It may seem a little funny to talk about the heat island effect right after our first freezing nights of the season, but summer will be arriving sooner than ever in the coming years, thanks to global warming. Besides, there is a heat island mitigation workshop in town next week, and it’s open to the public. So let’s talk heat.

Heat islands are the urbanized areas which absorb and generate more heat than adjacent natural areas. In Phoenix, the increase in temperature attributed to vast expanses of dark asphalt and roofing materials is 6-8 degrees, and the nighttime increase is even more dramatic. In the summer, it simply doesn’t cool down anymore, a trend that not only makes us uncomfortable, it increase smog formation and energy use. According to a 2003 report by ASU,

Presently, the region’s urban areas experience nighttime temperatures that are 12ºF warmer than the rural areas. Even with moderate population growth, this temperature gap is expected to widen, with potential for a 15ºF nighttime increase by 2030 in our urban area; 60 years from now, a 20ºF increase; and by 2100, a 25ºF increase.

We are better off here in Pima County, in part because we have less asphalt and organizations like Tucson Clean and Beautiful have promoted anti-heat-island strategies like Trees for Tucson, which plants trees in neighborhoods throughout the city.

But we need to act now, as citizens, and as local government, to do everything we can to make sure we continue to fight the warming of our environment. Use reflective materials for roofs and paving. Plant more native vegetation. And attend the free “Cooling Our Communities” Workshop on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 at University of Arizona, Harvil Room 101 (north of 2nd Street and east of Park Ave.), from 5:30 - 8:15pm. Register by calling 791-3109 by December 4.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 at 9:39 am and is filed under Protecting the Environment, Public Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.