Dave investigates two very different but interrelated topics: the deep freeze that sent the power grid in Texas into near collapse and how our cities are disproportionately hot in summer due to the urban heat island effect.
Both stories involve how the most vulnerable populations tend to take the brunt of climate change extremes. In Texas, dozens died trying to stay warm while in our western cities, black and LatinX suffer in summer when their neighborhoods are measurably hotter than more affluent neighborhoods.
Dave is joined by Pulitzer Prize winner Wiliam Englund from the Washington Post to talk about the frozen grid in Texas as well as bigger picture implications for our increasingly vulnerable power infrastructure. Then UC Davis researchers Stephen Miller and Jake Dilsandro share their study of how the urban heat island effect disproportionately affects minority residents in western US cities.