From Miami to Melbourne, a quiet revolution is underway to fend off a silent and invisible killer

A
quiet
revolution
is
underway
to
address
a
widely
underestimated

climate
challenge:
extreme
heat.

Local
authorities
have
appointed
several
chief
heat
officers
(CHOs)
in
cities
worldwide
in
recent
years
to
prepare
residents
for

increasingly
frequent
and
severe
bouts
of
excessive
heat.

“They
call
it
the
silent
killer,”
said
Eleni
Myrivili,
who
serves
as
the
global
CHO
for
the
U.N.’s
human
settlement
program
and
previously
worked
in
a
similar
role
for
the
Greek
capital
of
Athens.

Myrivili
said
she
believes
that
extreme
heat
is
often
overlooked
because
it
lacks
the
visible
drama
of
roofs
being
ripped
from
homes
or
streets
being
turned
into
rivers.

“Heat,
I
believe
it
to
the
bottom
of
my
heart,
is
going
to
be
the
number
one
public
health
challenge
that
we
will
be
dealing
with
in
the
next
decade.
And
we
need
to
prepare
for
it
now,”
Myrivili
told
CNBC
via
videoconference. “We
can
—
but
we
really
need
to
make
it
a
priority.”

Heat
is
the

leading
weather-related
killer
in
the
U.S.

Data
from
the
Centers
for
Disease
Control
and
Prevention
showed
that
more
than
1,700
deaths
were
the
result
of
heat-related
causes
in
2022,
roughly
double
the
toll
of
five
years
prior.
Researchers
have

said
these
are
likely
conservative
estimates.

The
CDC

defines
extreme
heat
as
summertime
temperatures
that
are
significantly
hotter
and/or
more
humid
than
average.

Older
adults,
young
children
and
people
with
chronic
diseases
are
recognized
as
among
the
most
at
risk
of
heat-related
illnesses,
such
as
heat
exhaustion
or
heat
stroke.
The
CDC
warns
that
even
young
and
healthy
people
can
be
affected.

The
first
person
in
the
world
to
be
assigned
as
a
CHO
was
Jane
Gilbert,
who
was
appointed
in
2021
to
oversee
Florida’s
most
populous
county,
Miami-Dade.

“We
have
relatively
high
[air-conditioning]
penetration,
but
with
our
rising
temperatures,
electricity
bills
are
just
through
the
roof.
We’ve
also
had
the
electricity
rates
go
up.
AC
can
be
over
50%
of
what
the
electricity
bill
so
people
are
choosing
between
AC
and
putting
food
on
the
table
for
their
families,”
Gilbert
told
CNBC.

A
coastal
metropolis
in
the
southern
U.S.,
Miami
is
internationally
known
for
its
vulnerability
to

sea-level
rise
and

hurricanes.
Yet
Gilbert
said
community-led
surveys
have
identified
chronic
heat
as
the
most
pressing
climate
concern.

For
six
months
of
the
year,
Gilbert
said
temperatures
in
Miami
exceed
90
degrees
Fahrenheit
(32.2
degrees
Celsius)
almost
daily,
posing
a
particularly
big
problem
for

outdoor
workers.

To
help
reduce
the
risks
to
the
county’s
population
of
2.7
million,
Gilbert
said
her
team’s
action
plan
focused
on
informing
and
preparing
people
for
extreme
heat,
helping
to
cool
homes
affordably
and
working
to
cool
community
neighborhoods
to
tackle
the
so-called “heat
island
effect”
—
whereby
a
city
incurs
much
warmer
temperatures
than
nearby
rural
areas.

In
practice,
Gilbert
said
the
measures
included
broad-scale
marketing
campaigns
targeting
the
zip
codes
and
demographics
known
to
be
most
at
risk,
working
with
the
national
weather
service
and
emergency
management
teams
to
update
advisory
and
warning
levels.
They
also
involved
installing
1,700
efficient
AC
units
in
public
housing
and
ensuring
that
new
affordable
housing
requires
the
most
efficient
cooling
systems,
such
as
cool
and
solar-ready
roofs,
to
keep
utility
costs
down.

“We
want
to
address
the
root
cause
of
this
problem
while
we’re
helping
people
adapt,”
Gilbert
said.

“All
of
us
here
have
grown
up
in
a
typically
hot
and
humid
environment.
We
are
used
to
the
heat
so
that
makes
it
really
hard
to
distinguish
between
normal
heat
and
unsafe
heat,”
Bushra
Afreen,
CHO
for
Dhaka
North
in
Bangladesh,
told
CNBC
via
videoconference.

Afreen,
who
became
Dhaka
North’s
CHO
in
May
last
year,
said
stark
income
inequality
in
the
country’s
largest
city
meant
excessive
heat
was
not
a
universally
similar
experience.

“When
you
combine
that
with
fragile
urban
systems
like
drainage
and
power
outages
and
poor
health
management
and
poor
health
systems
and
poor
education
systems,
you
get
a
very
bad
stew.”

Alongside
planting
thousands
of
trees
in
Dhaka
North’s
informal
settlements
and
reintroducing
a
culture
of
water
fountains
in
the
city,
Afreen
said
her
team
would
roll
out
a
pilot
project
in
one
city
settlement
to
create
green
nooks
and
corners
for
reprieve.

Afreen
said
it
would
be
important
to
consider
the
type
of
trees
to
plant,
such
as
citrus
or
neem
trees
to
ward
off
mosquitoes

amid
a
dengue
outbreak.
Sufficient
lighting,
a
bench,
CCTV
cameras,
a
water
fountain
and
signs
urging
priority
for
women
and
children
would
also
be
necessary,
she
added.

“Right
now,
the
two
reactions
that
we’re
seeing
most
are ‘good
job,
keep
it
up,
we
need
more
awareness,'”
Afreen
said.

“And
the
other
kind
is, ‘oh,
you’re
going
to
decrease
the
heat?
Good
luck.'”

Tiffany
Crawford,
co-CHO
of
Melbourne,
told
CNBC
that
extreme
heat
kills
more
people
in
Australia
than
bushfires,
floods
and
storms.

“There’s
a
reason
for
that,
and
it’s
the
lag
in
the
data,”
she
said.

Crawford,
who
works
alongside
Krista
Milne
as
CHOs
of
Melbourne,
said
the
true
scale
of
heat-related
deaths
and
illnesses
often
doesn’t
became
clear
until
health
authorities
have
pored
through
hospital
admissions
and
ambulance
data.

With
a
population
of
roughly
5
million,
the
southeastern
Australian
city
of
Melbourne
is
known
for
its
mild
and
temperate
climate
—
but
Crawford
says
it
is
prone
to
spates
of
summer
heatwaves
that
last
for
several
days
and
offer
scant
reprieve
through
the
night.

“There’s
an
extreme
northerly
wind
blows
that
is
just
ferocious.
I
liken
it
to
going
outside
and
it’s
like
someone
left
the
oven
door
open
or
the
heater
on
all
night
and
forgot
to
turn
it
off,”
Crawford
said.

Some
of
the
short-term
interventions
that
have
been
put
into
place
in
Melbourne
include
extending
public
library
and
pool
hours
and
rolling
out
so-called
cool
kits,
which
contain
water
bottles,
neck
towels
and
old-fashioned
fans.

Looking
ahead,
Crawford
said
the
city
was
in
conversation
with
Google
to
provide
constituents
with
so-called
online-mapped “cool
routes,”
which
help
users
navigate
the
city
by
taking
advantage
of
existing
shade
or
canopy
cover.

“In
places
like
Europe,
the
dialogue
in
the
media
is
a
bit
different,
the
heat
is
shocking.
Whereas
in
Australia,
the
heat
is
something
that
was
consistently
lived
with,
and
we
will
continue
to
live
with
it,
but
it
is
those
variables,
like
any
climate
response,
they
are
becoming
more
and
more
pronounced,”
Crawford
said.

“We
need
to
plan
around
that.”