Arguments
Five ingenious ways people could beat the heat without cranking the AC
Posted on 3 September 2024 by Guest Author
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons
Every summer brings a new spate of headlines about record-breaking heat – for good reason: 2023 was the hottest year on record, in keeping with the upward trend scientists have been clocking for decades.
With climate forecasts suggesting that heat waves will only become more frequent and severe in the future, it’s increasingly clear that the world needs new ways to adapt to heat – in addition to eliminating climate-warming pollution.
Heat waves pose a serious (and costly) public health risk, given that extreme heat can prompt heat exhaustion, dehydration, and heat stroke and can also worsen chronic conditions like cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Cranking up the collective AC isn’t the answer to this rising threat. Although AC is still necessary to protect people’s health in many circumstances, relying on air conditioning alone will become even less feasible than it is now for those who can’t afford higher electricity bills. What’s more, conventional air conditioning systems and units are major climate culprits, accounting for roughly 10% of the world’s electricity use and almost 4% of annual climate-warming emissions.
The good news is that people are working to find alternatives. From wrapping a bridge in tin foil to feeding zoo animals Popsicles and designating millions of dollars to a prize for developing affordable and climate-friendly cooling solutions, it’s safe to say people have been getting creative in the effort to beat the heat.
In honor of creative problem-solving everywhere, we rounded up a few intriguing solutions that could help communities adapt to a hotter world.
Retroreflective pavement to help cities of the future bounce heat back into space
In recent modeling research, scientists found that when outfitted with retroreflective materials – which reflect light back to its source, rather than scattering it in different directions – a city’s pavements and building walls can lower surface temperatures by up to 36 °F (20 °C), reduce surrounding air temperatures by 5°F (2.6 °C), and cool human skin by almost 1°F (0.55 °C). The idea is to direct sunlight away from the asphalt and back into the atmosphere, cooling the urban heat islands that plague modern cities.
Retroreflective materials are already widely used on road signs and markings. So one day, cities like Los Angeles, Madrid, Mumbai, and New York might deploy the technology to help keep residents cool.
Solutions you can wear
A Public Citizen report found that heat is responsible for as many as 170,000 work-related injuries annually. For outdoor workers in particular, clothing that actively blocks heat can be a critical first line of defense from heat-related illness.
So it’s encouraging that wearable cooling technology is a hot area of innovation, including vests that cool body temperature by absorbing water and releasing it slowly over time. Others have developed stickers that measure body temperature and polyester garments that reflect 90% of solar heat.
One intriguing standout? Clothing inspired by nature’s shade-providers, including a heat-tolerant species called the Saharan silver ant. These advanced textiles have pyramidlike structures embedded in the fabric to deflect sunlight, creating a cooling system you could one day wear – if the technology makes it to market.
Electricity-free cooling with nature-inspired materials (and more)
Inspired by the natural cooling properties of camel fur, researchers have developed innovative materials that could help keep food and medicine cool without the need for electricity. These futuristic – and for now, high-cost – materials mimic the insulating way camel fur traps cool air close to the body, preserving moisture in the body while blocking external heat even in the scorching desert sun. And that’s just one of the quirkier examples of promising electricity-free cooling solutions.
Other electricity-free cooling solutions that are already commercially available include cool roofs with reflective white paint, which bounces sunlight away from surfaces, and passive design strategy, which leverages natural light, ventilation, and insulation to keep buildings cool in summer.
Cooling cities with water features and wind corridors
Cities can incorporate natural elements like water and wind into their designs to create cooler, more livable urban spaces. Incorporating water features like fountains, lakes, and reflective pools into cityscapes can help cities beat the heat.
In addition, strategically designed wind corridors can increase airflow by helping bring cooler air from outside the city in to replace warm, stagnant air and increasing natural ventilation along specific routes. Plenty of U.S. cities have open space that helps foster cooler air already, such as New York’s Central Park and Dallas’ Klyde Warren Park – but researchers say the concept of wind corridors could be more purposefully embedded into future urban planning.
Getting back to our roots … with trees
Sometimes the best solutions are not the newest ones. Planting trees and other vegetation is still one of the most powerful defenses we have against rising temperatures.
Trees and green spaces help cool cities by providing shade, which can reduce the heat absorbed by buildings and streets. They also release water vapor through evapotranspiration, which cools the air. Plus, by replacing heat-absorbing surfaces with lush greenery, trees help combat the urban heat island effect, making cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Atlanta more comfortable.
Turning ideas into action for a cooler, more resilient future
As temperatures rise, so do the stakes for effective cooling solutions. But we’ve got ingenuity on our side, from biomimicry-inspired clothing and retroreflective pavements to nature-based cooling. Now we just need the discipline to put those big ideas into action to combat extreme heat, sustainably.
While I would suggest to everyone that they should be getting a personal body cooler if they can afford it, there are many in the world who can not; for them I have a cheap solution, namely using the wind chill factor. This is the lowering of the body temperature due to the passing flow of lower temperature air. To use the wind chill factor to keep cool on a hot, and potentially dangerous day, just cover your naked flesh with cold water and stand in front of a fan until chilly. If you have done it too long you will feel a cold sting even in the hottest countries (“Jack Frost”), so adjust the time in front of the fan you are using, which will vary from model to model.
With the death rates mounting due to record temperatures over record days this invention can save lives. Fans are both cheaper than air conditioning, and better for the environment.
Red Rose Andy:
You have obviously not endured the combination of very high heat and humidity that many people who live in tropical areas have to deal with. Even at night where I live in Florida when it is over 83oF with a dew point of 80 or higher no amount of fans will ever make you feel a cold sting. It is too hot for the human body to cool off. Arizona is worse than Florida. Scientists have documented fatal air temperatures where the heat index is so high that even in a hurricane wind in the shade humans cannot cool off and die from the heat.
I personally have spent many nights near the equator where it was extremely hot at night when we were soaked with sweat and had fans blowing directy on us, and that was in areas that are not the hottest in the world.
I do not need to mention that poor people cannot afford the fans or the electricity to run them you want to use.
Of course your simple ideas cannot be applied to farm animals which will all die from the heat. Over 700,000 livestock died recently in South Korea, a country that is not especially hot and has the money to use fans. Already crop yields have dropped worldwide because of heat and drought caused by climate change. Just look an Wyoming in the USA where drought has caused a drop in arable land. Think of how many cattle can be raised in the Sahara dessert.
Of course we can all put on our Rose Colored glasses and say everything looks fine until the cost of basic foodstuffs becomes too high for billions of people.
Energy is neither created nor destroyed; "true heat energy"--( not temperature) causes any material to be "hot" (temperature wise) based on the specific heat capacity of the hot material.
If the "heat energy" can be utilized in any other way then the temperature of the affected material will be reduced. For exampl, it may be thought that the brakes of an automobile slow or stop the automobile; actually the brakes cause the kinetic energy of the vehicle to be converted to heat (The brakes get hot!.) If that kinetic energy is utilized in another way--such as the electro motive force of a generato--then the energy of the vehicle's momentum is converted to electricity rather than heat. This emf will slow or stop the vehicle without the high temperature otherwise converted by traditional braking, e.g, in the case of a hybrid or electric vehicle, the energy is converted by the emf of generators which then charge the batteries.
The point here is that if the heat of, say asphal, can be converted into some productive use, then the asphalt will, necessarily, be cooler! The solar radiation does not need to be reflected back to the atmospher, if somehow the solar energy could be utilized in a creative way--say some version of a solar cell--then the energy could be converted into electricity! Another method to convert and utilize the "heat" of the asphalt would be by imbedding coils or heat pipes within the substrate of the asphal/road, create steam or other heat transfer method To be used to effectivly heat water, Freon or the like.Again, this would, necessarily, reduce the temperature of the asphalt roadway or concrete walkways.