| By Zahra Hirji, Olivia Rudgard, Coco Liu, Todd Woody, and Alexander Battle Abdelal In Phoenix, heat is a constant challenge: Last year, the city experienced 31 consecutive days of temperatures above 110F (43C). That's why Phoenix's Paideia Elementary started buying cooling vests loaded with ice packs for its teachers to wear during daily dismissal. The school now has more than 30 of them. "School starts Aug. 1 when [it's] over 100F, and that is going all the way through September," says Brian Winsor, executive director of Paideia Academies, which also includes a 7th-to-12th-grade school. Paideia Elementary's ice vests are just one example of the adjustments made necessary by a warming world. This year is poised to be the hottest ever, leaving systems, services and infrastructure struggling to function. High temperatures have melted roads, strained power grids and killed thousands. They're also forcing a rethink of the most quotidian activities, from choosing an outfit to buying groceries or simply falling asleep. "This is a disaster that we're all going to have to deal with," says Maren Mahoney, director of Arizona's Office of Resiliency.  An instructor wears an ice vest at Paideia Elementary Academy in Phoenix. Source: Paideia Academy Whether that means running errands at 6 a.m. or spending Saturdays in a cooling center, individuals and institutions all over the world are finding new heat wave workarounds. Leaning into early mornings From growing up in Southern California's Inland Empire, Daniel Coats knows a thing or two about sweltering heat. The region's ambient temperature often exceeds 100F (38C) in summer, and Coats's first line of defense is shifting most of his exercise, errands and other daily activities into early mornings (6 a.m. to 9 a.m.) or evenings (7 p.m. to 9 p.m.), when the heat is less fierce. Living in such a hot environment "completely reshapes your routine," says Coats, a communications specialist. He isn't alone. Globally, individuals and businesses are rethinking their schedules in the face of extreme heat. The National Trust, a charity group that oversees British cultural heritage sites, introduced new working hours to accommodate higher temperatures. Madrid-based waste management firm Urbaser banned street sweeping in temperatures above 39C (102F) and pushed afternoon shifts from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. following the death of a worker during a heat wave in 2022. And with concerns over heat-induced health hazards growing, labor unions in Italy and Greece have also called for new worker protections. Rethinking the commute So far this summer, US commuters have faced canceled trains as tracks buckled under triple-digit temperatures, while soda cans that sat on blistering airport tarmacs exploded on planes. But the most perilous part of traveling in extreme heat can be simply walking to a bus or train stop and waiting for transportation to arrive. "Folks need to think about the last-mile situation, as getting to the transit stop might be where they're fully sun-exposed," says V. Kelly Turner, an associate professor of urban planning and geography at the University of California at Los Angeles, where she studies heat. "The other element that is talked about less is wait times," since heat waves make transit delays more likely. Beyond protective clothing, shade is critical during those last-mile moments — and often overlooked. UCLA research based on mobile phone location data found that people seek out shade more often while walking on the weekends, when their schedules are more flexible, but tend to stick to their usual path on weekdays. Turner notes that standing in the shade can change the way your body experiences heat by as much as 54F to 72F (30C to 40C). Some cities share maps online that can help people find the coolest route from one place to another. Turner says urban planners also need to consider shade in heat adaptation strategies. "While there are many communities that are thinking about tree planting, I don't think they're thinking about how much shadow is being cast as the primary important thing that they need to be providing to pedestrians and transit riders," she says. Giving in to air conditioning Arbi Shakhgiriev has been in the air conditioning business for six years, but it wasn't until 2023 that he struck out on his own, starting installer Airconcool out of London. The record-hot year gave Shakhgiriev an inkling of future demand for his services. "I think I'm entering a perfect time," he says. "If I start now, then 10 years down the line when it gets very popular, I've already established myself." This summer, Airconcool's Google advertising has gotten three times more clicks than it did in March or April. Globally, the residential AC market grew by almost 10% in 2023. Sales are growing the fastest in the Middle East, and in rapidly-developing parts of Asia like India. In the UK, less than 5% of homes had AC between 2013 and 2019, but that number is also on the rise, says Sarah Atkinson, head of marketing and product development at Mitsubishi Corp. "We saw a marked increase from Covid onwards," as people spent more time at home, she says. Poor building design is also a factor. When Yin Wu moved to the UK from Hong Kong in 2001, he left a land of humid summers and ample AC for a markedly milder climate. But just three years later he found himself buying a portable air-conditioning unit. In Wu's home, a new-build south-facing apartment in east London, "all my windows face one side. So even if it's nice and windy and breezy outside, it just is impossible to cool the flat down."
In 2020, Wu's family installed a water-cooled integrated AC system at a cost of about £8,000 ($10,300). He says it's been a game-changer: "It'll cool the room down within three or four minutes." Read the full story with more details on how schools are handling "heat days" and the impact climate change is having on your sleep. For all of Bloomberg Green's Heat Week coverage and unlimited access to climate and energy news, please subscribe. Cities are already hotter than the surrounding area due to the urban heat island. That makes the challenge of adapting to heat there all the more pressing. Research has shown that, regardless of income, heat deaths are expected to rise in cities around the globe in the coming decades. But perhaps not surprisingly it will be harder for poorer urban areas to adapt to extreme heat. Bloomberg Green has looked at how climate and income will impact 369 cities in the next 80 years to get a sense of what's at stake. Cities can use both big and small adaptation strategies to help residents beat the heat. In Ahmedabad, India, there are efforts afoot to implement early-warning systems and establish hospital heat wards in the city of more than 8.5 million people. In The Jordanian capital of Amman, local architects are creating a network of mini-forests to cool things off and provide ecological safe havens for native species. While the futuristic hub of Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, hasn't quite delivered on all its technological promises, it has offered a proving ground for how to stay cool in a punishing environment. The key is a "simple and radical" design that means "there's almost no direct sunlight that reaches the pedestrian level," says Sarah Moser, an assistant professor at McGill University, who describes the area an "experimental neighborhood." With more punishing heat ahead for cities, experiments like it will be needed around the world. | 
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