanes and tornadoes combined this
is particularly worrisome because
climate scientists understand that heat
waves are going to get longer and
stronger for example here in Richmond we
could see about eight times as many days
that go at or above 95 degrees
Fahrenheit those are the days that feel
like you’re walking around inside
someone else’s mouth now that doesn’t
have to happen until we you know
significantly reduce our heat trapping
gas emissions for burning fossil fuels
but anyway we know that those 95 degree
days are made worse in our cities
because of urban heat islands so let’s
take a look at that if we were gonna fly
into this picture and find the hottest
spot to the touch think in your head
where would you go to find the hottest
spot to the touch and say it on three
one two three great ok now where would
you find the coolest spot on three one
two three awesome I made you make
hypotheses you didn’t get a scientist on
stage and not expect to do a little bit
of science now what we can do is we can
actually explore this with a thermal
camera we can test our hypotheses so
let’s take a look at that the brighter
colors are warmer temperatures and the
cooler temperatures are the darker
colors congratulations the asphalt
parking lot was the hottest place and
under the big mature oak tree was the
coolest but there’s some interesting
detail here the dead grass is the same
temperature as the cement in the native
plant garden that we have at the Science
Museum of Virginia is cooler than the
grasses that we put around it and then
the colors of the cars dictate what the
temperature is coming back to
that thermal-imaging camera now what
would we learn from a picture like this
if we wanted as a to design a city that
actually reduced heat during a heatwave
we’d probably one throw shade all over
the place then any exposed surface we
might plant native plant gardens on or
make it a reflective color is our city
built like that let’s take a look the
city of Richmond much like many cities
around the United States have very
concentrated areas where there are trees
and shade and those areas that do not
have trees and shade if there’s anything
that we learned from that previous photo
those areas could be much warmer during
heat waves than those areas with a lot
of trees ah we have another hypothesis
so let’s test it with my friends at the
universe Portland State University and
several organizations around Richmond
including groundwork r-va VCU u of r the
city of Richmond we actually drove
around the city all at the same time
during a major heatwave we sent cars all
over the place with these little
thermometers hanging out of our windows
this is a jhana James the senior at open
high school of fixing the temperature
sensor to the window and we went around
the whole city and what did we find
well some areas of Richmond the hottest
in coolest place the difference was
about 16 degrees Fahrenheit that’s a
very different heat wave for two people
in the same city at the same time
looking closely at the census data of
the areas that were warmer indicated
that these areas have higher populations
of african-americans have higher rates
of poverty have lower rates of ho no
mercy own ownership people take more
public transit transportation to work
and there’s a lot of vacant homes around
them the same time the cooler
neighborhoods have higher white
populations they have lower rates of
poverty they own their homes they take
their own cars to work now this is not
only a problem here at Richmond this is
a systemic climate change equity issue
across this entire country in other
that we have this same kind of data now
we had to check our answer
we asked the Richer an ambulance
authority where do you go to the most
often for heat related illnesses during
the summer what did we find
well the hotter areas have higher rates
of people calling for an ambulance
during a heat related illness during the
summer now this leads to more questions
what can we do as a city to prepare for
the hotter longer heat waves of the
future and what can we do to design our
city better to make heat less of an
issue I think that’s where you come in I
like to challenge you to think about
what it is to have a right to a
resilient healthy City in the face of
climate change be the first city among
many in the cellar of the first in the
southeast to hold a youth climate summit
most of all bring this into the
limelight the 20 70s are not a threat to
the people in power today they are a
threat to you and me and all of the
young generations across this country we
are the ones inheriting this country now
don’t let the haters get you down you
can change the world and I think it
starts with throwing a little shade
thank you [Applause]
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