Puerto Rico’s Actual Death Toll

New York Times , May 31 — On his visit to Puerto Rico, Mr. Trump witnessed the physical devastation and human suffering in person. He extended his hand, not to help those in need, but rather to pat himself on the back. Every day since then, he and Congress have chosen to ignore the carnage in Puerto Rico. Some of that blood is on their hands.

Want to Survive Climate Change? You’ll Need a Good Community

WIRED, May 31 — Just as the temperature of a heat wave, the height of a storm surge, or the thickness of a levee, it’s the strength of a neighborhood that determines who lives and who dies in a disaster. Building against climate change can either support vibrant neighborhood conditions or undermine them. We know how to do both.

Air-Conditioning Will Be the End of Us

TIME, Jul 17 — Trying to engineer hot weather out of existence rather than adjust our culture of consumption for the age of climate change is one of our biggest environmental blind spots. If you can’t stand the heat, you should know that blasting the AC will ultimately make us all even hotter. Let’s put our air conditioners on ice before it’s too late.

Adaptation: Can Cities Be Climate-Proofed?

The New Yorker, Jan 25 — For the past decade and a half, governments around the world have been investing in elaborate plans to “climate-proof” their cities—protecting people, businesses, and critical infrastructure against weather-related calamities. Much of this work involves upgrading what engineers call “lifeline systems”: the network infrastructure for power, transit, and communications, which are crucial in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Some of the solutions are capital-intensive and high-tech; some are low- or no-tech approaches, such as organizing communities so that residents know which of their neighbors are vulnerable and how to assist them. Even if we managed to stop increasing global carbon emissions tomorrow, we would probably experience several centuries of additional warming, rising sea levels, and more frequent dangerous weather events. If our cities are to survive, we have no choice but to adapt.

Is it Hot Enough For Ya?

New York Times, Aug 29 — Climate change is hardly a seasonal issue, but summer is the only time of year when Americans and the news media regularly fix their attention on the everyday heat emergency that’s already altering life on our planet.