Climate change is turning up the heat, and our homes aren't ready - Iowa Public Radio
Climate change is turning up the heat, and our homes aren't ready | Iowa Public Radio
Climate change is turning up the heat, and our homes aren't ready
It was hot this summer — at times it was dangerously hot. With the climate changing, stretches of extreme heat are increasingly likely in the future. Climatologists say Midwesterners will be facing an increase in hazardous heat waves in the future, and many of our homes are not ready for this kind of heat. On this episode of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe and experts explore the threat that extreme heat poses and discuss how we can build and plan for a hotter future.
Holly Edgell of the Midwest Newsroom offers an overview of the problem we’re facing and why most of our homes, even homes that are recently built, are not ready for the heat. Iowa’s State Climatologist Justin Glisan discusses weather projections for the years to come. Kevin Nordmeyer, an architect who specializes in sustainable design, discusses how individuals and communities can prepare for severe heat. And environmental health expert Peter Thorne joins the program to discuss how these challenges will affect us all going forward.
Guests:
- Justin Glisan, State Climatologist of Iowa
- Kevin Nordmeyer, architect specializing in sustainable design
- Peter Thorne, distinguished chair and professor, University of Iowa Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.