Currently — August 16th, 2022

The weather, currently.

A new study out today from the non-profit First Street Foundation is among the first ever created of house-by-house risk for a range of climate threats both now and in the not-too-distant future.

The study, and accompanying interactive tool, analyzes communities across the United States at the individual property address level for heat, fire, and flooding risk both now and thirty years from now.

According to analysis by Axios, the data show the emergence of an “extreme heat belt” extending from Texas to Wisconsin of places that can expect heat indexes to routinely reach at least 125°F (51.6°C) at least once per year. Right now, only about 8 million people in the US face such heat. In 30 years, that number will swell to more than 100 million. A similar analysis from the Washington Post goes even further in depth to on-the-ground interviews about how extreme heat is already changing life across the country.

— Eric Holthaus

What you need to know, currently.

Currently’s partnership coordinator, Meg Ruttan, published a piece in her local paper, insideWaterloo, about the transformational changes needed to address the climate crisis. She writes about the importance of recognizing the crisis’ roots in colonialism, white supremacy and fascism and how to best work towards a sustainable—and equitable—future.

“The transformational change required to face the climate crisis means that this civilization—the institutions evoked when we gesture towards civilization—cannot be saved if we are to take the climate crisis on in earnest and the civilization we need may not be recognizable to anyone who has benefited from it” Ruttan writes. “Climate change is a symptom of centuries of extraction and genocidal colonialism and a simple technological shift will not save us. We must take up the values of climate justice or we will fail. We must build the new world out of the shell of the old.”

Click here to read the full story!