It used to be that if someone shouted in an alley, “It’s the heat!”, it meant the police were coming. But if the perpetual do-gooders have their way, pretty soon might have actual “heat police.”
That’s not exactly what they’re calling it, but how long before a move to formal offices of “heat governance” will entail people in uniforms? From Nature magazine:
Cities need heat governance to plan for extreme temperatures and protect those most at risk. . . This year, Miami-Dade County in Florida, and Athens, Greece, appointed the world’s first two Chief Heat Officers; Phoenix, Arizona, created the first publicly funded Office of Heat Response and Mitigation. Much more remains to be done.
We call for a focused research programme to support ‘heat governance’ — including the actors, strategies, processes and institutions that can mitigate and manage this hazard. Institutions and policies need to be developed to address heat, across all levels of government.
So will hoods in the alley have to amend their slang someday to say, “It’s the heat-heat!!”?
Chaser—because of course it does:
Racism is magnifying the deadly impact of rising city heat
Racist urban policies, particularly in the United States, have left communities of colour at higher risk of heat-related illness or death than their white neighbours. . .
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