What does a Chief Heat Officer do?

When we think of extreme weather events and their dramatic consequences, we probably think of floods, hurricanes and tsunamis. Yet all these phenomena cause fewer deaths each year than another much more insidious and dangerous meteorological killer: heat.

Studies by the US National Weather Service have shown that not only do more people lose their lives in extreme heatwaves than in all other weather events combined, but economically speaking, the losses caused by prolonged periods of killer heat are almost double those caused by events that normally make headlines, such as tornadoes.

This is why three cities around the world have created a new position in local government: the Chief Heat Officer.

What does a Chief Heat Officer do?

The mission of the Chief Heat Officer is to plan appropriate measures to tackle rising temperatures in urban areas. These measures can range from creating roof gardens on top of buildings, to provide shade and help the natural cooling of the air, to reinforcing air-conditioning systems powered by renewable energy, installing solar panels and re-paving roads with a special type of tarmac that does not release the heat it has absorbed during the day.

Highly urbanised areas suffer from extreme heat because of a combination of factors, including the density of transport, but also the characteristics of building materials such as tarmac and concrete, which absorb heat and release it back into the atmosphere. To counteract this, solar-power air-conditioning needs to be implemented both in private houses and in places where people can meet to escape the heat, such as malls. This eliminates the most serious health consequences, such as hyperthermia and its effects on the cardiovascular system. The three cities that have currently implemented a Chief Heat Officer in their city council are Athens, the capital of Greece, Miami, in the US state of Florida, and Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

Why are we more afraid of hurricanes than of heat?

Although evidence shows that heat is more dangerous than other extreme weather phenomena, most of the world's population perceives tornadoes, hurricanes and floods as more dangerous and therefore tends to move to drier and warmer areas, putting themselves at even greater risk. Why? Probably because the media narrative of a flood is much more dramatic than that of a heat wave. All other phenomena can be seen, they happen at a certain time, they can be filmed and commented on in real time.

A heat wave is an invisible, silent killer, which does not happen on a certain day, but often lasts for weeks or months, killing especially the underprivileged, the elderly, the sick, the economically disadvantaged, those who do not have access to green spaces or live in the most populated suburbs, those who cannot afford air conditioning, a healthy diet of fresh vegetables and fruit, or cannot leave even for a short time to visit a cooler region, those who are forced to work outdoors for many hours.

It is difficult to document these phenomena, which are often scattered throughout urban areas, in the same detail and with the same excited tone with which one comments on a tornado.