America's hottest city is nearly unlivable in summer. Can cooling technologies save it?

[Jilly_in_VA]

Asurge in heat-related deaths amid record-breaking summer temperatures offers a “glimpse into the future” and a stark warning that one of America’s largest cities is already unlivable for some, according to its new heat tsar.

Almost 200 people died from extreme heat in Phoenix in 2020 – the hottest, driest and deadliest summer on record with 53 days topping 110F (43C) compared with a previous high of 33 days. Last year there were fewer scorching days, but the death toll remained staggeringly high, with people experiencing homelessness and addictions dying disproportionately.

Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is accustomed to a hot desert climate, but day and night temperatures have been rising due to global heating and the city’s unchecked development, which has created a sprawling urban heat island.

Scorching temperatures have made summers increasingly perilous for the city’s 1.4 million people, with mortality and morbidity rates creeping up over the past two decades, but 2020 was a gamechanger when heat related deaths jumped by about 60%.

Last year, after another deadly summer, the mayor announced the region’s first dedicated unit to tackle the growing hazard of urban heat, which also threatens the city’s economic viability.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/27/phoenix-arizona-hottest-city-cooling-technologies
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Evacuate the damn place and raze it to the ground. It wastes water and is unfit for humans to live in.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

1. It's really nice to provide solutions that impact others lives

when they don't impact your own.
Maybe we should come and raze your home as well?

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. I don't live

in a place that is fundamentally unliveable and was from the start. And I feel exactly the same about Las Vegas.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

3. I'm sure you're ready to front the BILLIONS it will cost to move everyone then

Since you want to burn my home down.
Must be nice to be able to sit in judgement.

[Probatim]

4. Every time I read about rising temps and unlivable conditions out west, I think of Sam Kinison.

We have deserts in America - WE JUST DON'T LIVE IN THEM. You've got 5 minutes to pack your shit, the plane is leaving.

Poor dead Sam is missing all of this.

[Thomas Hurt]

5. kind of late for that I am afraid. It will have to get so bad that people pack their sh*t and leave

to accomplish your goal.

[mike_c]

6. We live in the west (Phoenix) valley...

...and I must say it is not "unfit" for human habitation. What would you do, kick us out of our home? We chose to live here for a variety of reasons, one of which is our love of Sonoran desert, i.e. we LIKE the conditions you feel are unfit for habitation. Between wildfires, floods, drought, tornadoes, hurricanes, deadly winter weather, active volcanos, landslides, rising sea levels, and earthquakes there few places to live without personal and ecological risks and certainly not enough to hold even the relatively small population of the U.S. We've even got the crater from a big meteor strike here!

In Arizona, as in most western states, large scale agriculture hoover's up FAR more water than residential use, like 90% vs 10%. Not surprisingly it's quite profitable for agricultural land owners to irrigate the desert while pointing fingers at residential water users.

It is a lovely day here in the west valley, 70-ish F and dry, with a wonderful soft desert breeze. It's only scorching for a few months in mid-summer.

[MOMFUDSKI]

7. It is all fun and games

until you run out of water.

[hunter]

8. Phoenix isn't going to "run out of water."

At worst they'll pay California coastal cities to desalinate water in exchange for a larger share of Colorado River water.

It'll be the Arizona and Southern California farmers dependent on Colorado River Water who get blown away in the dust.

Water flows uphill to money.

The first heat crisis in the U.S.A., where thousands of people die when the power fails, will probably occur in the humid Southeastern U.S.A., not the dry west.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. I lived in Tucson from 1962 to 1968 where I went to high school,

then in Phoenix from 1983 to 1987 early in my marriage. When I was in Phoenix, I never met anyone whose time in Arizona predated mine. Everyone was a newcomer. They all felt that so long as they didn't have to scrape snow off their cars in winter, everything was perfect. Okay, I know from experience how little fun it is to scrape that snow, but it is not the only thing that contributes to quality of life.

When we lived in Phoenix, and I had a young child, people would tell me they'd moved there to be outside all year. My husband and I concluded that the outdoor life style might possibly have consisted of drinking margaritas around the pool, but very few people in our apartment complex were ever at the pool, so I'm not even sure about that. In January and February, when the temperatures midday were in the 70s, perfect going outside weather, I'd take my son to the nearby park. All but one time I was the ONLY mother with her child at the park. It was disturbing.

My husband once said that to dress for the heat in Phoenix, you had to wear an air-conditioned car.

Heck, in Minneapolis, where we lived right before moving to Phoenix, we'd see more people outside jogging when it was below zero than we ever did in Phoenix in genuinely mild weather. In Minneapolis, the temperature had to get to -20 or lower for people to start staying inside.