In an arid California valley, a plan proposes equal shade zones in the sweltering heat

2024-03-02 23:08:02

MECCA, United States (AP) — When Limba Contreras moved to the desert community of Oasis, California, regarding 50 years ago, his family depended on a water cooler to maintain a comfortable temperature inside their home. Other times they cooled off with a hose outside. But when the heat exceeded 38 degrees Celsius, the cooler was useless and the hose a temporary respite.

“We suffered because of the heat and because we had no other resources,” said the retired elementary school librarian.

Contreras and her family now have air conditioning, but she is concerned regarding the lack of shade on the playgrounds and fields in the few parks they have. “In the heat, kids can’t play on the playground because it’s too hot, there’s no shade,” he noted Saturday in the Eastern Coachella Valley, a major agricultural area in Southern California.

Authorities, community leaders and farm workers met in a park for the inauguration of a shade plan that attacks the increase in heat and is a factor to improve conditions of equity in the population.

The Eastern Coachella Valley is a hot, arid place. Temperatures during summer jump to more than 37 degrees Celsius. The residents of this rural, desert area in Riverside County are mostly Latino, Spanish-speaking and low-income. Many live in mobile homes without air conditioning and work outside in the fields under the sweltering sun.

Even so, there are few shaded areas or alternatives to cool off. There are few green spaces with trees or areas where buildings can serve to protect themselves from the sun’s rays. That lack of shade can increase heat stress on the body and be dangerous to your health.

In fact, between 2013 and 2023, heat was the contributing or underlying cause of 143 deaths in the Coachella Valley, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, which lacked disaggregated statistics for the Eastern Coachella Valley. Across the United States, heat was a factor in nearly 1,960 deaths in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Each year, heat kills more people than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined, according to findings from the National Weather Service, and experts warn that extreme heat will become more intense, frequent and deadly with climate change.

The Eastern Coachella Valley Shade Master Plan will attempt to address this growing problem in the communities of Mecca, Thermal, Oasis and North Shore, close to the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California, and the resort city of Palm Springs. The project will identify where and how to create shade zones through policy changes, smart building options, and input from community members.

“This area has been neglected for a long time and it is unfortunate,” said Riverside County District Supervisor Victor Manuel Perez, who represents the communities. “There are hard-working people here who deserve much better.”

Bringing more trees and shade structures to parks, schools and other areas “will ensure that young people and their families have a place where they can protect themselves from the heat, because we’re talking regarding 115 degrees” in July and August, he said. “It is too bad”.

The initiative is the latest effort in the United States to increase climate resilience in Latino and other minority communities, which are disproportionately more exposed to extreme heat in part because they have fewer resources, such as green spaces or air conditioning, to combat it.

Mariela Loera, regional policy manager for the organization Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability, said low-income and marginalized racial groups do not have the same access to spaces where decisions are made.

“And then they are excluded from those spaces, they are easy to ignore, and they don’t receive the basic amenities that they deserve,” said Loera, who works in the Eastern Coachella Valley and is not part of the plan.

The project is funded with $644,411 in funding from the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research in California. It is a collaboration between the Kounguey Design Initiative, the Oasis Leadership Committee, Riverside University Health System and the Luskin Innovation Center at the University of California (UC), Los Angeles.

But it faces challenges. It is not clear who has the competence to implement projects in non-included communities and when the plan is finalized, they will need to find resources to implement its recommendations.

There are other cases of similar plans to create shade in other parts of the world. In Phoenix, Arizona there is already one. Also in Tel Aviv, Israel, and in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Several cities in the United States, including Austin, New York and Miami, have also developed climate action and resilience plans, which use trees as a defense once morest asphalt and soil overheating.

“Heat is often talked regarding through the lens of cities and that is an important issue, but what was left off the table was how it is affecting rural communities,” said V. Kelly Turner, assistant professor of planning. urban and geography at the University of California (UC), Los Angeles.

Turner, whose work focuses on adapting cities to warmer conditions, wanted to get involved in the project because he had never seen a shade plan in a rural area.

“And I thought there was an important story to tell, not just the urban heat island and extreme heat events, but the day-to-day experience in places that are not developed, but where people experience extreme heat in their daily lives. “, said.

Loera said the substandard housing common in those areas and other poor infrastructure increase the heat burden for its residents.

“It’s not just that it’s hot. It’s like it’s hot and then there’s nowhere to go,” she said. “So having any type of shade structure anywhere will help.”

People who work outdoors as farmers—who are mostly Latino—and in construction are a vulnerable population. An average of 40 workers die each year from heat, although the government acknowledges that the figure might probably be higher due to lack of reporting.

Elidio Hernández Gómez, 59, was one of them. In 2023, the farm worker and father of two collapsed and died one day in August when the temperature in Fresno, California, was near 38 degrees Celsius.

Studies have shown that shade can reduce the body’s heat stress by 25% to 35% during the day. Shaded areas can be six to seven degrees cooler than unshaded surfaces, according to a government estimate.

As part of the project, members of the Oasis Leadership Committee — made up of community residents — are paid to take a virtual class on the effects of heat with Turner and master’s students in urban and regional planning at UCLA .

In one of the last sessions, on a recent Wednesday night, the class divided into subgroups focused on identifying spaces where residents feel the heat most: agricultural areas, in traffic, mobile homes and emergency shelters, as well as in parks and schools.

Some committee members mentioned that more shade coverage is needed in parks and public areas. Above all, following several trees fell following heavy rains and winds and lost shade.

Silvestre Caixba Villaseca said, with the help of a Spanish to English translator, that he spoke regarding the poor quality shade structures that exist in the field.

The material they are made of absorbs heat and is not cooling, he said, and workers often seek shade in their vehicles or under trees.

At the end of the day, many farmers return to their homes, which are warm and have accumulated temperature throughout the day.

“No one, following work, goes to a place where they can cool off.”

But Villaseca also worries regarding his children, particularly his six-year-old son.

On Saturday, under a blue sky dotted with clouds and before a dust storm arrived, he talked regarding the lack of shade at Silvestre Jr.’s elementary school. Every day following class, he lines up with his classmates outside waiting for pick them up.

“It’s in full sun, it doesn’t have any shade, structural shade or trees,” he said. “It has nothing.”

Despite the heat, Contreras—the retired Oasis librarian—finds the desert, mountains, sunsets, palm trees and fields beautiful.

“It looks very nice, but here are the people who need that help, who need to protect themselves from the sun, from the heat, from everything,” he said. “We can’t change the weather, but we can change how we live. Protect us”.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for news coverage of water and environmental policies. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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