According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the US. The number of heat deaths can be hard to nail down, but according to a study done out of Texas A&M University (by Dessler and Lee), the death count for the US in 2023 was likely around 11,000 – and the numbers have been going up each year.
This is already bad and getting worse, but what climate scientists and policy makers are most worried about is the growing possibility of lasting heatwaves that reach dangerous levels on a combined temperature/humidity index called “wet bulb.” Wet bulb 95 F is the upper limit of human survivability and can be experienced at numerous temperature/humidity combinations – 95 F at 100% humidity, 105 F at 75% humidity, or 115 F at 50% are all wet bulb 95 F. Being exposed to this humidity-temperature for 6 hours or more generally leads to death because a human body simply can’t cool itself enough in this environment to function. One of the great and growing dangers with the climate crisis is that an extreme heat dome could settle over a populated area long enough and hot enough that all the AC usage maxes out the power grid and leaves people to bake in the heat without any way to get cool. And extreme heat waves typically last days – not hours.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s (amazing) novel, “The Ministry for the Future,” begins with a massive heatwave in the relatively near future in India which overloads and blacks out the electric grid, killing several hundred thousand people over the course of a day. This scenario is a very real possibility – and to add to this, the heaviest death tolls are most likely to play out in poorer communities or nations because they (a) live in historically disinvested and/or deforested neighborhoods, (b) don’t have widespread access to air conditioning or public cooling centers, or (c) live in areas with shaky power grids and no localized power like solar. And to bring this very close to home, Hunting Park (along with several other neighborhoods in Philadelphia) recently underwent a heat study and were found to be a full 22 F hotter than cooler parts of the city during extreme heatwaves. How could this dramatic difference exist within a single city? Hunting Park is much hotter because historic disinvestment, redlining, and poverty have resulted in deforestation of the neighborhood, less in the way of green public spaces, and an excessive amount of concrete surfaces and old heat-absorbing black roofs. Poverty makes spaces hotter and less resilient.
So what does all of this mean for us as Christians? In Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, he essentially sums up his final judgment according to how people show hospitality. Verses 34-36 say, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’” The layers of this passage as they pertain to the Christian response to the human impacts of climate change are many. But through the lens of extreme heat we can read it the following way: People will become thirsty as their bodies sweat excessively to try and cool them down – will we give them something to drink? They will need to be brought in out of the heat and into a cool space – will we welcome them in? They will need to be clothed not with warm clothes to keep out the cold, but with a cool environment to keep out the heat – will we provide this? Heat stroke makes people sick – often leading to nausea, vomiting, and fainting – will we nurse them back to health or get them to a hospital? And those who are more likely to have these needs will be those who have the least resources to begin with – will our homes be open to neighbors who have less than us?
So for us, the question is – will we be a Matthew 25 neighbor to the suffering around us. And there are two parts to this question that impact how we will answer it. First, will we have the capacity to provide a space for our neighbors to cool down? And second, if we do will we welcome them in their time of need? A positive answer to the first question requires planning. A positive answer to the second requires embracing the way of Christ and offering what we have.
To address the first question, how can you be a person who has a cool space if an extreme heatwave settles over your neighborhood and blacks out the power grid? The only way to do this right now is to have a white roof coating, solar on your roof and a way to cool your house electrically. The white roof coating reflects heat. Rooftop solar provides power that can run your electricity even if the grid goes down. As for cooling your home electrically, if you can afford heat pumps, they are much more efficient than AC window units and can both cool and heat your home. But if not, AC units will do – and I’ve even heard that there are low cost heat pump window units starting to become available. In addition to all of this, it is important to have a home energy efficiency upgrade – so that all the power and cooling doesn’t just bleed out your windows and walls. If these things are in place, your home can become a refuge in the heat.
I will get into more of the practicalities for how to do this in later posts, but for now I will say that there are many ways to get leased solar panels on your home at zero cost, to get solar ownership at no cost through public programs like Built to Last, or to purchase panels on your own. But however we do it, here is the point: we as the body of Christ should be preparing our homes to have the capability to be a cool refuge during a heatwave black out – and we should be preparing our hearts to welcome in the heat-oppressed during their time of need. Imagine Hunting Park – and any other neighborhood – with a growing network of solar powered homes that can stay cool and become a refuge for neighbors in times of extreme heat. This is what the Kingdom of God is all about – we’re here to breathe God’s cooling wind into a parched and suffering world, and give it more and more of a taste of the shalom Jesus will one day complete here.
RESOURCES:
Get a free home energy efficiency upgrade and a 20-year fixed rate rooftop solar lease with Posigen (a great company), and support the Hunting Park Community Solar Initiative at no cost to yourself: bit.ly/posigen-hpcsi-lead
Get a low-cost and energy efficient white roof coating with Be Cool Roof Coatings: Contact Allen Drew at AllenCWP12@gmail.com and he will connect you.
Get low-cost heat pump units for your home with New Spirit HVAC at www.newspirithvac.com
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