I envision the following material and set of pedagogical activities as part of a course I am tentatively calling Heat in the Anthropocene: Climate Imbalance, Health, Justice. 

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will:

• Define and contextualize global warming, climate change, extreme heat, heat islands, heat vulnerability, environmental health, and extreme heat policy.

• Identify and discuss the ethical, economic, political, and health implications of warming temperatures, climate justice concerns, environmental racism, and environmental determinants of health.

• Reflect critically on and creatively engage the historical and contemporary efforts to mitigate urban heat concerns locally and globally.

Week I and II - Introduction/Lecture

Among the multiple concerns centered on global climate change and climate justice, heat due to rising temperature poses a significant threat to our cities, livelihoods, and that of more-than-human others. While we often hear about global warming as an issue of concern in today’s global environmental change, we rarely examine what such phrasing translates to or looks like in our local municipalities/cities.

Ocean temperatures have risen worldwide, and so have atmospheric temperatures on land in many major cities. Temperature changes have been recorded for almost two centuries, showing consistent rise in global temperatures especially in the last 40-50 years. Not surprisingly, the last 40-50 years have been decades of rapid globalization, acceleration of markets, and vast levels of consumption of energy and other resources around the globe, leading to significant increase in global climate emissions from fossil fuels.

Though we tend to think of global warming, climate change, and environmental shifts in larger spatial and social scales, we rarely reflect on how such phenomena manifest and shape local and more minor social scales at the level of the community, the family unit, or even the day -to day practices of individuals. Global Warming and climate change can be difficult to perceive, posing challenges for many to grapple with our collective consequences. See what anthropologist Adam Fleishmann says in his piece entitled, How To Make Climate Change Feel Real.

One way to make such global environmental change tangible and cultivate an understanding of its many forms of impact is to learn about and think about heat. Rising temperatures due to global warming have become very concerning worldwide, especially in urban centers. City officials have identified heat as one of the main threats in Philadelphia due to climate change.

Extreme heat, which refers to hotter and more humid weather periods than usual, can create urban and suburban heat islands, leading to heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke and other potentially deadly illnesses, especially during summer months. Extreme urban heat has become one of the top public health concerns in the United States. Heat-related deaths reached new heights in 2021-2022, two of the hottest years in the United States.

Like many major cities around the world, Philadelphia faces heat vulnerability and risks that are not equally distributed, affecting some sectors of the population more than others. Concrete exposed to the sun exacerbates high temperatures and their effects in/on the city. This year, Philadelphia hit a record 90 degrees in April instead of July, when temperatures usually tend to be that high.

This map and a few others are available here. As the map above and others have shown, low-income residents and residents of color tend to live in hotter areas of the city, thus increasing their heat vulnerability to heat-related illnesses. While preliminary studies and plans have been set into motion to mitigate such harmful effects, they have not been implemented fast enough, and significant changes have yet to be seen.

To understand such superheated environments, heat disparities, and climate justice concerns, it's essential to study the history of environmental justice and environmental racism, as well as environmental determinants of health vis-à-vis the intensification of heat.

For more information and to better understand the heat vulnerability in Philadelphia, I encourage you to explore the Philadelphia Heat Vulnerability Index created by the Department of Public Health and The City of Philadelphia, Office of Sustainability.

Short Writing Exercises and Discussion Activities

We begin this lesson with a sequence of three activities that are meant to ease the students into the topic, have them tap into the wealth of knowledge they already carry with them, and observe and obtain new knowledge through the exchange of ideas.

Activity 1: Brainstorm

Using a flashcard, write down all the ways in which heat manifests at the local, smaller scale level in the daily lives of individuals. Thinks of the ways heat affects individuals, their immediate environments, as well as their health, well-being, livelihoods, ability to move around the city. Also, think of the sorts of activities that people do that produce heat. What individuals are the most vulnerable or affected by heat in our cities?

Activity 2: Think-Pair-Share and Listen.

Find a partner; It can be the person next to you. Share and compare answers to the questions above. Take turns actively listening to one another. 

Activity 3: Form group of four students and Synthesize.

Once you have shared your responses in pairs and have identified another two students to form a group of four, complete the following tasks:

• Generate a list of how heat affects individuals and their immediate environments.

• Build a second list of human activities that generate the most heat. 

• Compare and contrast differences and similarities as you build this list. We will compare the information you generate and report back to the entire class. Also, notice what were some of the surprising sources that generate A LOT of heat (we will come back to this question).

Week III and IV – Interactive Lectures Examining and Discussing Foundational Concepts

Environmental Health

• A field that studies the relationship between humans and their environments

• Environments influence humans, human health

• Our Environment is Affecting our Health 

• But, Humans also influence environments

• Environmental health problems may disturb how the body works

Sources of Environmental Health Problems:

• Air pollution – a combination of natural and man-made substance o (i.e., exhausts, flame-retardants in materials)

• Lead (i.e., old paint, contaminated water and soils)

• Chemicals, pesticides

• New Material Hazards  o (i.e., electronic waste, nanoparticles, microplastics) • Poor water quality/safety

• Old infrastructure

• Underfunded social environments (i.e., lack of access to healthcare)

• Microbes, emerging infectious diseases

• Climate Change and natural disasters (i.e., extreme weather events, heat stress)

Environmental Health Problems and Protection

• social 

• ethical

• economic

• highly political

• Rooted in relations of injustice (i.e., environmental racism)

Environmental Racism

• ongoing form of racism

• racial discrimination in environmental policy making…the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities (Benjamin Chavis 1982)

• impacts the health of communities in poor environments

• power differential in distribution of risks and negative environmental externalities (pollution)

• uneven distribution of risks and negative environmental externalities create different outcomes in health and people’s livelihoods

Environmental Determinants of Health

• complex and dynamic interaction between environmental determinants and health outcomes 

• factors that influence human health

• can lead to chronic and often irreversible health conditions

• impact one’s mental health and well-being

• environmental determinants include 

• the physical, chemical and biological factors

• having access to green spaces

• social factors 

• education, employment, income, racial segregation, 

• behavior dimensions- 

• alcohol consumption, nutrition, physical activity, and smoking habits (Salgado et al. 2020)

In-class Engaged Reading Stations and Rapid Summarizations.

In this next activity, ou will be assigned a station and specific in-class that covers distinct angles on/about global warming, climate change, heat islands, heat vulnerability, and extreme heat policy. You are tasked to become a content expert on a heat related topic. Once you arrive to your station, spend 15-20 minutes examining one of the articles at your station.

Please use the rapid reading assessment method we employed in class and other reading strategies to get the gist of your assigned article so that you can report back and share in small groups and to the class. 

We will run this activity using the jigsaw puzzle template to group and re-group students to learn and exchange different content on heat. Pay attention to how heat is being experienced and dealt with in other communities in the US and other places around the world. Submit a complete summary of your assigned article using course guidelines on Blackboard.

• Feeling the Heat

• Mapping urban Heat Islands

• Globally unequal effect of extreme heat on economic growth

• Ocean Heat Wave

• Heat Stress and Labor Productivity

• Global projections of heat exposure of older adults

• Heat Waves and Air Travel

• Global groundwater warming due to climate change

• Heat Crisis is a Housing Crisis

• Global Warming’s Missing Heat

• Gas Emissions and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change under the Paris Agreement

• The Ecology of Climate Change and Infectious Diseases

• Persistent Urban Heat

• Canines and Heat Detection

• Well Beyond the U.S., Heat and Climate Extremes are Hitting Billions

• Arctic Meltwater and Heat Waves

• An Unhealthy Climate

• Extreme Heat in Developing Cities

Week V - Incalescent Shock and Climate Justice.

Heat exposure can be especially detrimental to older people and those with chronic disease, creating adverse health impacts. One surprising way current human activity is creating extreme heat is through the use of our electronic devices and the management and storage of data.

Digital activity (i.e., computer use, phone use, Instagram, Facebook, online shopping, etc.) and the cloud infrastructure that sustains if requires a lot of cooling. This week, we will examine in depth anthropologist Steven Gonzalez Monserrate’s analysis in his article entitled, Thermotemporalities, thermomasculinities: Uptime, downtime, and server heat in the digital Anthropocene.

Writing Activity

1. How are people mitigating heat locally and around the world? In what ways does the content from your assigned articles intersect with ideas of climate and environmental justice? Use the following definition to create your response:

Environmental justice embraces the principle that all people and communities have a right to equal protection and equal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. ... Today, zip code is still the most potent predictor of an individual’s health and well-being. ... Individuals who physically live on the “wrong side of the tracks” are subjected to elevated environmental health threats and more than their fair share of preventable diseases. Still, too many people and communities have the “wrong complexion for protection.” Reducing environmental, health, economic and racial disparities is a major priority of the Environmental Justice Movement.

2. Think about the foundational concepts we learned about in Part III above. Offer an analytical summary of your assigned reading in Part IV by putting the main arguments from that article into conversation with 2-3 foundational concepts. 

Week VI – Changing the Narrative and Course of Heat, Community-Based Action, and Additional Resources:

Field-site visit around Philadelphia: The Nature conservancy in Pennsylvania offers the following map of Philadelphia Urban Heat and Tree Prioritization. There is a great need to expand Philadelphia’s Shade Coverage  as a way to mitigate the negative effects of heat throughout various hotspots in the city. The Philly Tree Plan, released in 2023, is the City of Philadelphia’s first-ever urban-forest 10-year strategy to grow and protect the city’s canopy. Such urban reforestation will be part of the strengthening of the city’s infrastructure to provide environmental benefits to Philadelphians. Philadelphia’s Street Tree Planting Map hosted by Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS). PHS sponsors various tree planting programs along with other opportunities to get involved.

• Preparing for Extreme Heat

• Heat Health Emergency

• Code Red – Philly Residents

• UPenn’s Living with Extreme Heat – Our Shared Future