Redesigning cities for a future of extreme heat

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7 • 219 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At their best, cities can be a climate solution: densely packed places with good public transport, effective health care, and plenty for everyone to do. Combined with clean energy, they become carbon-efficient centers. But cities can also be a climate disaster: Low levels of vegetation, big concrete buildings, high traffic and poor airflow create the perfect conditions for extreme heat waves. As cities grow and an ever greater percentage of the population become urban dwellers, the impacts of these heat events will be felt by more and more people.

This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Global Chief Heat Officer Eleni Myrivili, about how cities can be made more resilient to heat, and why aircon is not a solution we can rely on.

A profile of Eugenia Kargbo, Chief Heat Officer in Sierra Leone.
Olivia Rudgard’s article on Happisburgh’s disappearing coastline.
A full transcript of this episode.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim and Laura Millan. Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Zero. I'm Akshutrati. This week, Athens, aqueducts and urban architecture.
0:07.0	Cities can be a climate solution, densely packed places with good public transport, effective
0:26.3	healthcare, and plenty for everyone to do. Add in clean energy and they become carbon-efficient
0:32.4	centers. Cities can also be a climate disaster. Lack of vegetation, big concrete buildings, and poor airflow create hot zones that can kill during extreme heat events.
0:45.3	All city dwellers have experienced this urban heat island effect.
0:49.3	You can feel it when you leave the city. It's just much cooler.
0:53.3	It's not a huge problem until it is.
0:57.0	Europe is in the middle of its second life-threatening heat wave of the summer. It hit 100 degrees in London, 109 in Paris.
1:05.0	Some forecasters have predicted temperatures in Delhi could reach a record-breaking 46 degrees Celsius this week.
1:12.3	And authorities have issued an alert and asked vulnerable people to avoid the outdoors.
1:16.6	In Japan, we've been telling about the unprecedented heat wave this week that's got many worried
1:20.8	about a possible shortage of electricity to keep the air conditioners going.
1:25.0	During heat waves, cities can be up to 15 degrees Celsius warmer than surrounding regions.
1:31.3	It's an issue faced by all major cities around the world.
1:35.3	As we want the planet and more of us move to cities, it's going to get worse.
1:40.3	By 2050, nearly 1,000 cities will see their average summer highs reach or surpass 35 degrees Celsius.
1:48.9	That's triple the number of cities experiencing those temperatures today.
1:53.4	Which is where my guest today comes in.
1:56.0	Eleni Miravili is the first global chief heat officer, appointed by the United Nations Habitat and the
2:03.0	Adrian Arschd Rockefeller Foundation Resilient Center.
2:07.2	She works with other chief heat officers in countries such as the US, Sierra Leone and more
2:12.5	recently Bangladesh.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bloomberg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bloomberg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.