Take It To The Board with Donna DiMaggio Berger
Take It To The Board with Donna DiMaggio Berger
Re-Release: Keeping Cool With Jane Gilbert, Chief Heat Officer, Miami-Dade County
It’s common knowledge that Florida is one of the hottest markets in the U.S. – whether you’re considering a personal lifestyle upgrade or a new environment for your business. But that influx of people and industry, coupled with the state’s numerous sunny days, is a recipe for an extreme heat event and can spell disaster for an unprepared infrastructure.
Host Donna DiMaggio Berger and featured guest Jane Gilbert – the world’s first Chief Heat Officer – explore the dangers posed by extreme heat in highly urbanized areas and discuss how municipalities around the world are collaborating on solutions to protect both present-day and future communities.
Highlights include:
- How Jane’s recent experience as a Chief Resiliency Officer prepared her to serve as the first-ever Chief Heat Officer and what this new role means for communities in Florida and beyond;
- Defining the ‘urban heat island’ and how the green street vision for Miami-Dade helps reduce this;
- Why awareness of the risk associated with extreme heat needs to be increased and whether naming heat waves would emphasize the importance of safety during rising temperatures;
- How community association boards can adjust governing documents to encourage energy efficient practices – green spaces, reflective roof surfaces, upgraded A/C units, indoor/outdoor lighting choices, building weatherization, etc.;
- Strategies when considering how to address the disproportionate impact of heat waves on already vulnerable communities, including seniors on fixed incomes, socio-economically disadvantaged, etc.;
- Expansion of existing directives to ensure evacuation shelters have adequate backup power for cooling in the event of a widespread outage;
- The connection between extreme heat and rising sea levels, and how Florida has integrated its climate action strategies to address both;
- How community associations, local businesses, and incoming corporations can collaborate with Jane’s office to identify ways to protect outdoor workers in the construction, tourism, trade & logistics, public safety industries; and so much more.
BONUS: Donna and Jane share a little about what to expect from the county’s three-year action plan, scheduled for release in May 2022 and recommend viewing the Miami-Dade County’s Extreme Heat Toolkit for ways you can stay safe in South Florida.
Hi everyone, you're about to revisit one of my most important conversations with Jane Gilbert, miami's Chief Heat Officer. This episode is more relevant than ever. The state of Florida is currently simmering under a historic heat wave. For the first time since records began in 1890, tampa hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a milestone meteorologists never expected for its coastal location. Heat index values across the Tampa Bay area and central Florida have soared to 115 to 119 degrees Fahrenheit, prompting heat advisories and putting residents at serious risk. Nearly the entire state of Florida is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 24 years, and rising humidity is turning sidewalks into ovens. Some circuses in West Palm Beach have recorded 114-degree Fahrenheit readings. That's why Jane's leadership is so critical. From designing cooling infrastructure to empowering neighborhoods and coordinating emergency responses, she's on the front lines of a climate emergency that's increasingly local and personal. Tune in to hear her insights on how Florida cities are grappling with extreme heat, protecting public health and innovating for resilience. If you're concerned about your community energy demand or just how we're going to live through summers like this, jane's episode is one to remember. Hi everyone, I'm attorney Donna DiMaggio-Berger, and this is Take it to the Board where we speak condo and HOA In May 2021, miami-dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava appointed Jane Gilbert the world's first official heat officer tasked with protecting the lives and livelihoods threatened by the worsening effects of climate change.
Speaker 1:In Miami-Dade County In the United States, extreme heat caused approximately 12,000 deaths between 2010 and 2020, more than any other extreme weather event. The city of Miami currently experiences 133 high heat days a year on average, 27 more than it did in 1995. By 2075, the number of those high heat days in Miami is expected to climb to 162. Florida may be the perfect place to see the world's first heat officer installed, given that John Gorey, the father of air conditioning, lived here in the 1800s when he decided to combat malaria by cooling air. Thousands of newcomers arrive in Florida each month At the same time we are starting to combat malaria by cooling air. Thousands of newcomers arrive in Florida each month At the same time we are starting to combat sea level rise and extreme heat, and all of those folks expect to be calm and cool while living here.
Speaker 1:Jane, you certainly have your work cut out for you. Welcome to Take it to the Board. Thrilled to be here. Thank you Now, jane. You grew up in the Northeast, but you've lived in Miami for a long time. I grew up in Chicago but have been down here since law school and I just mentioned in the introduction that the number of high heat days we're experiencing seems to be growing, and it does seem like our temperate months are getting shorter and shorter. I remember years ago it seemed like we had a lot more time before the real heat kicked in. Do you ever use the analogy of lobsters in the boiling pot, where we don't really feel how much hotter it's getting until it's too late?
Speaker 2:I haven't used the lobster analogy but I've definitely used the frog in the slowly heating pot analogy. It is kind of like that and certainly I have felt the increase in heat. Over the 25 years I've been here and it's documented since 1985, we've had slightly over two degrees average increase in temperature, two degrees Fahrenheit. So you know that little bit combined with a slight increase also in our humidity adds to the apparent temperature, how hot it feels.
Speaker 1:So you are in the unique position of being able to say you're the world's first at something with this official heat officer role. What, in your background, do you think made you a fit?
Speaker 2:Well, I think, most immediately, I was the city of Miami's first chief resilience officer, and what a chief resilience officer does is look at all the increasing shocks and stresses facing a city.
Speaker 2:There are many chief resilience officers now all over the globe, but to think holistically about how to address those, not only across departments within a city but with external stakeholders. So as a chief heat officer, I'm really doing the same job, only focusing on the increasing chronic stress that we have with extreme heat and also the potential for shocks, like if we here in South Florida had an extensive and widespread power outage from a hurricane or from something else during our summer months. That could be quite dangerous and that would be more of like a disaster situation here.
Speaker 1:So we hear these buzzwords. You just used resiliency In terms of climate change and extreme heat. What's the difference between sustainability and resiliency?
Speaker 2:Sustainability. Actually, a sustainable community is a more resilient community. Sustainability focuses, when it comes to climate change, on reducing the root cause addressing the root cause through reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it also sustainability can mean sustainability of other resources, whether it's our timber or protecting our biodiversity, et cetera. On resilience, we're really looking at how well can we both handle the increasing stresses that we have and also not only bounce back from shocks or stresses that hit us, but bounce forward. So with unique urban design, through stronger social capacity and partnerships. How do we build a system that really knows how to adapt quickly, Because we're all facing such rapid change? Some of it's due to climate change, Some of it's just rapid urbanization and globalization.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you've read about the developers creating communities with these micro units, with these 300 square foot units with no on-site parking, I presume to encourage the people living in these communities to walk. Do you ever work, jane, with developers to try to create these kind of communities that are going to lessen the carbon footprint?
Speaker 2:So what I'm looking at right now is policies that would incentivize that kind of development. My job is to see what the landscape of possible ways we can intervene both to reduce our urban heat island, because the increasing heat we feel here in Miami-Dade is not only due to climate change, it's also due to our development patterns. So how do we mitigate that? Through cooler pavements, cooler building materials, more tree canopy, more vegetation. But also how do we manage the heat that's inevitable? Through either building retrofits or emergency management, public education, building retrofits or emergency management, public education policies to protect outdoor workers, things like that.
Speaker 2:So it's a very broad scape job. So now what I'm doing is taking that landscape of what initiatives we already have, say, a development plan, policies around development of how many trees per acre they need to have on the property, how much permeable surfaces and how well are we executing on that? How do we follow up to make sure those trees stay on the property once they've passed the permit, and sort of what are the opportunities to take it a step further in terms of incentivizing? So that's sort of at the level that I work. I don't work directly with developers, but trying to incentivize good decisions.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned tree canopy. We're in Florida and we've got beautiful palm trees. Everybody associates palm trees with Florida but they're not particularly good at providing shade. Is some of the plan to rip out some of these palm trees and replace them with larger trees that provide more of a shade?
Speaker 2:canopy, I would say currently we have no plan to rip out any palm trees. I think more, what we're looking at is when we're planting trees, how do we maximize the benefits of those trees? Certainly, palm trees are always going to be part of a landscape plant. It's part of our. To your point, our signature.
Speaker 1:Right, I don't want to create a revolution by even asking that question of the people who love their palm trees and their outreach that I even asked you to our long-term success here.
Speaker 2:So it's really looking at the opportunities when we're planning in our right-of-ways, in our parks. Where are the priorities need to be for that? Enhanced tree canopy near bus stops, near playgrounds, key pedestrian thoroughfares, things like that.
Speaker 1:Is Miami-Dade planning I think they've already done this, jane a linear park, like we've seen in New York and elsewhere, along the thoroughfares where they've got it, where you can walk and there's a lot of trees.
Speaker 2:Great question. So actually, the Miami-Dade County Parks has a green streets vision that connects all its parks with green thoroughfares that you know you could walk, bike and drive a car. The area underneath our metro rail going south is called the Underline and we are currently in the process, with multiple public and private partners, renovating that to be truly a world-class linear park where people can walk, bike, have yoga classes, all sorts of different outdoor activities to really build it up. We're also now just approved a similar linear park at Ludlum Trail and really the ultimate goal is to have this whole sort of like network of Emerald.
Speaker 1:Trails. I love that idea. Please tell Broward County where I'm sitting and to that point, you are sharing these thoughts and you're working across with other community organizations, jane and other counties throughout Florida.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. In fact, over the summer we created a climate and heat health toolkit, which was both for my understanding of what cities and counties and other actors can do to mitigate and manage heat and what we're already doing in some case studies but also to share that with our neighboring counties, our neighboring municipalities. Inside. Anyone could access that if they go to Miami-Dade County Extreme Heat. The toolkit is there and I actually completed a couple of workshops sharing that with the municipalities and counties throughout Southeast Florida.
Speaker 1:So, like other natural disasters, heat waves are known to hit unequally, have a disproportionate impact across race and socioeconomic lines. There can be several degrees difference in temperature depending on where somebody lives in the same city or the same county. You talked a few minutes ago about an urban heat island. What is that?
Speaker 2:As we've developed, with more asphalt or pavement, more buildings, more air conditioning that spews out waste heat, more internal combustion cars and other vehicles on the road that spew out waste heat. Overall, urbanized areas in southeast flora are a number of degrees hotter than, say, the Everglades, our neighboring natural area, and even within that, because we have huge disparity in our urban tree canopy. We have areas that have less than 10% and areas that are more than 40%. Well, you can have an over 10 degree difference between those areas, and unfortunately, those areas with the least tree canopy line up with our areas that are most disadvantaged socioeconomically, and so they are, on any given day, more challenged with heat, have to pay more for air conditioning to cool their homes.
Speaker 1:And some of them might not even have air conditioning right or be able to afford it if they have it.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is true, and to your point, in the event of any disaster, these are people who don't have savings right, so it's not like they can dip into a rainy day fund to help repair an air conditioner or get a hotel room for a couple of days, or any. You know, when you talk about resilience, there just aren't as many choices for them.
Speaker 1:So this podcast is Take it to the Board, which is based on the premise of community association living right? Oh, take that to your condo board or your HOA board. Many people, when you think about condos or cooperatives, you're thinking about people of means, but we have many, many people living in these communities senior citizens on fixed incomes. Costs are going up to live in these vertical buildings. What kind of advice can you give boards and people living in these communities in terms of extreme heat and climate change?
Speaker 2:Well, I think the first thing and the most cost-effective thing is look at how you can make your buildings more efficient from an energy perspective, and certainly water too. But energy is the bigger money suck. So if you can change out light bulbs, replace with a more reflective roof, seal your building envelope, your roof, your windows roof, seal your building envelope, your roof, your windows, et cetera, that can also help. And there's really rapid development in more efficient air conditioning systems. That can only in and of itself reduce your energy burden by 40%, because so much of our building energy does go to air conditioning. So I would say finance that, because that can be paid off from the savings on the utility cost over time. The challenge with a condo board is that that can be hard to do, with individuals paying their utility bills and the collective maybe opting to pay. But if you can get it as an investment grade energy efficiency audit, you can get some assurance that you will get that money back in savings.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad you mentioned air conditioning units because in a lot of our communities the maintenance and repair and replacement obligation for AC units is rest with the owners, not with the association. And that's a time to look at your documents and perhaps amend them to require replacement of those items at a certain point with more energy efficient models.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's remarkable how fast that technology is moving in a more efficient direction. And then the second thing I would say is look at the opportunities for that. More pervious surfaces, green space, whether it's on the ground, on a rooftop, wherever it is to cool the general area, and that can also create cost savings on your air conditioning requirements.
Speaker 1:And maybe it would create a more zen-like environment. Zen-like peaceful we can't get enough of that in some of our shared ownership communities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it cleans the air. It's all good. It's all good.
Speaker 1:Jane. So what do you think of the idea of naming heat waves? Do you think by doing so people would take it more seriously? When we hear about Hurricane Irma or Hurricane Charlie and it's heading at us, I don't know if people take it more seriously, but certainly it's catchier. With heat waves they're not named. Do you think that would make any sort of a difference?
Speaker 2:I think in a place like you know, california is talking about naming heat waves and I think the Pacific Northwest and certainly Athens, Greece, is Places that have more extreme heat waves like that it absolutely makes sense Because when you can name it, you can refer back to it, it's going to be easier to apply for recovery funding from FEMA et cetera. And so people really think about what and associate what are the human and economic damages as a result of any particular heat wave. The challenge here in Southeast Florida is that our heat is much more consistent. We have just generally high heat. We rarely get a temperature over 100 degrees. We get a heat index easily over 105 because of our humidity, but it's not like going from 70 or 60 or even less degrees to over 100, like we saw with the Pacific Dome, the Pacific Northwest, with the heat dome out there.
Speaker 2:That was really dramatic and that's where it causes real risks to more risks to human health, also because they have less air conditioning penetration in those areas. So we're looking here certainly at the possibility of naming heat waves here. But also, how do we communicate on a regular basis, not just a disaster focused communication. We communicate on a regular basis, not just a disaster-focused communication, but on a regular basis so that people know if it's going to be a heat index of 100 degrees. Your older adults, your young children, your pregnant women, your people on certain prescriptions, they shouldn't be out there exposed for a long period.
Speaker 1:Your animals too.
Speaker 2:And if you hit 105 heat index, we all need to be really careful around our exposure to heat. You know, so that people know is today a yellow kind of warning day, or is it an orange or is it a red, and we would know how to behave, what precautions to take. The good news about this, even though it is the highest killer of any other weather-related disaster, more than floods, more than forest fires, more than any other weather tornadoes, hurricanes, any of them is that these are preventable largely. If we can improve our communications to the public about what they can do to protect themselves, I think we can really reduce the number of heat-related illnesses and deaths here.
Speaker 1:Why do you think people don't accurately assess the risk associated with extreme heat? Listen, if you've ever suffered from heat stroke which I did way back when years ago, going to an amusement park and was just out for hours and felt horrible but even then I don't think that I truly ever thought, okay, when you read about the heat waves, that it's a potential personal danger. Why is that? Do you think People assess other risks, but not really heat?
Speaker 2:One. It's not a visible thing. It's not like a forest fire or a hurricane, you know. It's not like it hits you and you can see a big flood or anything like that. It is that frog or that lobster in the pot issue. I think that's one of the things. The other is that heat-related illnesses and deaths have actually gone grossly underreported historically, because often your heart attack is reported as a heart attack but if we dug a little deeper we would find out that that heart attack wouldn't have happened if that person wasn't exposed to extreme heat. And that's the other piece is getting a real good assessment of really how many illnesses and deaths are out there related to heat. This is one of the projects I'm working on now is a heat vulnerability assessment to really understand.
Speaker 1:And to understand what heat does to the physical body and how quickly, and I think that's really important. So, in a state like Florida, how do you bring more attention to extreme heat problems when there seems to be a lot of focus on rising sea levels? Since these issues are related, are there specific actions being considered that would hopefully address both concerns?
Speaker 2:Yes, to answer that second part of that question, there's absolutely initiatives and my work very closely with the county's Office of Resilience that's released their sea level rise strategy already last year, so my work will be integrated not only with that but also with their carbon mitigation, their climate action strategy, so that we're looking for actions that actually are triple wins. Things like planting trees absorb stormwater, make it easier to manage floods and give you tree canopy and sequester carbon. Those are triple wins. Energy efficiency often is also weatherizing your building and protecting it more and reducing carbon. And if we can do a wholesale retrofit where you're also protecting on flood at the same time on that home, that's where you get the greater wins. Looking at financing mechanisms that not only address septic to sewer and flood protection but also allow for that energy efficiency retrofit at the same time.
Speaker 1:Makes sense. But given our coastline, I hear a lot about sea level rise. I hear less about extreme heat. I'm grateful you're in this office and you're shedding light on it.
Speaker 2:That's my job is to try to raise that awareness. You know, I was a chief resilience officer for the city of Miami for four years and most of my job was focused on that increasing flood risks related to sea level rise and climate change. Heat came up a lot. When we did outreach, though, in our more vulnerable communities, and when I say more economically, socioeconomically vulnerable communities, heat and displacement were their top two concerns, and that was really why Mayor Kava appointed me is to raise the visibility of this as an issue in addition, certainly, to our sea level rise adaptation needs. So it's good to work with such a great team at the Office of Resilience that are working on that, because they've been supporting this work for a long time and really helping me to integrate into the full county work.
Speaker 1:Last winter we saw the power grid go out in Texas and we saw deaths associated with the extreme cold weather they were experiencing, without any power to keep people's homes. I assume it's safe to be concerned about the fact that power grids going down here during our summer or during an extreme heat wave would be very problematic. Does your office, are you working with FPL or local governments to talk about how you would stave off a potential blackout during an extreme heat wave where everybody's tapping on that air conditioning?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you know we saw that risk with Hurricane Irma right, where we lost 12 people in a nursing home in Broward County in 2017. Since then, the state passed a law requiring all assisted living and nursing homes to have a backup generator with the fuel to keep a room cool for at least three days. So what I've been doing so far is to work with our emergency management on our evacuation shelters, which have backup power, but not enough backup power to keep the full shelter cool over that time. So that's a big priority for funding just to have that energy redundancy there. Secondly, we are partnered with the Adrian Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, which is an international think tank on many things resilience, but they have an Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance and they got a grant from Rebuild Florida to do a countywide plan for Miami-Dade County on building resilience hubs, and these are likely going to be in our park and library facilities.
Speaker 2:That are already identified as cooling centers, but those don't have that backup power yet. So we need to work with FPL and all our partners to make sure we can get that kind of backup power and these would be in neighborhoods all over the county that people could walk to and cool off and charge their phone, get the services, the critical services, they would need in the event of that power outage. Certainly, florida Power and Light is some as a company we've worked with. Miami-dade County is their largest customer. We've worked very tightly with them for a long time on managing power outages and they have a lot of experience in trying to get everybody back online, particularly after a large windstorm. A power outage could happen because of that. It could happen for other reasons, but it's a process. Strengthening that grid is an investment that happens over time.
Speaker 1:Is your office doing any sort of collaboration with Miami-Dade schools to kind of teach people early on about heat and heat-related illnesses and climate change? Great question.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you asked. So my work is falling under this regional resilience strategy that I helped create when I was at the city of Miami called Resilient 305. And in that we established our first partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools on integrating resilience education K through 12, particularly looking at all things water related, water-related. Most recently, I participated on the Clean Energy Task Force for Miami-Dade County Public Schools and actually was named chair of that, where they came up with a plan to get to 100% clean energy by 2030 in eight years. Very ambitious plan. Fourth largest school district in the country.
Speaker 2:But in that is a holistic education. A whole chapter focused on the educational opportunities and we certainly looked at that not only from a how do we educate about climate change, but how do we educate about carbon mitigation but the impacts of climate change on the population. As part of the planning I'm doing now for heat action. Certainly Miami-Dade County Public Schools is playing into that and they have a strong network of healthcare providers in the schools. That I think could be a great avenue for that kind of education.
Speaker 1:This is a lot of work. How large a staff do you have? If you tell me, just you, I'm going to fall off my chair.
Speaker 2:Well, I have an assistant and a couple of college interns that are outstanding, but their main job is school and so they're not full-time by any means. But my job is really to identify those opportunities to improve coordination and accelerate action and to start new initiatives. The implementation of these initiatives will have to be led by our planning department, our parks, our public works, our emergency management. For instance, as we're coming up with a heat enhancement training for disaster volunteers and creating heat toolkits, we're working together with them on the design of that training and what should go in those toolkits and raising money for the toolkits. But ultimately, once we get it going, they will be implementing it going forward. And I get a lot of support again, as I mentioned, from the Office of Resilience. That's a state office. The state does now have a resilience officer, but this is at the county level Jim Murley and his team. They have 13 or 14 staff focused on climate adaptation, carbon mitigation, this game bay protection.
Speaker 1:Has the governor reached out yet and said Jane, we want you to come and teach everybody. Teach the other 66?.
Speaker 2:No, you know. In fact, their resilience officer is solely focused on sea level rise. So we have an opportunity Harkens back to the prior question. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:Branch out a little bit. Well, that leads me to my next question, which is you're primarily focused on Miami-Dade County, but what systems do you think the federal government and state governments outside of Florida need to put in place to not only combat the overarching problem of climate change, but also find quick solutions for the immediate and varying effects we're seeing across different climate regions in the US?
Speaker 2:Well, one thing the federal government has started is our Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Osha is working on some guidance regulations for outdoor workers and the state of Florida has some pending legislation to provide some guidance for employers about training and providing breaks and making sure they have potable water. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to move to a vote this year, but that's one targeted thing Outdoor workers. If they're exerting a lot of energy, they can be up to 35 times more likely to have a heat-related illness than your average person. It's just a matter of exposure. They're out there every day and we have a lot Just in than your average person. It's just a matter of exposure. They're out there every day and we have a lot. Just in Miami-Dade County alone, we have over 300,000 outdoor workers.
Speaker 1:You know, when we were looking at that bill, which was Senate Bill 732, which is known as the Heat Illness Prevention Act, we were looking at that in terms of community associations. In a lot of the larger communities you may have pool attendants that are out there or beach attendants that are out there all day long taking care of people at the pool, landscapers, landscapers, overall maintenance men, who their job is mostly outdoors. So I was definitely looking at that legislation that you have to have, as you said, the potable water, you have to have shade, even the clothing. It's not moving, but I think it's a good step in the right direction.
Speaker 2:It's an moving but I think it's a good step in the right direction. It's an absolutely good step. I was disappointed to see it not move. There were no fines associated right, so it wasn't enforceable, but it set the bar right what is expected of a responsible employer out there. And I think some people were worried about increased liability, but really you have liability already with OSHA because you know if you're not providing a safe environment, however that's defined, you're liable. And OSHA does talk about heat. I mean, they don't have this regulatory guidelines yet, but and it's going to take a while.
Speaker 1:As an attorney, I always tie liability with foreseeability, which we've been talking about how foreseeable it is that we are going to continue to experience extreme heat events from time to time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's going to be more and more of a cost for both the employers and the workers.
Speaker 1:So is lobbying for these kind of bills part of your office's?
Speaker 2:duties.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I guess we'll see you up in Tallahassee testifying next session. See what you can get passed. We'll see what we can do. Jane, have you up in Tallahassee testifying next session. See what you can get passed. We'll see what we can do. Jane, have you been in contact with heat officers in other cities? I know Athens, greece, freetown, sierra Leone these places, I think, have now also installed heat officers. Are you in contact with these people? Hopefully you get to go there.
Speaker 2:I haven't done that yet, but I have been on Zoom calls with both of them and also with the new heat officer in Phoenix a couple of times, David Handel. I've definitely been in interaction with him. And then the Los Angeles City Council just voted they're going to hire a chief heat officer, and their staff have already reached out a number of times to exchange ideas and resources. So, yeah, it's an exciting time to be in this field because there is a healthy exchange between not only the heat officers I just named but also other cities that are working on heat issues, say Boston or New York or Seattle. I've been able to engage in Vancouver. I think I have a call later.
Speaker 1:Well, that is exciting Now we're such a hub for business down here in South Florida and really throughout Florida. I'm thinking of all the cruise industry, thinking of the tech companies that are coming here. The projections are that warming is going to get worse before it gets better. Have you given thought and I'm sure you have just based on what you've been telling me throughout this episode how individuals and local businesses in Miami can work with your office to combat extreme heat? But also, can more be accomplished working with these bigger corporations that have a footprint in Miami or in Florida?
Speaker 2:We're just beginning to think about this, to be honest, and I think one educating them about what they need to do, first and foremost with their employees, is going to be our first priority, because outdoor workers are the most vulnerable and our private sector between the construction industry, the tourism industry, our trade and logistics industry, our public safety personnel those are all very vulnerable. So I think that's going to be our first, and then, to your point, some of the policies around development are going to be another piece, and that could be your own commercial office building.
Speaker 2:But a lot of these companies also want to do community action. I had a company that's moving into the Miami market here and they're interested in helping out by painting the roofs of low-income residents white, you know, so that they can save on money, which I'm just thrilled. We're going to be partnering with them. So there's definitely all sorts of ways that a company can engage with us.
Speaker 1:And we've seen private sector step up, really step up over the last few years on social issues, their charitable endeavors. I'm even thinking a company like Amazon, whether or not they, you know, be willing to work with a heat officer. But I got to believe that we're going to see some of the private sector start reacting and engaging on this topic. No, I think you're right, absolutely. There's always going to be more to do. So you will probably have a job for life, jane. So in an article that Time ran on you in the office, you mentioned coming to a better relationship with the natural world. So what are some of your thoughts?
Speaker 2:on that In the most immediate way. Obviously, trees provide more cooling than any shade structure we could build ourselves because of the evapotranspiration that happens. But more broadly, we've been in this relationship with the natural world that is an extractive relationship. It's about how do we use these resources for our benefit and not thinking about the fact that what comes around goes around and you're putting out a bunch of waste products that then create our health and economic problems for us all. If we think more like an ecosystem where everything's circular and we don't lose those resources over time but they get reused and transformed, that's the kind of economy we need to move towards a clean energy economy and a circular economy that is more in harmony with the way natural systems work.
Speaker 1:So people always push back, though, when you start tinkering with the economy. Their natural fears are is this going to cost jobs or is it going to create jobs? So talk to us a little bit about job creation in terms of what you just said a sustainable circular economy.
Speaker 2:There's a massive business opportunity. I think we need to decouple resource extraction, which used to result in people would think of as economic growth, and decouple resource extraction from that economic growth and make economic growth come from that technological innovation that moves us towards a more sustainable, healthier economy. You can make clothes, vehicles, et cetera in a way that's not going to be so damaging to the environment. It will pay off in the long run. There are jobs out there, whether it's in green infrastructure like landscaping and trees, or it's in the clean energy field, or it's in building reusing of those materials rather than pulling resources out of the earth and then having them end up as waste in a landfill.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad you mentioned the fashion industry, because the fast fashion industry, which is I'm going to buy something this week, it's really cheap. I mean, if you're buying an $11 blouse, take a picture, a selfie of your, and then put it on Instagram and throw it out next week. You are a major part of the problem. But the other problem is is that government, I think, has been short-sighted over the years in terms of companies coming in. They give tax incentives. It's going to create a lot of jobs, but at what price? Exactly Long-term price that we now have to pay tax dollars out to clean up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, capitalism is supposed to work only if our government is controlling those externalities, if you will, of costs, of those pollution costs. But because our corporations have such an unbalanced influence on our government systems, then it's not. You know, that's the importance of our citizen voice is that we need to elevate the citizen voice in all political spheres local, state, federal.
Speaker 1:So, with your appointment back in May 2021 as the world's first heat officer, are we ahead of the curve or are we already behind the eight ball? Good question.
Speaker 2:You know, I think it's a little of both. We are ahead of the curve globally. We're first heat chief heat officer and first to look holistically at this, we aren't the first city to ever look at heat. Phoenix has done work for years on heat, and so have other cities, new York included. The good news is is that, as we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, if we can really start to actually reverse the emission trend, that will directly reduce the projected increases on temperature, whereas with sea level rise, there's a big lag effect because of the melting ice sheets. This is a direct impact, and so I think we can get out in front of this. As it relates to heat, or there's a greater potential. We're behind in the planning. Right, we started with sea level rise, but it's easier to catch up.
Speaker 1:Well, I know that your primary purpose is to study the impact on people and their livelihoods, but is your office looking into the impact on biodiversity and their livelihoods? But is your office looking into the impact on biodiversity and whether or not these climbing temperatures is wiping out a different animal species marine life?
Speaker 2:My particular role is to focus on the impacts on human health and the economy. However, like I said, we think in an integrated way. We do have a Bay officer Biscayne Bay officer who is focused on marine life and the health of the Bay, so she is focused solely on looking at how do we do that through the septic sewer program, through new designs and stormwater management and many other initiatives that she's working on.
Speaker 1:So there's just so many feelings of anxiety and hopelessness whenever we talk about climate change. It's not surprising, given that some media coverage on this topic is not exactly balanced. There has to be some middle ground between constant outrage and complete indifference. And listen, I have grown kids, millennials and you can sense this almost well. You know we're on a doomed path here. How do you kind of engage people without frightening them but also letting them know that there's some middle ground here?
Speaker 2:I think it's a really important question because we aren't going to get to commitment to action without addressing that, and I think you have to both be realistic about what the risks are and the potential dangers that we're facing within action. But that's like one third of your focus. Two thirds of the focus need to be focused on not only what we can do about it, but how can it improve our lives in more ways than just avoiding climate change, you know, by redoing our streets that are multimodal for encouraging pedestrians and bicycles, and cooler with more trees, etc. That's a city I want to live in, wanting the changes that need to happen because they're going to make our lives better, and sort of feel more optimistic about what are we moving towards. That's a positive thing than avoiding this doomsday scenario. Certainly we need to move because of the doomsday scenario. It's clear from my many years working in this field that in order to get really to get a broad public moving, they need to have a positive vision of where we're going.
Speaker 1:People nowadays always say I've got to get my steps in right, but they're just walking in circles around the neighborhood to get their steps in, when they could actually be getting their steps in going somewhere. To your point. If our cities were built in a way that was that were pedestrian friendly, where you could walk more than take the car, you'd actually be getting your steps in while doing something productive.
Speaker 2:Right and enjoying meeting other people, seeing other people, hopefully seeing a bird in a tree somewhere. Well, I know you're prepared?
Speaker 1:What are you preparing for? Tell us what you're thinking is going to happen in the next two years.
Speaker 2:Well, we're coming out with a three-year action plan at the end of May, so I encourage people to take a look at that and it's going to have actions related to broad-scale public education and awareness around continuing to understand the problem, data and research. It's going to have plans related to housing, streets and trees, outdoor workers and our disaster management and response. So there's going to be select actions, some that will happen in the short term, like the public heat season campaign and educating our disaster volunteers, and then other things that will take longer, like redoing our right-of-ways and putting in backup power across the whole county. So that's what you'll see happening and starting to roll out over the next two years.
Speaker 1:So where can people find that plan, Jane? So?
Speaker 2:miamidadegov slash extreme heat, or if you just Google Miami-Dade County extreme heat, it'll come up.
Speaker 1:Now this is a podcast, so we've got people listening all over the world. It's your platform right now. Is there anything else you want to let people know about you or your office, or your goals, your mission?
Speaker 2:If you're a homeowner, condo owner out there, I think just taking into account that holistic view of your community and how you can build a better world within and better life in your community through efficiency, retrofits, through engagement with your local government and really pushing for the kind of changes that you're going to want to see to preserve your investments but also to improve your life, so, jane, I don't know if I mentioned to you, but I did find you in Vogue's Badass Women issue and was delighted to discover that you were right in my backyard.
Speaker 1:What was your inspiration? You're talking about a science-based career here. You're dealing with data and facts and science, which is not always right now held in the highest regard. So what would have been your challenges in terms of making that career move?
Speaker 2:So I guess it came early on, when I was a freshman in college and not knowing what I wanted to study. I always was strong in the sciences and math, but I didn't really know where I was going. And actually I had to write a research paper for my English class and I called my sister my older sister, who I consult a lot with things and she said well, you're always really interested in the outdoors and the environment, why don't you write something about this guy, james Watt, who was under the Reagan administration and had been selling off a bunch of valuable lands for resource extraction? And so I got into it. And I got so into it, I just researched everything and my professor thought I should publish the paper and I got really into it. So I knew then that I wanted to study environmental science.
Speaker 2:And I was at a women's college, barnard College, and studied environmental science and it was just an outstanding training on integrating not only all the sciences you had to have a strong foundation in geology and biology and chemistry but also integrate policy and political history and economics, because really we can't move anything on this. Even in our conversation, economics and policy were a big piece of everything that we talked about. So that was my undergraduate and then, after working in the environmental field for about five years, I went back to graduate school in public administration and I wanted to focus on urban community development. I really wanted to have an impact on the community in which I lived. I had been working on a national and international scale and while it was super interesting, it wasn't as personally rewarding as building. So I've really enjoyed my certainly curvy career path since I've been here in Miami. But it's all the central theme about how do we strengthen our community?
Speaker 1:I think you're going to be an inspiration to so many young boys and girls out there. It's been such a pleasure having you on the show. We wish you all the luck with your office and please come back and let us know how you're doing, how the plan's going. Thank you for joining us today. Don't forget to follow and rate us on your favorite podcast platform or visit TakeItToTheBoboardcom for more ways to connect.