While a bear jumps into a Jacuzzi, the poorest Americans are desperate for respite
By Jesse Bedayn
Burbank, California, and Denver, Colorado: With the summer heatwave in full swing in Southern California, a backyard pool is a tempting place to take a dip.
Even for a bear.
Police in the city of Burbank responded to a report of a bear sighting in a residential neighbourhood and found the animal sitting in a Jacuzzi behind one of the homes.
A bear sits in a Jacuzzi in the city of Burbank, California, on Friday, July 28.Credit: AP
After a short dip, the bear climbed over a wall and headed to a tree behind the home, police said in a statement on Friday.
But across America, many people have nowhere to turn when the mercury rises.
Phoenix sizzled through its 31st consecutive day of at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) and other parts of the country grappled on Sunday with record temperatures after a week that saw significant portions of the US population subject to extreme heat.
The National Weather Service said Phoenix was expected to climb to 44.4 degrees before the day was through.
July has been so steamy thus far that scientists calculate it will be the hottest month ever recorded and likely the warmest human civilisation has seen. The World Meteorological Organisation and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service on Thursday proclaimed July beyond record-smashing.
As Denver neared triple-digit Fahrenheit temperatures last week, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch, swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighbourhoods, doesn’t have airconditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired bricklayer, who survives on about $US1000 ($1500) a month, says airconditioning is out-of-reach.
Ben Gallegos stands outside his family’s home in Globeville, Denver as the daytime high soars towards triple digits Fahrenheit on Thursday.Credit: AP
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breathe, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heatwaves, breaking record temperatures across the US and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defences. Airconditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered its 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) on Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning airconditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heatwave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of colour, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York and beyond, who are far more likely to face gruelling heat without airconditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 US metro areas.
“The temperature differences ... between lower-income neighbourhoods, neighbourhoods of colour and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organisation. “There are these really big consequences, like death. ... But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing”, said Melody Clark, who stopped on Friday to get food at a Kansas City non-profit as temperatures soared to 101 (38 C). When the central airconditioning at her rental house broke, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. At night, she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat ... They don’t complain.”
While billions of dollars in federal funding have been allocated to subsidise utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralised heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $US25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
Beachgoers walk along the water as President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden sit underneath an umbrella in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Sunday.Credit: AP
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16 per cent of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their airconditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighbourhoods. Researchers at the University of San Diego analysed 1056 counties and in over 70 per cent, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter. That’s in part because those neighbourhoods lack tree coverage.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had airconditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker sometimes sits in her car with the air-conditioner running. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so airconditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. Rebates are the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 60-square-metre home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $US20,000 and $US25,000, she said. Even with subsidies, she can’t afford it.
Instead, she bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
AP
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