Loading…
28
That week in July when my city hit 108 for 5 days straight and I finally got serious about this
I live in Fresno and back in July we had a stretch where it hit 108 or higher for 5 days in a row. My AC ran nonstop and still couldn't keep up, the apartment was 89 inside at 10 pm, and I slept on the floor next to the vent. My power bill for that month came to $340, which is double what I normally pay. The scary part was the air quality alerts, my neighbor who is 74 and has COPD ended up in the ER because she couldn't breathe. I started thinking about how this is only going to get worse if we don't do something. That week pushed me to join a local group that's pushing our city council to plant more shade trees and add cooling centers. We got 40 people to show up to the last meeting, which is way more than they usually get. Has anyone else here dealt with a heat wave that pushed them from caring about climate stuff to actually doing something about it?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
sageadams2d ago
What makes you so sure trees and cooling centers are actually going to move the needle, though? Fresno's heat is a weather pattern, not something a few shade trees fix, and $340 sucks but plenty of people pay that every summer and just budget for it. Your neighbor's ER trip is rough, but cities have had heat waves forever and we didn't all panic about the climate every time. Seems like one bad week got you worked up and now you're asking the city to spend money on stuff that won't change the temp one degree.
4