[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to Uptown Chats, a podcast where we share stories about environmental justice by and for everyday people. I'm your co host, Lonnie.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: And I'm your other co host, Jaron. Welcome back, Lonnie.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Oh, I'm. Yes. Well, I'm back.
I feel like I barely left. But that's the world of editing podcast and today we'll be joined by weak environmental health manager Valentina Rojas. She's gonna talk a little bit about an exciting research project she's leading to measure the impacts of extreme heat in northern Manhattan, specifically inside our own homes. We often talk about extreme heat outside, but what's going on in your own home. So we're excited to talk to her about that. But before we jump in that conversation, Jaron, can you share We ACT's mission?
[00:00:56] Speaker B: We ACT's mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Thank you.
I think we can all agree summer is officially in full swing and I am miserable.
This year has already been jarring example of how what we're dealing with now is not your grandma's extreme heat. It's not normal. It's not what it was in the past before.
Even though temperatures have fluctuated drastically, hot temperatures are creeping earlier and earlier in the calendar year. And I don't know if you guys have noticed that every year we keep saying it's the hottest year on record and that's the trend that keeps going on. And so at the time of this recording, we've been in a week's worth of days that reached or exceed a heat index of 90 degrees. I think today right now is technically 100 is the just about is the highest.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Feels like it.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: We're, we're here and with the earliest date all the way back in April. So we've experienced some of these days all the way in April and I'm sure many of you may have heard or seen about what's going on across Europe because historically they don't have temperatures this high and they've been able to kind of get by with just the fan and an open and an open window for a handful of hot days that they have during the summer. So air conditioning is not as common. So there's a lot of suffering that's going on. A lot of, lot of deaths unfortunately too.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really sad to hear and you know, it's as Lonnie mentioned, becoming just much more frequent from year to year that we're seeing things like this happen with extreme heat. And also, in case it wasn't clear, summer is also the bane of Lonnie's existence.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Least favorite summer. Least favorite season.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Might as well. But July in particular and the summer outlook predictions say that the most intense heat will be this month and persist into August this year. And 2026 is already on a trajectory to be ranked in the top four hottest years globally, with a super El Nino likely cranking the planetary thermostat even higher. So it's a. It's a rough one this year. So buckle up, folks.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And with that saying, we act has been relentless in our advocacy for climate adaptation and resilience policy. Out of all of our Advocacy, Local Law 23 at the New York City level is the biggest change towards a new baseline. So Local Law 23 requires that landlords, upon request, provide cooling devices to tenants at no cost, the same way they already can expect some of the basic safety amenities like a window guard to be installed. These devices provided must have cooling power proportional to the size of the room where they are installed to the extent that the tenants are able to limit the indoor temperature to 78 degrees when it's running. So basically, if you have a huge room with high ceilings, it's still got to be able to maintain that cooling, that temperature. Indoor temperature is 78 degrees, and we'll
[00:03:43] Speaker B: unpack why that is with Valentina. But this law, Local Law 23, applies to all multifamily households who don't have access to central cooling systems in their buildings. And it takes effect starting in the year 2030. And this eliminates the cost barrier of cooling device ownership. But it's only part of the solution. Tenants are still responsible for running the device to keep their indoor temperature in a safe range, which represents a serious financial strain for a lot of people. It can be expensive to run your air conditioner, especially during the summertime with peak demand, pricing and things that we've unpacked with Eric in the past. But as evidence of this, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene put out a 2026 heat mortality report that shows that 48% of heat death victims found at home had an air conditioner that was not in use, most likely because it was either non functional or because it was too expensive to run it. So more evidence that this is part of the problem and needs a solution.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah, and it goes towards one more step towards kind of getting us to almost like a universal cooling mandate.
You kind of think of Your AC now as like an appliance that has to be maintained by your landlord. It's like a refrigerator. If it goes out, you got to call somebody because you need that. Right. So it's going to be something very similar.
But we'll be impacting some of the health impacts of extreme heat in more detail with Valentina, who will also talk about the indoor heat monitoring studies she is leading and how it can provide critical insight to policymakers and city agencies working to protect heat vulnerable communities. So without further ado, let's jump in.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Let's go.
All right.
[00:05:31] Speaker C: Well, thank you so much for joining us, Valentina. This is your second appearance. I've established a running precedent that I always talk about how many times people have been on the show when they
[00:05:40] Speaker D: come back, everybody go back and listen to my first episode.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:05:44] Speaker D: Well, I haven't listened to it myself.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: And you never will.
[00:05:48] Speaker C: But actually I'll include a link in the show notes for anyone that wants to go back and listen to it. But thanks for being here. For anyone who hasn't yet listened to that first episode that we did with you about air pollution and air quality, can you just briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your role at Reaction?
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:03] Speaker D: Thank you guys for having me. My name is Valentina Rojas. I am the environmental health manager at we act for Environmental Justice. I manage a couple of different research projects, so including our community air monitoring program, which I talked about in the last episode. And then today I'm here to talk about our indoor temperature research project for the summer. It's called Inside Heat Cool.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: I'm so glad you're here. And again, two very different topics that you are working on, but in the vein and around environmental health and like the impacts of the both air quality and extreme heat. So it falls well into your wheelhouse. But you are the queen of projects and research so far.
So I guess we can just dive right in. I think I want to take a step back a little bit to remind people a little bit about extreme heat and its impact on health.
So can you talk a little bit about what that looks like, how extreme heat affects the body?
[00:06:59] Speaker D: Absolutely. There's a lot to talk about, actually. The body naturally generates heat just every day and all of its different processes and environmental heat stress. So when it's really hot outside, when the temperature is high and when the humidity is high makes it really hard for your body to be able to eliminate that heat. Also, it can just add onto that heat itself.
Extreme heat physically impacts the body because then your body is forced, your cardiovascular system is forced to, to work harder to cool itself down. This causes blood vessels to dilate and your heart rate to spike. So this is a really intense strain on the body and it could lead to severe dehydration, heat exhaustion, life threatening heat stroke, and also the exacerbation of chronic illnesses.
So I can go a little bit more into detail about short term, like direct related heat related illnesses.
So this is important health information for people to just have in mind when we're gearing up for this really hot summer. But if you experience heat cramps, so this is like painful muscle spasms in your legs, on your arms, or in your abdomen. This is typically caused by electrolyte loss from really heavy sweating and when you don't have enough of those salts in your body. So if you feel any of these symptoms, you should definitely stop the activity that you're doing and you should get out of the sun, you should drink some water, you should get some electrolytes and, and you should wait for those cramps to stop.
If the cramps continue after an hour, you should get some help. And I'm gonna be talking about this. Heat related illnesses are really severe illnesses. And a lot of these, you want to get heat or, sorry, you want to get health advice as soon as possible. The next one, so they kind of increase on top of each other. First is heat cramps, then there's heat exhaustion.
So if you're experiencing heat exhaustion, you might experience symptoms like moderate illness from severe dehydration, which is like feeling fatigue, feeling dizzy, feeling nauseous, feeling headaches, or feeling pale and clammy. This is also really important to immediately move to a cool place, take off any tight clothing, put some cool wet cloths on your body, or take a cool shower and start sipping on some water. If you start vomiting or if you can keep having these symptoms for more than an hour. Again, it's really important that you get some medical care because it could exacerbate into heat stroke. Heat stroke is a medical emergency.
This is when the core body temperature exceeds 104 degrees and the body stops sweating. So it can't eliminate the heat that is internally. And this could lead to organ damage, confusion, seizures, coma, and if not treated, you could also die.
It's really, really important if you are feeling any of these symptoms or if you see someone on the street that's, that's walking around confused or dazed or talking weirdly, you need to call 911 immediately. This is a medical emergency again, so move that person to a cool place, call 911, lay that person down. You can elevate their legs slightly and you can help gradually lower that person's temperature with cool cloths or a bath. But sudden temperature changes are really harmful, so avoid crushing them with ice water.
And also it's really important not to give that person anything to drink because if that person were to pass out with water in their throat, they could choke. So make sure to seek medical assistance as soon as possible if you're experiencing any of these more intense symptoms.
But there's also longer term cardiovascular and respiratory strain that extreme heat can cause on the body.
Added stress of frequent heat triggers can trigger acute cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.
This makes heart disease. This is why heart disease is the leading cause of heat related deaths. Also, heat, when combined with ground level ozone or wildfire smoke, exacerbates respiratory illnesses and severely complicates underlying conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or copd. This is why the two topics that I work on, air pollution and extreme heat, are really closely related.
Also, over the long term, reduced blood flow to internal organs can damage kidneys and also the intestinal wall, which can lead to gastrointestinal problems.
And then, yeah, in all of these ways, heat, extreme heat worsens chronic conditions. So cardiovascular conditions, respiratory conditions and diabetes related conditions. Long term effects can also include pregnancy complications. And one other aspect that I wanted to talk about was how extreme heat can really impact our sleep and our recovery, which really impacts our mental health.
It can alter our brain chemistry, it can exacerbate existing psychiatric conditions, and it can reduce cognitive functioning. There's actually research that links prolonged heat exposure to increased stress, increased irritability and elevated rates of violence and domestic conflict.
Also, many people don't know this, but psychotropic medicines including antipsychotics or antidepressants, interfere with the body's natural ability to regulate temperature and stay hydrated, which makes the brain more sensitive to heat.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I always appreciate that as like a, as an overview. I think people sometimes just think that being hot is just being hot, but it really does have an impact. As someone who is heat sensitive for unknown reasons, I, I have experienced heat exhaustion before in the past and had to go to urgent care because of a lot of those symptoms that you mentioned for heat exhaustion. So it is important that it does creep up on you even if you think you're really well hydrated. Sometimes that hot day you're not drinking as much as you should because a lot of Sweat losses, a lot of water loss from sweat as well. So again, always appreciate reminding everybody what those signs are, when to seek help and what to look for.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: Yeah, especially to the point you made earlier too. Not just looking for these things in yourself, but like your friends and loved ones. Thinking about folks who are particularly vulnerable, you kind of alluded to that. So if you have folks in your life who you know are maybe more vulnerable to the heat, like making sure to check in on them, or probably before, like if you know it's gonna be a hot day coming up, like, hey, you good? Like you have everything you need. And you talked about a lot of the things like in the moment to like manage and, and, and cool off and manage those symptoms. But just as a fun little side question, thinking about things that you can do preemptively, like ways to stay cool. Like, I know we've talked on in the past about cooling centers, about being able to access cooling centers, but just, I don't know, what's your favorite way to cool off and like, avoid the heat in the summer?
[00:13:36] Speaker D: Personally, my favorite, I love taking a cool shower. I think the feeling of a cool shower feels so nice and refreshing.
But yeah, Jaron, you jumped in and kind of stole my whole show because I'm so sorry.
This was my major theme of today was get to know your neighbors, get to know your friends, know people's vulnerability, and know your own vulnerability. So there's actually a really handy checklist that we ACT has created, part of our climate Ready Uptown plan. Everybody should go and check it out. But this is a checklist that helps us understand our personal heat risks. How vulnerable we are to extreme heat depends on many different factors. But you'll see a lot of us are vulnerable in some way or another to extreme heat. The list includes if you don't have access to AC or if you don't run it. Really often that can happen because a lot of people have financial constraints around their energy bill. If you live on a higher floor, if your apartment gets a lot of sun, if you're older or less abled, if you have younger children, they are very heat vulnerable. If you live in an overcrowded home. So if there's more than one person per your room, if you're an outdoor and a manual worker, or if you live in a community with little green space, as we see here in northern Manhattan, these are all factors that influence our heat vulnerability. Then I'll go just really quickly again into a list of medical conditions or certain medications that could also make you a bit more vulnerable. So if you get frequent migraines, if you have autoimmune conditions, if you use blood pressure or anti inflammation medications, if you have diabetes, heart conditions, asthma or other breathing issues, or arthritis or obesity, again these are all conditions that can make you more vulnerable to heat and it's really important to stay safe and cool. So now how to actually Stay Safe and Cool the best way to really practice to protect yourself is with ac.
If you're inside your apartment you can try to keep your AC at 78 degrees to conserve energy and that's more of a safe temperature. If you don't have one in your home or you don't use it really often because of that really high energy bill, you can check out the website NYC Cool Options for Cooling Centers near you to find indoor centers with AC that are free to the public like libraries and community centers, we ACT and our policy team Caleb is pushing to make sure that these centers are adequately staffed and they provide programming for families so that people can actually spend time together there in an engaging way. NYC Cool Options also shows outdoor options so parks around you that might have sprinklers for example. Or you can also go hang out at another friend's place, go to the mall, go to the museum, go to a coffee shop. But again, when it's really hot outside, AC is your best friend.
A couple other things A lot of information to share with you when you hear that it's going to get really hot outside. You can get window drapes to block the sun from getting into your home. It's really a lot easier to keep your house from getting too cool as opposed to trying to cool it down after it's already gotten too hot. Avoid using the stove or the oven. Again, take cold showers. My favorite. Wear long, loose, light colored clothing and then check your medications to see if there's some kind of reaction with heat related illnesses or how to store them properly, safely in the heat. A lot of them kind of can get bad or go bad if it gets too hot. And if you don't have an ic, you can place cold water in front of your fan for extra cooling. It'll kind of like move cooler air around. Or you can open your windows when it's cooler outside and set up fans for a cross breeze. But very, very important to drink lots of water all day even if you're not thirsty. Get some electrolytes in, get that Gatorade and try to take breaks whenever possible and make sure your pets have water too.
[00:17:24] Speaker C: Pets do not need Gatorade, maybe not Gatorade.
You ever thought about that?
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Now I'm thinking about it. I'm like, oh, wait, how did they get electrolytes?
[00:17:35] Speaker C: Electrolytes?
[00:17:36] Speaker D: I don't know.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Their bodies know how to handle it.
[00:17:38] Speaker D: Yeah, I guess I don't know things
[00:17:39] Speaker C: you don't think shut.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Anyway, I bet you didn't expect that in this podcast.
You kind of alluded to this in what you're just talking about all the different vulnerabilities, but also thinking about being conscious of your energy bill and folks who are financially constrained. And I think that starts to touch on one of the components of why extreme heat, why it's an environmental justice issue. So I'm going to use that as a natural segue for us to get into the next question that we had for you, which is from a health perspective, how and why is extreme heat an environmental justice issue?
[00:18:12] Speaker B: And you can maybe expand on some
[00:18:13] Speaker C: of the things that you already mentioned.
[00:18:14] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. So extreme heat does not impact us equally at all. In New York City, we see over 55 deaths every summer from extreme heat. The majority of those are indoors. The majority of people are found in their apartments alone. And also 50% of these heat related deaths are black New Yorkers, even though they only make up 25% of the city's population. Population we're going to see in this city an average temperature increase of close to 6 degrees Fahrenheit, and there's going to be a doubling of days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit by the 2050s. And parts of northern Manhattan are going to be particularly affected by this increase in temperature, partly because of the urban heat island effect. So there's a lot more concrete around here, there's less trees, there's taller buildings, and so many people have window AC units that are pushing out warm air that all gets trapped and makes northern Manhattan a particularly hot place. It can get 5 degrees hotter here than it does in Central Park. But also northern Manhattan is particularly impacted because there's a higher percentage of residents who are low income and at least a third of those who live in homes with maintenance deficiencies or in poorly weatherized homes. They have issues like leaks, cracks or holes.
These factors make it more difficult to avoid the heat and properly cool your home. And it also makes it more difficult to access, help and prepare for extreme heat.
Individuals without social connections or older adults or people with disabilities or colonic illnesses are all more likely to spend a lot more time at home in the heat and are more susceptible to illness. Or death during a heat wave.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: It's always good to have that reminder of how it connects to the environmental justice work that we do. And obviously the point of the podcast as well. I'm excited to talk about what you've got working, what you're working on, because this is something that I have been so excited about and wanting to tell people about.
But I guess we can dive in and if you want to give us a little bit more information about the research project that you're working on.
[00:20:10] Speaker D: Definitely. So this summer we are going to be embarking on an indoor temperature research project. We're calling it Inside Heat. There's really little known about how hot it can get indoors in our small New York City apartments during the summer. Most of the information that we have is more around outdoor temperatures.
We're developing what we call a community based participatory research project to better understand how extreme heat and indoor temperatures impact impact residents of northern Manhattan and impacts their mental health, their physical health and their financial health. Asking about this question of energy burden, Community based participatory research is when the community is involved in every step of the research process.
It begins by community members vocalizing what issues matter to them. Extreme heat has long been an issue that community members and we have worked around. They help develop the research questions, they help design the study, they help be part of collecting the data, and then they also help analyze the data and shape what the final deliverables and outputs are.
This is different than more traditional academic research, which can often be a little bit more extractive.
Researchers over in a university think of what research question that they're interested in to get their next publish and then go into a community, especially around environmental health research topics. Go into the community and only use residents as data, like to collect data and don't actually keep them in mind for every step of the process.
We're trying to do this in a community based participatory way to ensure that research is actually relevant and useful to community members.
We started developing this research project with WEAC members. I had many different conversations at our membership meetings and across our different working groups, our NYCHA working group and our Spanish speaking working group. To develop the study questions and also the design and also to help start recruitment for for who would be the participants in the study. Questions that came from these conversations included wanting to have a better understanding of how heat impacts different types of buildings and also locations within a building.
We developed a study that has more than one monitor in each building. Also, they've really helped Design the survey and the semi structured interviews that we're going to be doing with all the participants asking questions around energy burden and also how we use our social networks to help protect us against the impacts of extreme heat.
I also connected with partners across northern Manhattan. I have to give a shout out to the Upper Manhattan Tenant Union, which is an all volunteer tenant led grassroots organization that's dedicated to helping renters organize tenant associations, fight landlord harassment and combat rising reds and stop evictions in Upper Manhattan. Upper Manhattan Tenants Union actually reached out to me last summer to organize a community education session after a Legionnaires outbreak in Harlem.
They're really focused on organizing around the substandard housing and infrastructure which is a major driver of poor health outcomes. The tenant movement and tenant organizers understand that exposure to mold, lead dampness, past poorly insulated buildings and buildings that are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter all contribute to asthma, developmental harm, chronic illnesses, mental health, stress. All of these different kinds of impacts that we always see fall disproportionately on low income communities and communities of colors. These same communities are also the ones at higher risk for eviction. This creates a really vicious cycle where unsafe housing and displacement reinforce each other. Tenant leaders really clearly see this connection between their fight for fair and healthy housing and also the environmental justice fight. I'm really happy to be able to partner with different tenant associations across northern Manhattan to put temperature monitors in their in their apartment buildings. We just saw that it was a really equally beneficial relationship for them to be participants in the study and to be able to connect to these issues of of tenant organizing and environmental justice.
Now we're in the process of installing monitors across 11 buildings in Northern Manhattan. As I mentioned, we have a very detailed survey and semi structured interview that we're also going to be doing with all of the participants. We're hoping to get around 40 participants and we're really digging deep into these connections between extreme heat, housing quality, mental and physical health and energy burdens, and social networks as resiliency.
[00:24:40] Speaker C: I love hearing this project both just be from the very beginning community based, but also just the partnerships. The partnership with the upper Manhattan Tenant Jr. That seems very in alignment in that it's mutually beneficial arrangement there. Like that's the, in my mind, the ideal form of research where it's research with a social purpose that is benefiting people and very embedded in the work that we do as an organization. So just every little detail that you sprinkled in there is just really exciting to hear and the next natural question
[00:25:15] Speaker B: that I have that I'm sure other
[00:25:17] Speaker C: folks are curious about is the final
[00:25:19] Speaker B: goal of the, of the project.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: So as you're all collecting this data, do you have a specific intent or a specific thing that the research is supposed to inform? Is there any specific advocacy attached to it? Just. Just kind of hearing more about what some of the ultimate goals are, what you're hoping to get out of the research itself.
[00:25:36] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely.
Yeah. And I definitely see them as shared fights. So I'm really excited to be able to be sharing in that with them and supporting each other and creating evidence that supports both of our fights. But I also have to shout out our amazing policy work and our amazing policy team.
So Caleb was really a leader in helping pass a New York City level law. It started off as INTRO994 of 2024, and now it's enacted as Local Law 23 of 2026, which requires landlords to maintain indoor temperatures at or below 78 degrees upon tenant request. So this is what we're calling the maximum Indoor Temperature law. It works off the same kind of logic that we've had for over a century when it comes to the indoor temperature law. We know that when it gets too cold in the winter, that's really bad for our health. Many people cannot survive in the winter without heating. So we've had a law for a century now where landlords have to provide heating. Well, now we're seeing actually that summers are more dangerous than winters with these extreme heats. And we're seeing more people pass during the summer than during the winter. So we know that we need the same kind of protection during the winter.
So now we have this law which will mandate that landlords provide cooling to tenants when they request it. And there's also a designated cooling season now that's going to be running from June 15 through September 15. But there's still a lot of questions about how we're actually going to implement this law equitably so that the cost of cooling doesn't get passed on to renters. That's part of why we're running this research project. We want to first just create an understanding of where indoor temperatures are before the implementation of this law. The law won't go into effect until 2030.
Again, I mentioned, we just have no idea how hot it can actually get indoors, especially in heat vulnerable communities like northern Manhattan. So we want to create an understanding of what, how heat sits in apartments now, both before and after a heat wave.
And also it's an advocacy Campaign. We want to uplift people's voices who say that their energy bills are too high and who are demanding energy justice, which connects to both of you guys work. And then we also have other heat and health equity priorities that we act as constantly uplifting and supporting. So this includes supporting policy reform that addresses the city's rising temperature through equitable maintenance and expansion of green spaces and fighting for parks.
Streamlining access to energy efficiency and low emission cooling technologies for low income residents. Strengthening the city's emergency planning during extreme heat events.
Increasing the utilization and services of New York City's cooling center program. Like I mentioned, making sure that there's adequate staffing and hours and programming so that they're actually useful spaces for people to be in increasing communication with vulnerable populations to raise awareness about extreme heat and its health impacts like we're doing right now.
And increasing green design and renewable energy production to reduce the strain on the energy grid.
Go to our website to learn more about all of these. I pulled them all from our website.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Sign of a good website when you're
[00:28:45] Speaker C: using your own website to look for things.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I think this is. Again, I'm so excited about this. And the reason why is a couple years ago, as someone who's heat sensitive, I was not aware of how hot my own apartment was getting. And so I bought one of those cheap, relatively cheap, I think it was like 7 bucks thermometers and just put it in my bedroom. And it also tracks like what's the highest temperature it's ever been in. The lowest temperature. And I realized in my bedroom whether I was in it or maybe at work at the time, the highest that my bedroom ever got was 99 degrees at any given time that at one point it was 99 degrees. That is extremely hot. And that's extremely dangerous to be in your own home because it could be 99 degrees and you're sleeping and that's really not a good thing. So I think it's great to bring awareness to people just being aware of actually, just how hot it actually is in your, in your home. Because I think we don't know how to perceive that. Well and it also, you know, helps you think about the efficiency of maybe your space as well. So if you are running ac, but you're still like running at your apartment is still like 85 degrees and it's at 78. So really kind of think about the efficiency aspect of that work and what could be done.
And I'm also excited about the advocacy possibilities as well because everything is not Necessarily on the individual. We can do as much as we can as an individual to prevent kind of extreme heat illness or death. But there is a systemic aspect to this and what city, state, federal government can be doing, whether it's funding for things like liheap, whether it's extending cooling centers of what we've done before, the max indoor air temperature work that we've been doing. So there's a lot of opportunity for this, to address this as a larger level. So I'm super excited to see the results and keep up with it.
For those who obviously can't participate in this particular study right now, I do highly encourage, if you have the funds or money too, to just buy one of those thermometers and just stick it in your bedroom or living room or wherever and just, just keep track over the summer of how hot it actually, actually gets in your apartment. Because the, the awareness alone will really want to activate you and you'll surprise you.
[00:30:53] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. And they, they set that law at 78 degrees for, for a reason. Because that's when our body starts experiencing stress from extreme heat. It's at around 78 degrees, which is not that, that high. I mean, in the summer we can experience 80 degrees for two months straight. Um, so yeah, definitely a lot of things that I'm really excited to dig deep into with this project. We're also some information about their energy bills with us and having these heat monitors. We also have instruments that can monitor the energy usage of your AC equipment, for example. We're hoping to crunch some numbers and see how much are we actually getting charged fairly by Con Ed for our cooling or if there's some more advocacy that we need for more clean, renewable, equitable, affordable energy in our city.
[00:31:46] Speaker C: Absolutely. You're saying the 78 degree number reminds me I need to stop being so cheap. I set my thermostat at 78.
I'm giving myself heat stress. I don't need to be doing that to myself. But with all that said, I know we're getting to the end of our time here. So for folks that aren't able to participate but are really excited and interested in this topic and want to dive deeper and want to learn more, what would you say? Are there specific resources that you would direct people to or just obviously to our website for one, but yeah, what other. What else would you say to listeners who want to learn more about this topic?
[00:32:19] Speaker D: Well, yeah, I just really want to make the point again that extreme heat and climate resilience is a really useful advocacy tool. Actually, it's a really useful way to get to know your neighbors. This is also why there's such a big qualitative piece around the research project. I'm really excited about being able to collect and share people's stories of neighbors and how they struggle, but also persevere through these extreme heat events.
And I want people to recognize that across the city, we're sharing this common struggle. Across the country, across the world, we're sharing this common struggle to build resilience against climate change, induce extreme heat, and also that we keep each other safe. Strong social networks are key in protecting ourselves in neighborhoods and communities against extreme heat.
I really wanted to highlight the work of tenant associations in the city and breaking down barriers and encouraging people to talk to their neighbors, because the more that you know your neighbors and their vulnerabilities and the more that they know you, the easier it is to protect each other.
So again, I just wanted to say summers are only going to get worse. And while we can demand the city to do some things to protect us, like passing the maximum indoor temperature bill or funding cooling centers and parks, we also have responsibilities to each other and keeping each other safe. So to everyone out there, I would recommend talk to your neighbors, start a group chat and say, hey, I'm also going to plug the climate Resilient Uptown plan, which is again on the we act website. It's this really amazing pamphlet that community members created a couple of years ago and that we do workshops around now that talk about all the different ways to stay resilient in the face of different kinds of weather related events, including extreme heat, but also flooding, brownouts, all different kinds of stuff.
Really good information. So I encourage everyone to use that as a way to talk to your neighbors and say, hey, like there's this workshop that I found. Do you guys want to get together one day and maybe go through this workshop together?
You can invite me, reach out to me.
I'm always happy to give the workshop and be used as an excuse to talk to your neighbors.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for that. Really appreciate it. We'll make sure, as always, we'll drop all those resources and links in our show notes for folks to be able to follow up on.
[00:34:34] Speaker C: The tagline for this episode is be vulnerable with your neighbors or not.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: That's fine too.
[00:34:43] Speaker C: All the things. Thank you, Valentina. Well, I'm sure we'll have you on the show again soon.
[00:34:48] Speaker D: Number three.
[00:34:50] Speaker C: Three.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Pete,
[00:34:56] Speaker A: Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, make sure to rate and review the show on whatever platform you listen on. If you have thoughts about the show or suggestions for topics you want us to discuss, we encourage you to reach out to
[email protected] I also want to
[00:35:09] Speaker B: remind folks about our Uptown Chats hotline, where listeners can call in with questions they have about climate and environmental justice. Got a question? Call 877-Uptown 6. That's 877-878-6966. Give us a call.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: Check out we act on Facebook at WEACT for EJ that's W e a C T T F O R E J, Instagram, Blue sky and YouTube at weact4ej. That's W E A C T number 4ej. And check out our website react.org for more information about environmental justice.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: Until next time.
[00:35:43] Speaker A: Bye.
[00:35:55] Speaker D: Ra.
