Some environmental professionals warn us that the time for focusing solely on climate mitigation – that is, preventing warming from happening – is behind us. Instead, they argue that cities need to begin shifting their efforts toward adaptation: responding to the impacts of climate change already happening in many parts of the country, and preparing for those that are inevitable given the current projections for rising temperatures. Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, there is still a 42% chance that we would overshoot our goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

Catastrophic heat waves are no longer outliers, but practically the norm. Urban areas are especially susceptible to dangerous heat waves due to a concept called the “urban heat island effect,” whereby urban areas become warmer than surrounding rural areas. In cities, dark roofs and asphalt absorb heat, and glass windows reflect sunlight onto the ground below. The lack of greenery that often categorizes cities also means less shade, and tall buildings block wind from reaching the sidewalks. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these heat islands can be 1-7ºF warmer during the day, and 2-5ºF warmer during the night than surrounding areas. 

Hundreds of millions of people already live in urban areas, and according to the Global Center for Adaptation, the urban population affected by heat will rise by 800% by 2050. Getting urban temperatures under control is an issue of equity, too, as the poorest and most vulnerable residents in cities often live in buildings with poorer ventilation or little greenery. 

Along with warning systems about heat and other public information campaigns, however, some cities are making architectural and design changes to improve resilience to heat. Here are a few ways cities are innovating and adapting to the effects of heat.

Medellín, Colombia

To combat the urban heat islands effect in Colombia’s second largest city — which is home to 2.5 million people — the government has focused on shade coverage. The Green Corridors (or “Corredores Verdes”) project began in 2017, whereby a network of 30 shaded routes was created connecting parks and other areas of interest across the city. The routes are composed of 12 waterways and 18 roads, providing cooler cycling and walking paths for citizens. To construct the Green Corridors, citizens were trained by the Joaquin Antonio Uribe Botanical Garden to become gardeners and planted 8,800 trees and palms, as well as 90,000 other species of tropical plants to shade the areas. 

Green spaces are proven to be effective at cooling cities; the UN Environment Programme states that urban parks have the ability to reduce ambient daytime temperatures in cities by about 1ºC. This cooling phenomenon is evident in the Green Corridors, where temperatures have come down by about 5.5ºF and are expected to fall by several more degrees over the coming decades. The corridors have also improved air quality and overall biodiversity in the city. 

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is hot — and, as runaway climate change progresses, it’s only going to get hotter. By the middle of the century, Los Angeles could face 22 days of extreme heat every year, according to a 2015 study. 

Dark surfaces like asphalt are a major contributor to the urban heat island effect, as they absorb the sun’s rays — 80-95% in the case of dark asphalt — and emit them as heat. As part of a goal from former mayor Eric Garcetti to cool the city by 1.67ºC in 20 years, LA began a campaign to replace these dark surfaces with light ones. The city started experimenting with painting streets white with a CoolSeal coating in 2019, which was originally designed by the military to cool down spy planes and keep them hidden from satellite infrared cameras. As of August 2022, the GAF Cool Community Project finished painting 1 million square feet of roads, playgrounds, and parking lots in the Pacoima neighborhood of LA — some with murals and artwork — with a  coating called Invisible Shade. 

Streets that have been painted have measured 10-15 degrees cooler on average than those that are unpainted, decreasing the need for air conditioning in nearby buildings. However, because the heat reflects off of the white surface rather than being absorbed, some argue that people walking on the streets will actually experience greater heat than before, even if the surrounding area is cooler.

New York, New York 

Since its launch in 2009, New York’s CoolRoofs project has provided paid training and work experience to New Yorkers to cover more than 10 million square feet of rooftops with a reflective covering in an effort to combat the urban heat island effect. The coating used has a high solar reflectivity — the degree to which the roof reflects visible infrared and ultraviolet rays — and infrared emissivity, which means its ability to release absorbed heat.

On an average summer day in New York, black asphalt rooftops can reach 190ºF, which is 90ºF more than the surrounding air. As a part of the city’s goal to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, the project works to keep buildings cool and reduce the need for air conditioning. Some of these cool rooftops can reduce internal building temperature by 30%. The city estimates that for every 2,500 square feet of reflective roofs, NYC’s overall carbon emissions can be reduced by one ton. No-cost installations are available for non-profits, low-income housing, schools, hospitals, and other organizations. 

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The UAE is often known for its very high temperatures, which can reach over 120ºF, making air conditioning a necessity. In an effort to combat this heat, the city has turned to the old Arabic architectural concept of Mashrabiya, which uses latticed screens to diffuse light as it enters buildings. The 25-story Al Bahar Towers utilize this technique — the facade is covered in shades controlled by a computer, which open and close depending on the position of the sun. These “responsive facades” are coated in fiberglass and arranged in repeating patterns around the building and automatically shut off after the sun goes down. CNN reports that this method means that the buildings can use less artificial lighting and 50% less air conditioning.

Athens, Greece

Like Abu Dhabi, Greece is also turning to ancient architecture for solutions. The city of Athens plans on renovating a historic aqueduct that dates all the way back to the Roman era, with the goal of irrigating the city’s green corridors. The ancient aqueduct began in 125 AD under the emperor Hadrian and was the main source of water for the city for over a millennium, although it’s no longer used for this purpose. This warm, Mediterranean city — which has very little green space — plans to use this underground water to green areas throughout the city and help reduce average daily temperatures. 

The post How Cities Are Adapting to Climate Change appeared first on EcoWatch.

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of Record High. I’m Siri Chilukuri, a reporting fellow at Grist. Today, we’re covering the dire impact of extreme heat on livestock and the agricultural industry — as well as a potential solution some farmers are trying to save their herds. 

Livestock like cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and others are susceptible to the same types of heat-related illnesses as humans, including dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. As temperatures have climbed in recent years, so too have their impacts on the country’s vast livestock populations. Last summer in Kansas, a heat wave killed over 2,000 cattle when temperatures hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit. This summer, hundreds of cattle have died in Iowa in late July because of extreme heat and humidity. 

By mid-century, America’s heartland could form part of an “extreme heat belt” that stretches from Texas to Chicago, up the central United States, experiencing heat index conditions of 125 degrees F or more, according to the nonprofit climate research organization First Street Foundation. Scientists also estimate that losses from livestock heat-stress could reach almost $40 billion per year by the end of the century. Add worsening drought conditions and its impact on food availability, and livestock and the farms that own them have a difficult stretch ahead.

Farmers are now searching for solutions on how to keep their animals safe. One such method is something known as silvopasture, which incorporates trees — often harvestable fruit or nut trees — and grazing on the same land, Grist contributor John McCracken reports today. 

Shade during extreme heat is crucial to keeping core body temperatures low enough to maintain vital systems. This is as true for livestock as it is for humans. For beef and dairy cows, of which there are 89.3 million in the U.S., ideal body temperatures range from 44 to 77 degrees F, according to the Department of Agriculture, or USDA. Above those, heat stress causes cattle to produce less milk and decreases their fertility.

In Missouri, farmer Josh Payne is introducing shade in the form of chestnut trees, planting 600 of them across the same fields his cattle graze. The trees are a long-term solution and will take time to reach their full shading potential, so in the meantime, Payne is using mobile shades to protect his animals. But he’s counting on the trees to protect his farm and animals in the long run — both from extreme heat and as a way to help counter climate change. 

Silvopasture can improve soil health and increase a field’s uptake of carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. An estimate from the nonprofit climate solutions organization Project Drawdown predicts that the method could sequester five to 10 times more carbon dioxide than a pasture without trees.

A USDA survey from 2017 showed that only 1.5 percent of U.S. farmers practice any kind of agroecology, the ancient regenerative farming movement that includes silvopasture. In Illinois, the nonprofit Savanna Institute has been funding projects to help farmers better understand how to do silvopasture more effectively, and uses similar methods to Payne’s, notably planting chestnut trees. 

As McCracken writes, “Planting trees in a field seems almost too simple as a way to keep livestock safe and healthy in a hotter world.” But researchers know better, he notes.  Silvopasture is complicated, as it requires a delicate balance between planted trees, natural forests and brush, and livestock. But as farmers grapple with worsening extreme heat, it can be successful because of its flexibility. 

“Silvopastures are not a silver bullet, but at this point, I don’t think we have any silver bullets anymore,” Ashley Conway-Anderson, a researcher at the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry, told McCracken for Grist.

By The Numbers

A recent study in the journal The Lancet examined the economic damage heat stress will have on cattle under various climate scenarios. The animals comprise a key part of the agricultural sector, accounting for 17 percent of industry revenues in 2022, according to the USDA.

Data Visualization by Clayton Aldern

What We’re Reading This Week

A loneliness epidemic is causing heat waves to be more deadly: Americans are now more socially isolated than ever before, with only 3 in 10 people knowing their neighbors. In a crisis, though, neighbors and friends can be the first line of defense to help. As this summer’s record-breaking heat continues, my colleague Akielly Hu looks into how isolation and extreme heat are killing people, and some possible solutions that cities are taking to tackle the issue. 

Read more

Arizona declares extreme heat emergency: Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona declared a state of emergency on Friday, due to the state’s sky-high temperatures. In Phoenix, the city’s longest-lasting heat wave spanned the entire month of July. The declaration will free up funding from the state for cities and municipalities to tackle the issue of extreme heat, Jessica Boehm reported for Axios. Additionally, as my colleague Zoya Teirstein reported last week, extreme heat has inundated the city’s emergency rooms, with people experiencing burns from falling on the sidewalk, severe dehydration, and other heat-related illnesses

Read more 

A long-lasting marine heat wave is endangering ocean ecosystems: 

Starting in 2013, a phenomenon known as “the Blob” formed in the northern Pacific Ocean, with ocean temperatures increasing by 4 to 10 degrees F. It was the largest and longest marine heat wave on record and caused havoc for fisheries. Salmon, cod, crabs, and many other species declined as temperatures rose, causing billions of dollars in economic damage. As my Grist colleague Max Graham reports, marine heat waves such as the Blob are becoming more common and more severe, endangering not only marine life, but also the coastal communities reliant on fisheries for their livelihoods.

Read more 

Extreme heat could threaten unborn children: Researchers have long known the serious toll that extreme heat can have on the human body, but until recently, two groups remained largely understudied: unborn children and pregnant people. New research finds connections between scorching temperatures and a slate of health concerns for these vulnerable populations, from preterm birth to low-birth weight to other conditions, like stillbirths. One study from 2022 found that for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees F) of warming, there was a 17 percent increase in fetal stress, usually an increased heart rate or decreased blood flow, Grace Browne reports for WIRED.

Read more 

Does extreme heat spell the end of the European summer vacation?:  Record-breaking heat in Europe this summer has been interfering with travelers’ plans, Ceylan Yeginsu reports for the New York Times. Yeginsu herself experienced 113 degree F temperatures when attempting to vacation in Turkey, and travelers in Italy and Greece have also faced scorching heat. This summer marks the latest in a few years of hotter summers for the continent, with last year’s heat wave killing an estimated 61,000 people, according to a study I reported on earlier this summer.

Read more 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Protecting livestock from heat on Aug 15, 2023.

This story is part of Record High, a Grist series examining extreme heat and its impact on how — and where — we live.

Josh Payne planted chestnut trees six years ago. The rows of nut trees haven’t fully matured yet, but he’s banking on the future shade they’ll provide to shield his animals from sweltering heat. 

“We started with that largely because we want to get out of commodity agriculture,” Payne said. “But also because I’m worried that in our area it’s getting hotter and drier.” 

Payne operates a 300-acre regenerative farm in Concordia, Missouri, an hour outside of Kansas City, where he raises sheep and cattle. By planting 600 chestnut trees, he is bracing for a future of extreme heat by adapting an agriculture practice known as silvopasture. Rooted in preindustrial farming, the method involves intentionally incorporating trees on the same land used by grazing livestock, in a way that benefits both. Researchers and farmers say silvopastures help improve the health of the soil by protecting it from wind and water, while encouraging an increase of nutrient-rich organic matter, like cow manure, onto the land. 

It also provides much-needed natural shade for livestock. According to the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit climate change research group, chunks of America’s heartland — including Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri — could experience at least one day with temperatures of 125 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter by 2053. 

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When temperatures rise above 80 degrees, the heat begins to take a toll on animals, which will try to cool themselves down by sweating, panting, and seeking shelter. If they are unable to lower their body temperature, the animals will breathe harder, becoming increasingly fatigued, and eventually die.

Research shows that as the planet warms, livestock deaths will increase. Last year, when temperatures exceeded 100 degrees in southwestern Kansas, roughly 2,000 cattle in the state died; the Kansas Livestock Association estimated each cow to be worth $2,000 if they were market-ready, equaling an economic loss of $4 million. And so far this year, the trend is continuing, with livestock producers in Iowa already reporting hundreds of cattle deaths in the latter half of July alone.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, the ideal temperature for beef and dairy cows ranges between 44 and 77 degrees. Above those temperatures, heat stress causes cattle to produce less milk and decreases their fertility. 

Payne’s family farm is a microcosm of American agriculture’s monocrop past and its changing future. He inherited the land from his grandfather, who spent decades tearing trees out of the ground in favor of growing corn and soybeans, using chemical fertilizers for years. His family was hardly alone in doing so: Along with cattle, corn and soybeans make up the top three farm products in the U.S., according to the industry group American Farm Bureau.

Missouri produced nearly $94 billion of agricultural products last year — an economic driver under threat from climate change, which has brought more intense floods and droughts to the state. Last year, the Mississippi River, which flows through Missouri, reached severely low water levels in the face of a historic drought, stopping the barge travel that supports the country’s agricultural economy. When Payne spoke to Grist in July, he was hoping for rain to come soon amid the humid 98-degree heat.

To prevent harm to his 600 sheep and 25 cattle, Payne currently uses portable structures to provide artificial shade while he waits for his chestnut trees to mature. This technology acts like a big umbrella that can be moved as a herd moves, but it doesn’t protect animals from reflected heat and sun rays from the sides the same way a tree canopy can. 

In addition to the shade his future nut trees will provide, they’ll be a source of income, too. Payne said it’s likely he’ll make more money on 30 acres of chestnut trees than he would on 300 acres of row crops like corn.

“We’re rethinking the farm process based on climate predictions,” Payne said. “Here we are planting trees in our pastures, so that in 10 to twelve years we can have dappled shade.”

Planting trees in a field seems almost too simple as a way to keep livestock safe and healthy in a hotter world. But Ashley Conway-Anderson, a researcher at the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry, knows better. She said of all the USDA’s land management systems used to blend forest and livestock, silvopasture is the most complicated, as it requires a delicate balance between planted trees, natural forests and brush, and livestock. 

But she will admit the practice is common sense. 

“Trees provide shade. That’s the place where you want to be when it’s hot, right?” Conway-Anderson said. “The idea behind a well-managed silvopasture is your taking that shade and dispersing it across the field.”

Conway-Anderson said farmers are adapting their land to silvopastures at a time when agriculture as a whole is wrestling with its role in climate change. The sector accounts for roughly 11 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the USDA. 

In addition to mitigating extreme heat risks and promoting soil health, trees planted on pastures and fields act as a way to sequester carbon out of the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. Project Drawdown, a nonprofit known for its expansive list of practices to prevent further climate harm, estimates that silvopastures could sequester five to 10 times the amount of carbon than a treeless pasture of the same size. 

Notably, however, while carbon accounts for the main source of human-caused greenhouse gasses, agriculture’s role in a warming planet largely comes from methane produced by livestock and their waste. But silvopastures help combat that — animals that move around to graze end up trampling on their waste, working it into the soil where it’s repurposed as a natural fertilizer; in contrast, most farm operations pool all livestock waste together in large ponds from which a concentration of methane is then emitted. 

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Conway-Anderson said agroforestry and silvopastures aren’t always a one-size-fits-all solution. She said farmers are having to “get big or get out,” and aren’t always able to invest the time or money in planting trees or revitalizing woodland they might already own. 

“We’ve created an economic system where we have incentivized and subsided specific crops, products, and ways of doing farming and agriculture that has really sucked the air out of the room for smaller, diversified operations,” she said.

On the other hand, she said silvopasture practices can be successful because of their flexibility. Farmers can use trees they already own. They can graze goats, pigs, sheep, cattle, and more under the shade of nut trees, fruit trees, and trees whose trimmings and branches can be harvested and sold to the lumber industry. 

“Silvopastures are not a silver bullet,” Conway-Anderson said. “But at this point, I don’t think we have any silver bullets anymore.”

At Hidden Blossom Farms in Union, Connecticut, a rural town located near the border of Massachusetts, Joe Orefice has been methodical in his implementation of silvopasture. 

Orefice, a Yale School of the Environment professor of agroforestry, raises tunnel-grown vegetables, figs, and roughly two dozen grass-fed cows that enjoy the shade of apple trees on a 134-acre farm. He said there are currently only two acres of fruit trees the cattle use for cover. 

Despite the small acreage, Orefice said, he has focused primarily on soil health, a key aspect of silvopasture management. Without properly maintained grasses and soil, trees won’t grow, and there wouldn’t be any shade for his cattle. 

“You need to manage the grasses so young trees will grow,” he said. 

In addition to land management and soil health, Orefice said the animal welfare benefits of shade were top of mind. 

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“I don’t want to eat a big meal if I’m sitting in the sun on a hot and humid day, and we want our cattle to eat big meals because that’s how they grow or keep their calves healthy by producing milk,” he said. 

Orefice said a common misconception about silvopasture leads to farmers just taking livestock they own and putting them in the forest without any additional management. He said this can damage soil when livestock, especially pigs, aren’t routinely moved. While it might seem counterintuitive, he said one of the first steps of creating a proper silvopasture from an existing forest is to trim trees and till the soil.

While he only raises 25 beef cattle, Orefice said he’s seen larger farms begin to implement silvopasture practices. He said raising tree crops, like nuts or figs and other fruits, is a boon for farmers who switch to more diversified crop operations versus large, concentrated animal-feeding operations. 

For example, Orefice noted that if farmers in the Corn Belt, who are facing continued droughts and an extreme heat future, switched to tree crops, the upfront costs might be expensive and hard. Still, they would eventually make more money on tree crops than on corn or soybeans. The problem, as he sees it, is there is no incentive or safety net for farmers to begin to adopt these practices at the same rate as they have mainstream ones. 

“The question isn’t really, ‘Is silvopasture scalable?’” Orefice said. “The question is, ‘Does our economy allow us to scale pasture-based livestock production?’” 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Livestock are dying in the heat. This little-known farming method offers a solution. on Aug 15, 2023.