美国国家公共电台 NPR--Americans connect extreme heat and climate change to their health, a survey finds

Americans connect extreme heat and climate change to their health, a survey finds

Transcript¹

From higher electricity bills to worsened health, more than half of Americans have felt the impacts of extreme heat, according to a new survey released by NPR, Harvard University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That percentage is even higher in California, where heat was the top climate impact, reported by 71% of those surveyed.

"California does have low rates of air conditioning in homes, maybe because it's blessed with cool breezes in a lot of parts of the state, but when an extreme heat event comes and there's no cool air available, you're in trouble," says David Eisenman, a doctor who directs the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters. "That's why you're seeing this higher number."

Nationally, poll results underline how people consciously connect climate change to their health. Nearly one-quarter of those who experienced extreme weather in the past five years said someone in their household had a serious health problem as a result. And perceived health impacts don't fall equally, according to poll respondents: Overall, 11% of Americans personally affected² by heat say their households have faced serious health problems resulting from a lack of air conditioning in their homes. Even greater shares of Native American, Latino, Black and Asian adults agreed with that sentiment.

Do it yourself cooling tricks aren't enough anymore

The percentage of Californians who say air conditioning is a factor in their health is also elevated, according to the survey.

That doesn't surprise Democratic Assemblywoman Luz Rivas, who represents the eastern San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, where she grew up in a home that sometimes lacked air conditioning. According to Rivas, land use policies, including historical redlining, worsened urban heat for the sweltering neighborhoods she knows well.

"With very few trees and other ways to keep communities cool, families like mine have suffered from heat for decades," Rivas says. On hot days, she recalls that her mother used to take her to the mall to cool down. "Now that these heat waves are getting longer, our coping mechanisms³ that we have used in the past are not going to work as well."

Under legislation Rivas is sponsoring, the California Environmental Protection Agency would create a heat wave ranking system that would be used to broadcast public warnings. "It's something that's similar to what we already do for hurricanes in other states," she says, adding that ranking heat waves would help the public "know the severity of the heat wave and then learn what they should be doing in those instances."

In a letter of support for the bill, public health officers, emergency room physicians and health researchers pointed⁴ out that the health risks of heat are worse for Black Americans and Latinos, outdoor workers and city dwellers⁵, writing that "in an average Los Angeles summer ... there is an 8% increase in total mortality on the hottest days."

But "we are not tracking the health harms of heat events in any way that is really useful," says UCLA's Eisenman, who added that tracking climate change in health is important in places like California, where people may suffer health risks from multiple disasters at the same time, including spiking⁶ temperatures and raging wildfires. The NPR/Harvard/Robert Wood Johnson poll bears that out; separate from heat, in 36% of households affected by wildfire, Californians reported serious health problems. And some households reported impacts from heat and from wildfire.

"That combination of smoke and heat is where the future looks really bad for California," he says.

Ranking heat waves is one of several proposals that would go further than the recommendations in California's extreme heat action plan, announced earlier this year. California lawmakers are also considering legislation that would make indoor cooling a housing right.

Air Conditioning is a necessity, but could cooling be a right?

The proposal would particularly help renters like Minerva Contreras, a 44-year-old mother of two who lives near Bakersfield, Calif. In the past, her neighborhood averaged 42 days where temperatures soared past 100 degrees; last year, Kern County racked up 67 days that hot, and projections⁷ are for that number to keep climbing.

"It is very difficult because, since it is practically like not being able to breathe," Contreras says, in Spanish. "It's frustrating⁸."

When she's well, Contreras works in agricultural fields picking anything from tangerines to radishes. But she has developed a lung tumor⁹. It's benign¹⁰, but it makes hot days harder. Contreras points out that other people who are also sensitive to heat live all around her, including the very young and very old; Kern County's asthma¹¹ rates are above state and national averages.

Indoor cooling standards have won support of tenants¹², housing advocates and editorial writers, but they face a serious fight in Sacramento. Property owners represented by the California Apartment Association argue that the cooling standards bill "circumvents¹³ California's building code adoption¹⁴ process and ignores the variety of climates present in the state," and if passed the law would be the first such state-level requirement in the country.

For now, the cost of keeping cool for millions of California renters mostly falls on them.

Behind her modest brown ranch¹⁵ home, Contreras shows off an asador, a grill¹⁶ that her husband built for her. She's got pots out here too, for making chicharrones and tamales. When she cooks for dinner, she tries to do it early in the morning, before the sun comes up.

Across the backyard, she has strung several laundry lines; she hangs bulky towels and blankets and most of her clothing out here to dry in the sun.

These are health measures, she says; it's essential to avoid doing anything that makes it hotter inside. "I definitely need to be in a cool place," she says.

It also helps save some money. In summer, their electricity bills run between $600 and $800 a month; after the landlord spent $3,000 to fix the air conditioning, he raised the rent to $1,300. Minerva is planning to pay this summer's electricity bill off in installments¹⁷ through next January.

She isn't optimistic California will pass cooling standards — yet. "I would like it very much, but I always think that money wins more than everything," she says.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

5 dwellers   

n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes. 城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They have transformed themselves into permanent city dwellers. 他们已成为永久的城市居民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 spiking   

n.尖峰形成v.加烈酒于( spike的现在分词 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• High spiking fever with chills is suggestive of a complicating pylephlebitis. 伴有寒战的高热，暗示合并门静脉炎。 来自辞典例句
• We could be spiking our own guns. 我们可能要遭到失败。 来自辞典例句

7 projections   

预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物

参考例句：

• Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
• The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。

8 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 tumor   

n.（肿）瘤，肿块(英)tumour

参考例句：

• He was died of a malignant tumor.他死于恶性肿瘤。
• The surgeons irradiated the tumor.外科医生用X射线照射那个肿瘤。

10 benign   

adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的

参考例句：

• The benign weather brought North America a bumper crop.温和的气候给北美带来大丰收。
• Martha is a benign old lady.玛莎是个仁慈的老妇人。

11 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

12 tenants   

n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。

13 circumvents   

n.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的名词复数 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行v.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的第三人称单数 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行

参考例句：

• It is a living, powerful river that easily circumvents all obstacles. 生活就是如此，强有力的激流才可以轻易的绕过所有的阻碍。 来自互联网

14 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

15 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

16 grill   

n.烤架，铁格子，烤肉；v.烧，烤，严加盘问

参考例句：

• Put it under the grill for a minute to brown the top.放在烤架下烤一分钟把上面烤成金黄色。
• I'll grill you some mutton.我来给你烤一些羊肉吃。

17 installments   

部分( installment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The first two installments were pretty close together in 1980. 第一次和节二次提款隔得很近，都是在1980年提的。
• You have an installments sales contract. 你已经订立了一份分期付款的买卖契约了。