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Phoenix breaks heat record as city hits 110F for the 54th consecutive day
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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The important question is why put a city there?
Testament to mankind's arrogance
And the power of air conditioning
Follow-up question: why make that city a car-dependent hellhole of McMansion suburbs larping as a city, seemingly designed to be as energy-intensive as possible?
I'm not arguing for it, but as someone from Florida, I can understand why it's car-dependent. It is too hot to walk to a bus/tram stop, wait, get on a relatively freezing bus/tram with wet clothes, get off, walk in the sweltering heat, and arrive at your destination drenched in sweat to freeze in a/c again.
For mass transit to work, there would have to be lots of stops very near locations, high frequency of transport vehicles, and the culture would have to be okay with people being sweaty. Maybe people could travel with a change of clothes and a towel, but then locations would need to have changing rooms.
I think Americans are too used to the luxury of not being sweaty, so it would be hard to accept and use a mass transit system in really hot places.
I wonder if covering walking paths with solar panels would help?
Edit: also maybe zoning that allowed things to exist closer together instead of promoting car use
For one, the zoning should be altered to build everything close together and make walking more feasible. [(NINJA) EDIT:] Now I think about it, a number of buildings built before mechanised cooling in warmer climates were built with their ground floor entrance set back from the rest of the floors above, creating a covered, shaded walkway. Perhaps such a feature on hypothetical buildings in walkable areas in Arizona and New Mexico could work? [/edit]
For two, solar panels are but one option. Much easier would be to simply rig the place up with tarps over the streets to create shade. Hell, there's a town in Spain where those tarps are a local cultural phenomenon
I'm aware of the tarps, the country I live in had them and still has in some places but they have started to copy the car centric ideology (to my disdain)
I only suggested panels because they can become net negative and help offset the coal generation of electricity that's still common in a lot of places.
Also, for zoning, that's what I was thinking too, things built by as close as possible
It attracts older folks because dry heat feels good for aches and pains, arthritis, etc.
Yeah summer sucks but the spring, fall, and winter is incredibly mild with many using neither heat nor AC. Arguably heat generation is more wasteful in places with even moderate to harsh winters.
Phoenix sprung up because it's actually a pretty stable location. No wild fires. No earthquakes. No tornados, hurricanes, etc. Good hub to the east / west, too.
Fyi, in Phx you're using AC in Fall and Spring too. Quite common to hit 100F at some point in April and in October. It's so sprawling too all the asphalt and concrete turn the "heat island" effect into something more like a "heat continent"
Fair point — I live here but I shouldn't broadly include all of Spring and Fall but roughly a quarter-to-half of each depending on the year. Usually we don't go over 99 until May and we don't leave 100s until October (Mean).
If you've got decent insulation it's possible to regulate with some ventilation at night to make it through most of the day and barely any use of A/C. It's when the nights start staying hot from that heat island effect that just destroys us.
Honestly this heat wave just makes me want to live there even more.
If you like mosquitos in the desert that are only there because idiots have grass lawns that they dump water into, it's great.
I like being hot and I have severe allergies and asthma so deserts agree with me.
I'm just saying, there are other desert cities that are better than Phoenix because Phoenix folks love grass. Sante Fe is almost entirely xeriscaped, very few mosquitos.
Yeah that would be way more my speed. I have no interest in moving to the desert and having grass. That's fuckin crazy.