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Deceleration is assembling a panel of public health and community experts to lead a conversation about the challenges of climate-driven extreme heat.
Greg Harman
Deceleration is convening a ‘Heat Emergency’ forum on April 17, 2024, to highlight public health dangers of extended and extreme temperatures being driven primarily through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation around the world. It will open with a panel discussion with public health experts and conclude with facilitated community conversation on appropriate community-led and governmental solutions capable of helping reduce suffering and arresting the climate crisis.
Much of the energy behind the event formation was sparked by Deceleration’s Regeneration contributors Ceiba Ili and Ariana Ramirez.
“Last summer’s extreme heat and fires showed the need for us to act and think more collectively on the issue of our local environment,” said Ili.
“We have to have those tough conversations, educate ourselves, and connect with organizations that are already doing amazing work that we may not know about.”
A planned hour-long panel about the heat emergency will be followed by facilitated community dialogue with the panelists.
Panelists include:
- Rose Jones, Medical Anthropologist
- Lotus Rios, Harlandale Sunshine Pantry
- Adelita Cantu, UTHSC-SA, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
There will be demos and tabling by resilience and mutual aid organizations, individuals, and agencies throughout the event.
“Intense heat events are becoming more frequent due to climate change,” said Adelita Cantu, an associate professor at UTHSC-SA who specializes in community health nursing and clinical nursing research.
“Heat-related illness can be fatal to all people, no matter one’s age or fitness level,” Cantu said. “It is critical that health care professionals inform everyone of the health dangers of intense heat and how to protect yourself and your family.”
Jones, a medical anthropologist who joined Deceleration last September for a podcast about extreme heat, said:
“As last summer’s record-breaking temperatures were captivating and consuming public attention, I witnessed extreme heat transition from an invisible public health crisis into a full blown humanitarian crisis.”
“Heat is now the staging grounds for the violation of basic human rights and the most vulnerable and marginalized groups are the collateral,” Jones said. “From construction workers to the incarcerated, the unhomed to migrants along the U.S.-Mexico Border, extreme heat is a crisis of humanity and I can no longer stand on the sidelines.”
Lotus Rios has been active in mutual aid efforts on San Antonio’s Southside, actively responding to the immediate needs of her community via the Harlandale Sunshine Pantry. She has been present at many actions intended to shine a light on the death of Albert Garcia, an unhoused neighbor who lost his feet and part of one leg while living unhoused during Winter Storm Uri. Garcia, who left a group home alleging abuse last year, was one of dozens of unhoused neighbors who died during the heat of the 2023 summer.
The event’s Facebook description reads:
San Antonio faces an extreme heat crisis! Last year was the hottest year in at least 125,000 years. The last 10 years have all ranked among the hottest years on record. This excess heat is being primarily driven by planet-warming gases from industry and concurrent deforestation at home and around the world. This dangerous trend continues in 2024, breaking heat records through winter and into spring. We are in a climate emergency. Elected leaders aren't doing enough to prepare and protect our communities. Journalists aren’t communicating the story of climate breakdown. In Bexar County, our health agencies aren’t even keeping track of who is dying from the heat. Join us for a community forum to discuss local heat impacts, understand policies that could help keep our communities safe, network and support mutual aid efforts, and develop campaigns to navigate Earth’s changes. We will hear from speakers who are experts in the fields of heat and public health and engaged in reducing the suffering this heat is causing. We will engage with heat preparation kits and connect with residents actively addressing our shared climate challenges. We can save lives and restore our natural systems that keep our planet in balance.
Spanish-language translation will be available.
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