With summer temperatures soaring, can Phoenix turn down the heat? The hottest big city in America has just hired its first-ever heat mitigation officer.
David Hondula will be charged with lowering urban temperatures to avoid heat-related deaths, which have soared to new records in recent years.
Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Hondula in a South Phoenix neighborhood where residents are more likely to die of heat-related illness.
This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a project aimed at strengthening the media’s focus on the climate crisis. WBUR is one of 400+ news organizations that have committed to a week of heightened coverage around the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Check out all our coverage here.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.