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The American West is figuring out how to keep cool
From planting trees to painting streets white, US cities are fighting extreme heat.
"If cities are not painting a complete picture of heat — how chronic it is, and its disparate impacts on the ground — we're not going to be able to fully protect residents, and we could end up exacerbating existing social and environmental injustices," says co-author Emma French, a doctoral student in urban planning at University College of Los Angeles. In 2022, 60 volunteers measured the morning, afternoon and evening temperatures across Clark County, where Las Vegas sits, as part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-funded heat mapping study. "Just a couple of years ago, very few cities were talking about preparing for rising temperatures, so it's an important step that heat is becoming a larger part of the conversation," says V. Kelly Turner, professor of urban planning and co-director of the University of California's Los Angeles Luskin Centre for Innovation.
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