Climate Change Has Fried Earth So Badly Trees Won’t Save You Today—But I Will

What’s different this year is, we’re one of the first cities to offer overnight cooling centers. Last year most of our cooling centers closed at 5 or 6 pm, but that didn’t mean the heat was turning off. We were seeing high numbers of 911 calls after hours. If you’re out there on the concrete, living in the urban heat island effect, you’re baking in that, whether it’s 90, 100, or 115. We need to have the same resources available. So we went back to leadership and said we need to have extended hours.

A lot of it is trial and error, which can be challenging. I might look at the data and say, OK, I see a lot of 911 calls happening over here, I’m gonna go do outreach. And so I go over there, and there’s actually not a lot of need. It turns out the calls were because it was close to a hospital. You need to be able to pivot on a dime. I’ll be honest, we had cooling centers previously that were just a little too far for people to get to. So we brought the cooling bus to them.

I think building out tree shade and cool spaces is important for a more livable, sustainable Phoenix. That’s what our office’s mitigation team works on: longer-term strategies for shade, planting trees. But what I have to focus on is, how am I keeping someone safe? Planting more trees is amazing, but that’s not going to save you today. And so that’s where I come in.

I have people in tears thanking me, because they see me out there every single day. You know, I’m not going to give up on you. It’s a life-or-death situation sometimes for these people. It might sound a little dramatic, but a bottle of water in someone’s hand is life-saving. And then there were people that I got into a vehicle with our Office of Homeless Solutions, and now they’re gonna go into temporary housing. If we could make more affordable housing, then I wouldn’t be needed.

My favorite part of the day is going down to the warehouse where we keep the heat kits. I turn on some music, I get into a zone, and start making kits. We put hats in there, sunscreen, cooling towels, and SPF liquid chapstick, because tube chapstick will melt. Our wide-brim hats are extremely popular. People love the Hydro Flasks. We provide shoes to people as they need it, because we see a lot of people out there in socks or bare feet. I know those kits are gonna go out the door and immediately serve somebody who’s in need. I love to do that.

—As told to Camille Bromley

Image source: Getty Images