Powering through the heat

Thank you to Anne Cloud with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Voice Over for the Planet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for narrating this edition of Talking Climate. 

Post-production and mix by John Crowley at Loudmouth Studio.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.talkingclimate.ca

Transcript

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Welcome to Talking Climate with Katherine Haeho. Each episode, we explore how climate change is affecting the people, places, and things we love, and what we can do to make a difference. From science to solutions and stories that inspire, you're in the right place for real talk about real change. This week we're talking about green energy, keeping the lights on, heat impacts on children, and how to play it cool. Let's dive in. Good news. Europe endured a succession of scorching heat waves this summer, spiking electricity demand across the grid. So how did the grid hold up? Great! Thanks to solar production and battery storage. Nuclear, coal, and gas-fired plants are very vulnerable to heat and drought because they require cooling water. This forced shutdowns like those at the Betsnow nuclear plant in Switzerland. But solar overperformed in these same conditions, closing the gap and providing 25% of power generation across the EU in June and July. Battery systems stored that energy and delivered it to the grid after sundown when demand was still high. Dr. Chris Roslow, a senior energy analyst at Ember, said battery storage is one of the clearest ways to make Europe's power system more resilient in hotter summers. No single kind of renewable energy can carry a grid through a summer like this one. They all perform differently under different conditions, which is why we need a mix of sources. Now, another news study has found that nearly half the children under 10 on this planet are now living through at least 20 days a year of dangerous heat attributable to climate change. The countries with the youngest populations are in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Africa, where humid heat is already at its worst. Why does this matter? Children's bodies heat up faster than ours, they sweat less efficiently, and they depend on adults to look out for their needs. Rosa Pietro Usti, the study's lead author, said poverty, inadequate housing, limited access to cooling, and overstretched healthcare systems leave many children with few ways to protect themselves from the heat. As I've written before, when people across the world are asked why they care about climate change, the number one answer is love for the next generation. This new study offers even more reason to care and act. What you can do. With more children facing dangerous heat, we need to do things differently on the fields and courts where kids play sports. My friend Laura Shifter helped launch Play It Cool after seeing heat illness affect young athletes firsthand, including her own children and players she coached. She realized that despite all the safety training coaches receive, many parents and coaches still don't know how to recognize or respond to heat illness. Play It Cool is trying to change that with three simple actions. Number one, speak up. Teach kids to tell an adult if they feel sick, notice symptoms in a teammate, or think the heat is becoming unsafe. Number two, sit out. Taking a break is a sign of strength. Number three, cool down. Get somewhere cool, remove extra equipment, and start cooling down immediately if someone shows signs of heat illness. Laura's hope is that speak up, sit out, cool down becomes as familiar to this generation as stop, drop, and roll is to ours. So this week, memorize those three steps and share them with a parent, coach, teacher, or young athlete in your life. Thanks for listening to Talking Climate, narrated by Ann Cloud. Post-production and mix by John Crowley at Loudmouth Studio. For more resources, links, and actions you can take, check out the full newsletter at www.talkingclimate.ca. Until next time, keep talking climate.