To the editor: L.A. is no stranger to excessive heat (“As L.A. bakes, duration of heat waves is accelerating faster than climate change, UCLA study shows,” July 10). A simple task, such as getting groceries, suddenly becomes much riskier in the hot weather.
This summer, I walked around downtown. Here, I met a woman named Maria, who was waiting at the bus stop. She describes the numerous times she has seen others faint because of the heat.
Dark pavement is one of the leading contributors to trapping heat. Asphalt can be up to 60 degrees hotter than the surrounding air.
Our state has previously experimented with coating streets with reflective surfaces. Instead, we should try a simpler solution: trees.
Studies show that communities with more trees see a cooling effect. Trees provide crucial shade that decreases the surrounding temperature.
Let’s work together and plant more trees to make life in L.A. a little more pleasant and hospitable.
Wesley Peng, Long Beach
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To the editor: It’s obvious that our planet is getting hotter. High-temperature records are being broken around the world. This UCLA report indicates that the heat is not only increasing, but it’s lasting longer. What disturbs me in this reporting is one researcher’s implication that the proper response is to adapt to it. Accelerate adaptation planning, we are told, and plant more shade trees, design buildings differently, go outdoors earlier in the day. Rubbish.
Rather than simply adapt, we must change the conditions that are creating the heat. Every story about our world getting hotter should remind readers why it’s getting hotter. It’s simple. We have put, and are continuing to put, too much carbon in the atmosphere. The logical response is to stop doing this, to begin now to phase out burning coal, oil and gas, and deploy as fast as possible readily available, affordable, clean energy.
Robert Taylor, Santa Barbara