Keeping our Cool

Extreme heat has unequal impacts across the region. Individuals with low-incomes are more likely to live in areas with  less tree cover  and more impervious surfaces compared to wealthier individuals. These conditions make areas hotter, can result in higher energy costs to cool residences. Interventions such as air conditioning, however, are not complete solutions.

Even with access to air conditioning, utility costs to run machines can be prohibitive. In the winter, the dangers of living without proper heating led to the passage of the  Minnesota Cold Weather Rule , which bans utilities from disconnecting residential heat from October through April. No similar standard is in place during the summer for heat. "When disconnections happen, this can cause a crisis for low-income families. Access to consistent utility services is a basic need," explained Catherine Fair, Executive Director at  Energy CENTS Coalition .

Federal  home weatherization  programs can help reduce the overall cost burden of energy usage in both summer and winter, "but funding generally runs out before the summer and these programs only serve one in five households that are eligible," noted Fair. Further, these programs can be harder for renters to access because of the added hurdles to get landlord approval.

Rachel Wiken, a Saint Paul resident, noticed these gaps in the existing system. Through an ad hoc mutual aid group, Wiken has helped provide air conditioning units to those in need. Some renters moving during cooler months are unaware of how hot their new homes would be, and some have found homes unable to accommodate the size or style of affordable air conditioning units. Unit cost and transportation can also be issues. "Many people needed help because they did not have access to a vehicle. To try to bring home an air conditioner on the bus is difficult," said Wiken.

Cities are also starting to make investments to provide relief from heat. Air-conditioned public spaces designated as " cooling centers " are important, but also cannot solve the problem alone. Many cooling centers are only open during the day, and relief from the heat is not available at night. Wiken recalls "growing up without air conditioning in a very hot farmhouse with no shade, and now as a parent I know how impossible it is to get good sleep when you have hot kids."

Climate change continues to make temperatures warmer and increases the prevalence and severity of heat waves. Ensuring our region's residents have access to cooling interventions and consistent utility services is increasingly important. Because the impacts of heat are not currently felt equally around the region, achieving an equitable, inclusive, and welcoming region in the future means finding systemic solutions to relieve disproportionate heat exposure.

Extreme heat has implications for the health and safety of individuals and communities.  Dr. Laalitha Surapaneni , an assistant professor of internal medicine at University of Minnesota Medical School, explained that "Minnesotans are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat and have one of the lowest heat awareness scores of everyone in the country.” While recounting a dehydration case, she explained that her patient had collapsed in 82 degree weather while gardening, not recognizing the heat risk from the first warm day of the year.

In addition to heat awareness, adverse health impacts of extreme heat are exacerbated by social determinants of health. " Social determinants of health " are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. More specifically, Surapaneni said that “the two main things that I’ve seen that compound the health impacts of extreme heat are the built environment as well as economic stability.”

For example, Surapaneni recently saw a patient with an asthma attack triggered by the summer heat. The asthma attack was so severe that it also caused a heart attack. The patient lived downtown in an urban heat island and hadn’t been able to fill medications for asthma. The patient was discharged with financial assistance to fill a month’s supply of medication, "but it felt like we were putting her right back into the environment that, at least in part, triggered the asthma attack and heart disease in the first place.”

Surapaneni explained that many of her patients have little control over their home or work environments and are therefore unable to implement the preventative measures she advises. Outdoor workers are often unable to escape the heat. Choosing between using the air conditioner or paying for medications is another situation illustrating the importance of systems in social determinants of health and, therefore, patient health outcomes. "We must address health equity issues at the systemic level, not solely the individual, if we are to build adaptation plans that do not leave certain communities behind."

Realizing the vision for healthy, safe, and vibrant communities for our region’s residents to live, work, and play demands that communities plan for and build resiliency to extreme heat.

Warming trends and increasing prevalence and severity of heat waves is one of the most obvious and immediate impacts of climate change, and one that state climatologists are confident will continue. Strategic and proactive planning can help our region mitigate and adapt to the impacts of extreme heat.

Heat events can be more intense in urban environments as compared to outlying areas due the " urban heat island " effect. Land use in urban environments - more pavements and buildings that absorb more heat, coupled with less green space, which acts as a cooling system - result in urban areas having higher and unequal heat impacts for those who live there. Heat generated from human activities, such as running cars or even air conditioners, can further drive up temperatures in urban area.

Mo Convery, a Landscape Architect at  Confluence , recognized that “how we’ve built our cities is the reason why extreme heat is intensified within them, which means there are ways to build ourselves out of this situation." Incorporating natural elements into urban design can meaningfully reduce heat impacts. Considerations about tree spacing and shade structures, reducing the amount of impervious surfaces and incorporating green roofs and innovative stormwater management systems can all help create cooler microclimates in a hot landscape. The value of microclimates is underscored in urban areas where space is limited.

"Cities around the world are realizing the benefits of integrating green interventions into our built environment. This often involves thinking about how to build with - rather than against - nature," Convery explains. The updated map of temperature data can be helpful in identifying strategies to mitigate extreme heat through proactive planning and on-the-ground implementation.

It is critical for communities to build resiliency as the climate changes. Planning and designing for future, hotter climates in addition to finding ways to bring natural elements into cities can help slow the compounding impact that urban environments have on heat.

Beyond the benefits of incorporating natural elements to reduce temperature impacts from a design and planning perspective, there are human benefits.  Dr. Kristi White  is a clinical health psychologist in the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She explained that spending time in nature has a “direct impact on important biomarkers like lowering cortisol and blood pressure levels, improving A1C for people with diabetes, and mental health benefits like improving self-esteem, and lowering anxiety, stress, and depression.”

However, nature is not equally accessible around the region. White explained that “this is in part due to colonial practices which have created  areas of environmental justice concern , or 'sacrifice zones,' where residents are overly-burdened with living in more harmful environments due to redlining, toxic waste or chemical plant siting, and less green space and vegetation.” These areas often tend to have higher land surface temperatures, which compounds the adverse health effects and leads to higher physiological and psychological stress.

 Despite these injustices, inequities, and adversity that frontline communities endure, they have been resilient in the face of climate change and extreme heat with little to no systemic support. White expressed that “high-currency interventions that work for both humans and the environment, and serve multiple purposes beyond that, can help bring balance.”

Gloria Iacono, urban farmer and Food Sovereignty Manager at  Four Sisters Urban Farm , is helping bring visibility to one such high currency intervention. Community gardens can build back urban biodiversity, create opportunities for building social cohesion, and the plants can help create cooler microclimates.

“What inspires me about the culture of growing things is how inherently collaborative it is,” Iacono said. “Sharing a common goal, such as caring for the plants, really makes people want to help one another.” The visibility of a community garden, for example, can reach many people when it comes to stewardship and building relationships with nature. “These gardens are a way to reframe and reimagine our urban spaces to not be so human-centered,” she stated, expressing a philosophy of understanding ourselves as a part of nature, as opposed to being in charge of it.

Restoring and protecting natural systems can mean protecting large, contiguous swaths of green space which are important regional heat sinks. But it can also mean looking for high-currency interventions at a local scale, like community gardens or urban greening projects, which improve resident’s wellness and resilience while prioritizing nature. Altogether, helping communities build resilience to extreme heat is intimately intertwined with protecting and restoring natural systems.

Some content for this story map has been borrowed with permission from Mattie Anders, Alice Hewitt, and Catie McDonald, Keeping Our Cool with the Metropolitan Council:

Extreme Heat Through Storytelling, Humphrey School of Public Affairs Capstone Workshop, Spring 2023. Produced by the  Resilient Communities Project  at the University of Minnesota. Reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.