Advocate for Heat Resilience and Mitigation
Health professionals can play a crucial role in advocating for extreme heat mitigation by highlighting both the immediate and long-term health impacts of extreme heat. They can push for infrastructure improvements like public cooling centers and urban greening initiatives, support policy changes for comprehensive heat action plans and climate change mitigation, and engage in research and data collection to inform public health strategies and policies.
Resources to advocate for extreme heat solutions:
Extreme Heat Policy Sprint by Federation of American Scientists: Initiative to accelerate experts’ high-impact policy recommendations to comprehensively address the extreme heat
Smart Surfaces: APHA is collaborating with the Smart Surfaces Coalition on the Cities for Smart Surfaces project, bringing together experts in public health, data analytics, environmental justice, energy efficiency and climate policy to assist 10 cities in transforming their built environments.
OSHA’s Proposed Rulemaking for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work: Once the comment period begins, health professionals can provide comments into how heat exposure affects health, ensuring that regulations adequately protect vulnerable populations from heat-related illnesses and deaths.
C40 Climate Budgeting Program: a guide for cities to promote successful implementation of climate policy, including heat resilience, through budgeting mechanisms.
C40 Cool Cities Network: a comprehensive policy guide to heat adaptation at the city level.
America Is All In: Advancing U.S. climate policy under federal policy rollbacks
Climate Opportunity Map: Tool detailing the wide-ranging benefits for climate-smart policies.
Climate for Health Ambassador Training: a free training from EcoAmerica empowering health professionals to take action on climate change
Center for American Progress: Report on policy changes needed to protect children from extreme heat.