By Caitlin Soler
Storytelling for Social Change Intern, Summer 2023
When we think of climate change in the Pacific Northwest, environmental impacts are increasingly at the forefront of our minds: raging wildfires, flooding, and breaking weather records. Two years ago, the Pacific Northwest Heat Dome broke heat records in cities across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, and Nevada. In many places, temperatures were 30 degrees above the seasonal average; Seattle alone measured 107°F.
Less remembered were the melting roads, scorched crops, and packed cooling centers. By the end of the heat dome, over 250 people died in the U.S., primarily due to preventable heat illness and exposure. Events like the heat dome remind us that the impacts of climate change are not just environmental.
In reality, climate change is deeply tied to our economy, infrastructure, public health, social justice, and more. While we sometimes acknowledge these impacts separately, we rarely consider them all together. Talking about the effects of climate issues in siloes limits our understanding of the scale and depth of these problems impacting both people and the planet. To effectively build resilience in our changing climate, we first need to start thinking of more preventative responses we can take now so that we can create more expansive narratives for sustainable future change.
For example, we often take a reactive approach to climate disasters, which means we wait to address problems as they occur or in the immediate aftermath of emergencies. But as climate disasters become more intense and unpredictable, this approach can leave frontline responders feeling underprepared.
During the heat dome, many frontline responders worked with limited resources and knowledge to react to the crisis, which exceeded expectations in its scale and impact. Some patients’ conditions were so severe that health professionals filled body bags with ice to cool people down. The experiences of these frontline responders highlight an urgent need to include preventative measures in our response to climate change.
Nearly two years after the heat dome, EarthLab, the Climate Impacts Group (CIG), and the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE) co-hosted a multifaceted event called Beating the Heat: Collective Action for a Safer Northwest, which highlighted how preventative action can create attainable and actionable steps towards climate change resilience.
The event centered around the launch of two new climate change resources. CIG’s latest report, In the Hot Seat: Saving Lives from Extreme Heat in Washington State, highlights how agencies, experts, communities, and individuals can enact short- and long-term risk reduction solutions for extreme heat. Around the same time as this report’s release date, CHanGE launched its newest interactive platform, the Climate Health and Risk Tool (CHaRT). This tool allows users to explore the relationship between climate-related hazards and climate, environmental, social, and economic factors. Seeing the possibility for greater impact by joining forces, EarthLab hosted Beating the Heat as a way for its member organizations, CHanGE and CIG, to showcase their work collaboratively.
Perhaps even more importantly, Beating the Heat granted these organizations the ability to connect not only with those in academia but the broader community. This in-person event welcomed over 80 transdisciplinary researchers, public-health experts, journalists, government officials, and community members interested in actionable recommendations for preventing future heat-related illnesses and saving lives.
EarthLab, CIG, and CHanGE sought to make Beating the Heat a collective event, highlighting various experiences during and after the heat dome. Recognizing that the issues around climate resilience have deeply affected people across Washington state, the event began with a panel of medical, local, and state experts external to UW who either work as or work with frontline responders during climate emergencies. Many panelists recognized that although underprepared for the heat dome, there are tools, resources, and actions we can collectively take now to build a better future together,
This summer event brought together policymakers, journalists, academics, healthcare professionals, students, and community members. It spoke to what Earthlab wants to accomplish: remove barriers between the communities within academia, build greater connections beyond the university, and make complex data accessible and actionable for everyone.
Solutions happen when we realize that lasting change comes from preventative resources and collective action around climate resilience. Beating the Heat was a great example of how we can do that.
Introducing NextGen Narratives, a fresh addition to the EarthLab news page, tailored for University of Washington students to express how they’re thinking about taking equitable climate action in a variety of ways. If you’re a student eager to join NextGen Narratives, don’t hesitate to contact Allie Long, EarthLab’s Communications Lead, at alongs@uw.edu.