[Craic] Warming centres ' cooling centres

Thu Feb 16 09:42:20 PST 2023

Thank you Allan, a sad commentary on how we treat the most vulnerable in
our society! Arrest and handcuff a suffering human being so they do not
disturb the rest of us from going about our day.

Peace

Greg

On Thu, Feb 16, 2023 at 10:21 AM Allan Baker via craic <
craic at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> Friends;
>
> Here  in Toronto the budget proposed by John Tory has passed, with the
> addition of one more warming centre.
> Last week there was a heated (excuse the pun) debate at Council about
> opening warming centres, or not. Council said NO on a vote of 15 to 11!
> [image: toronto-warming-centre.jpg]
>
> Bid to open warming centres 24/7 rejected by Toronto city council | CBC
> News
> <https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/warming-centre-rejects-motion-1.6741544>
> cbc.ca
> <https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/warming-centre-rejects-motion-1.6741544>
>
> <https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/warming-centre-rejects-motion-1.6741544>
>
> Warming centres, and cooling centres in the heat of summer, are debatable
> it seems. Here’s a story from Arizona, via the Guardian, that goes to the
> HEART of the matter.
>
> Stay hopeful;
> Allan
>
> [image: Phoenix Arizona with its downtown lit by the last rays of sun at
> the dusk..jpeg]
>
> 16/02/2023
> The Arizona teen whose death in extreme heat is a warning of tragic things
> to come
> Nina Lakhani
>
> Last summer I packed my bags and left humid New York to spend a month
> reporting in the dry desert heat of Phoenix, Arizona. America’s fifth
> biggest city has always been hot but day and night temperatures have been
> rising due to global heating and the city’s unchecked development, creating
> a sprawling urban heat island that has literally become unliveable for some
> residents. In the past three years, 911 calls and emergency room visits for
> heat-related emergencies have skyrocketed and more than a thousand people
> have died from extreme heat. The city is scattered with cooling centres –
> air conditioned places where residents can go to cool down – but clearly
> this isn’t working for many people
> <https://ablink.email.theguardian.com/ss/c/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00v2oBSzZEg23VFIxFVgxkMdHQjVNwz54RucCmEc4or7cwR70g75DtJnhJn0yQ1axhMaw0sDnEuhCbqQWAu4RCvFYCakc-WL0t1xW_gxyeHFhDKSjc_imERiGAK_EiuiZ0-JtQdhxZ6S3wW98GTRyaXbkvCffm9yrBQDCFu2dS-Rgh93YMRvzAzkQSlupBb_HpV5YgGsAwzr45uRfY3foSihGxRfN61qulMBDCzokEg6O6WTLVNI9hs3xRM7QNcNNptE6-U-G6jhHCHuNZxlLqMv/3tr/Y_kc409HQmi57Q6x9q9hDA/h30/L0HKizA44y0WD2nOzwT99Z9sUlFnY6z7GkPl1GdfgQc>.
> I wanted to spend a good chunk of time in Phoenix to better understand why,
> and also who is most affected by the hotter days and nights.
>
> My first week coincided with the season’s first extreme heatwave. Several
> daytime records were broken as the temperature hit 47C – very, very hot for
> early June – and for a week straight
> <https://ablink.email.theguardian.com/ss/c/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00v2oBSzZEg23VFIxFVgxkMdWMYjnapaTkKRDaw1J_bX9CGU_1MeFeU1zGEJj6thj3x4HKHmfF0uzxt7N_CIKsK15OAT9sQv-6Gmgs3-s-q4scR4PbrOSvYE1k0DaUxNWI5g-9SRNjoM_vd3WMcbhga8xIMZC5XbqlXHTvCzsFSRVl_mQh3xpQH540u05Htli9wYIVon1aBxlYo_wdzs13Oh60OCgIKoyCx7GeS4zj8Wtsz8hCYhbZI8Dmf9WrjCo44/3tr/Y_kc409HQmi57Q6x9q9hDA/h31/Cu1J6SukDtRA8HGdEaRWiF_TGOat0_M4Eg-beOPRDzo> it
> never fell below 30C overnight. The impact of heat is cumulative and the
> body only begins to recover when temperatures drop below 27C.
>
> It was eerie driving around as there were so few people outside. In fact,
> it soon became clear that it was predominantly those with nowhere else to
> go, the unhoused, who were outside, desperately looking for shade in car
> parks, shop doorways, bus stops, parks and behind dumpsters. As Phoenix has
> gotten hotter, the number of unhoused people has also skyrocketed amid an
> affordable housing crisis and this has been a deadly combination: around a
> half of the city’s heat deaths are unhoused people. Another big risk factor
> is drugs. In Phoenix, fentanyl, a downer which can be 50 to 200 times more
> potent than morphine, and methamphetamine, an upper which increases the
> risk of heat-related medical complications, are frequently used in
> combination.
>
> I reported on unhoused people
> <https://ablink.email.theguardian.com/ss/c/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00v2oBSzZEg23VFIxFVgxkMd3EiYoWBtOX7iSaM9hlYgc3mdDR9V2Y_ACy4aFyozPfpyrzxky4yInuIE4tjOhPH71zKe24lEWECPBVf5FXn_5Bdd3fmBx5wLaO40gRxfq-FMSEtfhWMYK-Y76n9_2eNsXkyQJdMap4fvzBcDge5yy5LqmCWBvD1UZT6hSDtau0uY6QXaCtqtwW3YRLuxGM5CAMqAzl5pQqJLqzhpjv2ZRQzhXxVeWPoRuZNV2qSjqDw/3tr/Y_kc409HQmi57Q6x9q9hDA/h32/XD1KEzAKyIfKdhKGEDFy1a-Hm9gTDp1M0ZJvbEOpXag>
> , folks struggling with addictions
> <https://ablink.email.theguardian.com/ss/c/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00v2oBSzZEg23VFIxFVgxkMdk8eZNp6ZpOVFis9i45yWF4Ao3hLgFQIdTqxDsYvCWSoGPx0WnwW7fiYH5r_hPPTf7vYamWXHncFSB9M6Bd89loT2XYxYu7Gu-ddvpDQpA8ovaJ1VBRb5HkF8bWWMTREYkn4wmELMxf5g4tmIJFnH2D9T-doUKcnrYZnf_4TKzlzsvEQbG_RkyV3PTeLLkNLEfkeoAHZFE75bi-zgp42N4Zyqa_9WXKPmj8VQBRW7DAA/3tr/Y_kc409HQmi57Q6x9q9hDA/h33/CJE_u1fx5yY1oa4RYxh-Dgj-AwPoDMmEEPgffSsPhqw>,
> community organisers, families that couldn’t afford air conditioning
> <https://ablink.email.theguardian.com/ss/c/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00v2oBSzZEg23VFIxFVgxkMdWMYjnapaTkKRDaw1J_bX9CGU_1MeFeU1zGEJj6thj3x4HKHmfF0uzxt7N_CIKsK15OAT9sQv-6Gmgs3-s-q4scR4PbrOSvYE1k0DaUxNWI5g-9SRNjoM_vd3WMcbhga8xIMZC5XbqlXHTvCzsFSRVl_mQh3xpQH540u05Htli9wYIVon1aBxlYo_wdzs13Oh60OCgIKoyCx7GeS4zj8Wtsz8hCYhbZI8Dmf9WrjCo44/3tr/Y_kc409HQmi57Q6x9q9hDA/h34/1HCEPO9ZlKEFcNc46KAxKHWX7iw8uQVqgbW5O7kT0w8>
> , firefighters (who are also paramedics)
> <https://ablink.email.theguardian.com/ss/c/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00v2oBSzZEg23VFIxFVgxkMdVEnRokOwIYAk9Fa9mPsa0chpiUbUJGRL-TwcsHRqtJx1YquM0nlb5-bddUj6SiME6iXG9NWKc2buBT6WQC2fEGKOfmAsGGq8nZ6klyLVEx7VkB1qcWPH-U3pXKQem9tVZv783f5t2Us3PiyJDVbI-8m6TC6hAvR_BMM2PzoD00Htz_jVR-Uc2mkHBDs3JZdgy5TDaGxKAYVR1MabOME2mA90qH8H3Uvw3rbmRSJpvpQ/3tr/Y_kc409HQmi57Q6x9q9hDA/h35/T0XM8yiIos-PFCJaFBhzpmBv8mhNhp006nw1U9fGHHI> and
> the country’s first city-funded dedicated “heat team
> <https://ablink.email.theguardian.com/ss/c/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00v2oBSzZEg23VFIxFVgxkMdMULqGBX0WYeSpXavg0jY-ujEY1WI1sYDVflzn-scdNOydMI66lSxZAOuhDiLs4L7X4fwqsnmAR1-RMK5n9AuVVGVhKtQOCvp5n45gMk7CVZ0SDzxezOBhoNaIPZJL3gGydSKEU6wearvjgmGDnLpT2TXnLova8X413Xj03_xxmf9083ef1mnOSjm1NKucy89W0sDu7yc2t7eR0CspTk1CA9OMt3L_T6t3TQr8Tykl4Q/3tr/Y_kc409HQmi57Q6x9q9hDA/h36/jEuI_aLZcrT6JCCEmoinH5LGZ-aGUYz2zQu6S2nR-N0>”.
> More than 400 people died from heat in 2022, but there was one story, an
> African American teenager called Caleb Blair
> <https://ablink.email.theguardian.com/ss/c/TBl-lE0k4WbTlFRn6v-lQXxTpTslqnvUsR2ofAkC00tYucGDibc2UTFNpJdWKKfo4qhGxxIJjqfqYIWNuhobDwnjWGa9cLlpWv1eYdcAcbi4ou2ylNcXLLLlLP7rkw9349028pMsOv2kQj6bt8NxsSLA26-kZbtT38efhdN4CtoGIxobDlJjyPHV0XQQg9cP-A-Cq93m-9reJgYjz1TlqiePEIPqaDChwi7SoSNeON-dmuAvDfZ-8f4wh5SsCRIjWDGu6IZmHnhHV1Pp75WTwnwLsmX3bXqHgdokNCiA9CA/3tr/Y_kc409HQmi57Q6x9q9hDA/h37/Ne4wzEqbbWhM8ngf4CpRaiTSzdQnKnpI8lczZXRxJnM>,
> which got under my skin. And so I spent the next eight months trying to
> understand why a sweet talented kid with mental health struggles ended up
> naked and handcuffed, high and overheated, on the forecourt of a Circle K
> gas station.
>
> I tracked down his dad, Frank Blair, and spent hours and hours with him –
> which at the start mostly involved counselling work as he was verging on a
> breakdown (I was a mental health nurse for 10 years before journalism).
> Frank showed me hundreds of photos and videos of Caleb growing up, and
> explained how he’d tried to stop Caleb taking drugs but threw him out on
> his 18th birthday, hoping that the tough love would turn things around. The
> guilt he feels is immense. I interviewed his sister Kailani, who drove past
> the scene of Caleb’s death but had no idea that it was her brother on the
> ground. I spoke to his football and basketball coaches, reviewed hours of
> police body-camera and audio evidence, CCTV footage and autopsy reports
> obtained through freedom of information requests, spoke to medical experts
> and visited places where Caleb had lived and died.
>
> What I learned was that Caleb went into the Circle K asking to sit and
> cool down as he was hot and struggling to breath, but was told to leave as
> it was against company policy. He spent the next hour or so outside, where
> the air temperature was 44C and rising, but could have been as hot as 60C
> on the unshaded asphalt. His condition quickly deteriorated – he threw up,
> couldn’t breath easily, and became increasingly erratic which included
> banging his head on an employee’s car and taking his clothes off, probably
> trying to cool down. It was only then the employee and passersby called
> 911. When the cops showed up, he was naked, unarmed, erratic and verbally
> unresponsive, but he was treated like a threat and handcuffed. Within a few
> minutes he’d stopped breathing. The medical examiner found that Caleb’s
> death was caused by drug intoxication, meth and fentanyl, with extreme heat
> and pneumonia identified as contributing factors. A normal body temperature
> is around 36-37C. Caleb’s was 43C.
>
> His tragic death was preventable, but in some ways it was also inevitable
> given the US’s social, health and economic inequalities. And it signals
> that the climate crisis is a risk multiplier – it exposes, intersects with
> and amplifies existing problems such as housing shortages, inadequate
> mental health and addiction services, racist policing, and the lack of
> shade in cities, to name just a few.
>
> As climate chaos reaches every corner of the planet, it’s going to cut
> short many lives – those who are already struggling will suffer most.
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