Peggy Shepard Op-Ed on the Impacts of Extreme Heat on Communities of Color

In case you missed it, Peggy Shepard wrote an Op-Ed published in today's New York Daily News explaining why communities of color, like East Harlem, are hit the hardest by extreme heat. Heatwaves, like the one we're currently enduring in New York City, are the deadliest impact of climate change, and communities of color experience both higher temperatures and more heat-related illnesses and deaths. Read the Op-Ed

We focused on East Harlem because the community experiences temperatures that are more than two degrees hotter than the city's average in August. And we are working to address a variety of issues in East Harlem, including extreme heat, with recommendations outlined in our East 125th Street Community Visioning Action Plan (download the PDF here).

In addition, you can get a better understanding of why there are such disproportionate impacts of extreme heat in Northern Manhattan - along with our recommendations on how to remedy this - by reading the report we recently released with the NRDC, Summer In The City: Improving Community Resilience To Extreme Summertime Heat In Northern Manhattan (download the PDF here). And you can learn more about the Heat, Health, & Equity work we are doing to address these heat-related issues here - along with useful resources to help you deal with this heat.