What else happens when things get this hot?
The heat has been linked to hundreds of deaths, affected peoples’ mental health, disproportionately hurt people of colour and put income inequality on full display.
Hey there, and welcome to the 37th issue of The Supplement, a newsletter that fills in the gaps of your other news intake. This is Sam, one-third of the Supplement team!
Each week, we pick a question submitted by you, our readers. If you’d like to submit a question for a future week — it can seriously be about anything — then email us at thesupplementnewsletter@gmail.com.
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Yesterday, 182 unmarked graves were found at a former residential school near Cranbrook, BC, adding to the growing toll. Today, instead of celebrating Canada Day, we’ll be spending the day remembering and honouring Indigenous lives.
This week, we’re tackling this question: What else happens when things get this hot?
TL;DR: A massive “heat dome” had a small mountain town in BC break the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada this week, prompting a conversation about just how dire the climate crisis is getting. The heat has been linked to hundreds of deaths, caused lengthy ambulance waits, worsened air quality, affected peoples’ mental health, disproportionately hurt people of colour and put income inequality on full display.
It’s all anyone has been able to talk about for days: a “heat dome” (or a mass of high-pressure air) has settled over the west coast of Canada and northwestern US. One statistic really says it all: the small mountain town of Lytton, BC became one of the hottest places in the world on June 27, and broke the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada.
But then it broke its own record two more days in a row, reaching a high of 49.6 degrees Celsius. That temperature is hotter than ever recorded in Miami, Las Vegas or Houston, despite Lytton being much farther north (about the same latitude as London).
Experts warned that these temperatures mean wildfire risk could be just as record breaking. By June 30, Lytton was up in flames and evacuations were ordered. “It’s dire. The whole town is on fire,” Mayor Jan Polderman told CBC news.
For a better idea of how this heat wave is quite literally off the charts, this NYT data piece does a great job demonstrating it.
The heat has been linked to hundreds of deaths. It has also overwhelmed dispatchers and hospital emergency departments, with people reporting waiting for ambulances for hours in Vancouver.
You might have already known all that from the endless news headlines this week. But of course, we’re aiming to take you a little deeper.
The human brain is actually affected by the heat. In 2018, the first large-scale research on the mental health impact of climate change came out, revealing that exposure to extreme weather and monthly increases in average temperature worsen mental health conditions, even increasing suicide rates. The heat also affects our cognition, focus, reaction times and memory. But we’re really just beginning to understand the toll climate change is taking on our mental health.
Wealthier neighbourhoods are actually cooler than lower-income neighbourhoods. That’s because urban forests and greenery, which considerably lower the temperature of a city block, are consistently located in richer areas. The Tyee demonstrated just how stark this correlation is with their heat map of Vancouver, which shows that the Downtown Eastside is one of the hottest neighbourhoods in the city — up to 20 degrees hotter on average than the coolest areas. The same thing has been studied in the US, where racist policies cause deadly “heat islands” in low-income neighbourhoods
Connected to the point above: people of colour are consistently the most affected during heat waves and other climate events. Black Americans are over 50 percent more likely than white Americans to live in areas that suffer from excessive heat, and make up a disproportionate number of deaths. Industry and waste management sites are often located in Black and brown communities, exacerbating the problem. (Canada just recently voted to start collecting data to try and document environmental racism.)
The heat is affecting air pollution and making it even more dangerous. Rising temperatures increase the rate of formation of hazardous materials like ozone, worsening heart and lung problems. Air quality statements have been issued across Alberta.
Here’s someone to follow:
Let’s keep with the west coast theme for this issue: I’m recommending you follow Justin McElroy (no, not that one, the other one). He covers municipal affairs for CBC Vancouver, but the real scope of his work extends so far beyond that — sweeping dataset investigations, definitive rankings of every park and brewery in the province, and local battles over bylaws.
Here’s a story to check out:
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network spent months inside one of the country’s newest, biggest and youngest white supremacy chat rooms, and here’s what they found. The piece investigates the figure behind much of the organizing: 23-year-old Tyler L. Russell and his right-wing nationalist “Canada First” movement, which aims to recruit an “army of nameless, faceless” kids.