Hundreds of people who died during a historic heat wave in British Columbia last summer died in homes unsuitable for temperatures that reached a high of 30 or more for days, according to a report by the British Columbia Judicial Service this month.
It was hot outside, but it was often much hotter inside, with tragic consequences.
Of the 619 heat-related deaths, 98% occurred indoors, according to a judicial review.
Only one percent of the victims had air conditioners turned on at the time.
But a year later, experts warn that residents and politicians should think beyond air conditioning as the predominant solution to risks, as climate change fuels heat waves, which scientists say are getting hotter and more frequent.
“What I’m worried about is that we’re talking about mechanical ventilation as this common measure for all buildings, and that’s extremely problematic if that’s what we end up doing,” said Adam Risanek, an assistant professor of ecosystems at the University of the UK. Colombia. school of architecture.
“We will get used to this air-conditioned society,” with the windows closed all year round, said Risanek, director of the university’s building solutions research group.
Alternative answers can be found in how buildings and cities are designed, landscaped and even colored, as brighter surfaces reflect more than solar energy, he said.
Two-thirds of those killed in the extreme heat last summer were 70 or older, more than half lived alone and many lived with chronic illnesses.
Ryansek said it was important to ensure that such vulnerable people had access to air conditioning when temperatures became dangerously high.
But many sources of overheating in buildings stem from design and performance, and focusing on air conditioning ignores proven solutions, he said.
Urban planners and the construction industry need to accept lighter materials for buildings and even paved roads, he said, in addition to adding shading to the exterior of buildings.
“In the heat, a huge part of the need for cooling comes from solar energy, which comes from the outside of the building. Let’s put that aside.
Alex Boston, who works at the coroner’s review panel, said “major vulnerabilities” to hazardous heat are growing in British Columbia and across the country as a result of demographic change and the way homes and communities are built.
The number of people over the age of 65 and people living alone is increasing, and both of these characteristics increase the risk during extreme heat, said Boston, executive director of the Renewable Cities Program at Simon Fraser University.
“On top of that, single older people have chronic illnesses, and on top of that, there are adults who have some form of material or social deprivation,” he said.
“It could be income, it could be the nature of their home and the neighborhood in which they live, that (can) have an inadequate tree crown. All of these factors come together and we need to work on many of them at once. ”
Failure to ensure that buildings are surrounded by trees to provide shade and evaporative cooling would mean shooting in the foot in terms of energy load and the need to cool the building in the future, Ryansek said, calling for “very healthy “Requirements for vegetation and landscaping to mitigate extreme heat.
Metro Vancouver aims to increase its urban wood cover to 40% by 2050, compared to an average of 32% in the region, although a 2019 report notes that the existing canopy is shrinking due to urban development. The goal of the city of Vancouver, in particular, is to increase the overhang from 18 to 22 percent.
Boston said there are significant side effects to many of the measures to improve heat resistance, such as restoring urban tree canopies.
Trees and vegetation help reduce the risk of flooding, he said, and neighborhood parks serve as social hubs that can ease social isolation and foster a sense of community.
“We have complex problems, and if we look at just one isolated component, we won’t get the most out of solving those problems in an integrated way,” Boston said.
For example, the Boston organization is working on a project on the North Shore of Vancouver to consider how social service providers could help elderly single people manage rented apartments in their homes, an approach he said could alleviate housing inaccessibility. , while mitigating the risks of living alone during extreme heat. .
“We have a lot of work to do,” Boston said.
Meanwhile, a 2020 study and a report from the British Columbia Hydro and Energy Authority found that the use of air conditioning in homes has more than tripled since 2001.
Many residents add an average of $ 200 to their summer bill by using inefficient air conditioners, with nearly a third of respondents setting temperatures below 19 C. Popular portable devices use 10 times more energy than a central air conditioning system or heat pump, the report said.
Globally, the International Energy Agency predicts in 2018 that energy demand from air conditioning will triple by 2050.
Continuing this path would make it harder for governments to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets to mitigate climate change, Risanek said.
“If we deepen this problem, the cost of building development is a drop in the bucket in terms of the climate impacts we will face,” he said.
The British Columbia government should encourage non-mechanical cooling options to encourage their acceptance in homes and commercial buildings, he said, citing measures such as natural ventilation, ceiling fans and radiant cooling built into floors or ceilings, all of which would cooled residents before turning to air conditioning.
“We need to encourage our politicians to realize that there is a great world of alternatives. We may not have suppliers here in British Columbia, but this is a great business opportunity, ”Risanek said.
“Companies around the world are implementing these cooling alternatives in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, and we should try to invite them here to learn about these things, as an audience, as consumers,” he said.
The Coroner’s report calls on BC to ensure that the 2024 Building Code includes requirements for passive and active cooling in new homes, along with cooling standards for renovating existing homes, and to ensure that “climate change lenses” are adopted in regional growth strategies and official community plans.
He also recommends that the province consider issuing refrigeration devices as medical equipment to those most at risk of death during extreme heat.
Public Safety Secretary Mike Farnworth said the government would review the report and “take the necessary steps to prevent future heat-related deaths.”
It is difficult to predict how often BC may see a recurrence of last summer’s highest temperatures, but climate change is undoubtedly increasing the frequency and magnitude of extreme temperatures, said Rachel White, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of BC
“When we have a normal heat wave in the future, it will be hotter than we are used to,” she said.
The heat dome refers to a high-pressure area that settles when lower temperatures become hotter, White explained.
These regions sometimes become “quasi-stationary” depending on factors such as the strength of the winds circulating high in the atmosphere, she said.
Because the thermal dome covered BC last year, its effects were enhanced by soil already affected by drought, with no moisture to evaporate and help cool the earth during the long summer days with clear skies, she said.
“The Earth’s atmosphere is out of balance,” White warned, “and the longer we continue to emit these greenhouse gases, the more and more warming we will see.”
“We have to act now if we don’t want it to be terrible in 40, 50 years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 25, 2022.
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