The biggest city in the country has taken a proactive approach to protect its residents from extreme heat. Programs have tried to make cooling centers, pools, and air conditioners more easily available to people.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

As average temperatures go up around the globe, we’re all experiencing more extreme heat, especially in major cities, where lots of cement, and not a lot of trees, absorb heat and make things even hotter. Today we’re looking into how the US’s biggest city, New York, is finding ways to keep its residents cool.

Emma Mejia and Isha Thakkar from our Possibly Team have the details

Emma Mejia: Hi, Megan!

Isha Thakkar: Hello!

Megan Hall: So how is New York dealing with extreme heat?

Emma Mejia: That’s a great question. New York City has spent a lot of time working on ways to deal with the effects of climate change and extreme heat.

Ashwin Vasan: We have been planning for a climate mitigation and adaptation for many, many years, there’s been a whole host of initiatives.

Isha Thakkar: That’s Dr. Ashwin Vasan, a physician and the former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Emma Mejia: Dr. Vasan says that extreme heat kills hundreds of New Yorkers a year. 

Ashwin Vasan: We treat that in public health as entirely preventable. And so we put forth a multi pronged strategy to try to prevent as many of those deaths as possible.

Megan Hall: What kind of steps has the city been taking?

Isha Thakkar: One of the most important steps is making sure people have access to air conditioning.

Ashwin Vasan: Air conditioning, especially in light of a warming planet, in a warming city, warming urban environments, is a necessity.

Isha Thakkar: To help, with this issue, in 2020, the city installed air conditioners in public housing units. New York City also offers a Cooling Assistance program to help low-income New Yorkers cover the cost of buying an air conditioner

Emma Mejia: The city also has programs that help people afford to keep the AC on when they need it.

Ashwin Vasan: What we are working on things like our Home Energy Assistance Program with the state of New York, we have reduced energy bills by millions of dollars for low income families. So that they can then afford to turn on that AC .

Isha Thakkar: The city has also been brainstorming ways to encourage landlords to keep it cooler indoors

Megan Hall: How would the city do that?

Emma Mejia: Well, last year the city council proposed a bill that would establish a maximum temperature policy for New York City buildings in the summer.

Isha Thakkar: This bill would require landlords to provide cooling systems that keep units 78 degrees or cooler when the temperature is above 82 degrees outside.

Megan Hall: What else is New York city doing to keep people cool?

Isha Thakkar: They’re also expanding access to cooling centers. in places like local libraries, senior centers, and community centers.

Emma Mejia: Private businesses can also opt into the cooling program. So that means they can offer their coffee shop, museum, or store as an option.

Aswhin Vasaan: It’s not just about government sites. It’s about the whole city’s approach to ensuring that no one has to suffer the effects of extreme heat unnecessarily.

Isha Thakkar: And remember, not all cooling options are indoors.

Emma Mejia: In 2024 the city announced a plan to invest  over a billion dollars into pool infrastructure and swim lessons, to help residents have more places to cool down.

Ashwin Vasan: Cooling off in a public pool nearby is a great way to address extreme heat as well.

Megan Hall: But, how does the city decide where to focus these cooling efforts?

Emma Mejia: Good question. The city uses a heat vulnerability index or HVI to identify those who are the most susceptible to the effects of extreme heat.

Ashwin Vasan: So your heat vulnerability index is a map of extreme heat and heat patterns across the city, mapped over social and economic metrics like poverty, inequality, and access to health care.

Emma Mejia: The city is trying to map those cooling options and cooling centers to the communities that need them the most.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Isha and Emma

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and The Public’s Radio.

The post How is New York City keeping its residents cool?  appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

The post How is New York City keeping its residents cool?  appeared first on Possibly.

If you’ve ever looked at the bottom of a plastic item, you may have seen a number surrounded by three arrows around it. Today we take a look into the meaning behind the numbers, and how they actually relate to recycling.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

If you’ve ever looked at the bottom of a plastic product, you’ve probably seen a number surrounded by three arrows. We started to wonder, what do these numbers mean?

We had Emma Mejia and Isha Thakkar from our Possibly team take a closer look.

Emma Mejia: Hey, Megan!

Isha Thakkar: Hi!

Megan Hall: So what’s the deal with the numbers on the bottom of plastic?

Emma Mejia: To get to that answer let’s start with understanding how plastics are made.

Isha Thakkar:  We decided to talk to George Huber, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Emma Mejia: He says plastics are usually made out of one of three main ingredients

George Huber: Oil, natural gas or coal

Megan Hall: How are these things turned into plastic?

Emma Mejia: First, manufacturers break down natural gas and oil into more simple building blocks. Then they’re strung together like beads on a string to form long chains.

Isha Thakkar: These eventually become different kinds of plastic

George Huber:  You can think about plastics as a kind of spaghetti. If you take a plate of spaghetti, some of them are stuck together really well uniform. Others are kind of spread out, and that gives you a different structure.

Emma Mejia: The type and structure of that “spaghetti” leads to the kind of plastic you get.

Isha Thakkar:  For example, a shampoo bottle is very different from styrofoam!

Megan Hall: So what does that have to do with the number on the bottom of the plastic?

Emma Mejia: The number is part of what’s called the plastic’s resin identification code, which represents the kind of plastic the product is made out of. You can also read the name of the plastic underneath.

Megan Hall: So, it tells us something about the spaghetti?

Isha Thakkar: Exactly.

Megan Hall: What kinds of plastics would fall under these different categories?

Isha Thakkar: Let’s investigate!

Emma Mejia: I have a plastic water bottle, a milk jug, and my credit card

Isha Thakkar: the plastic bottle says. Number one PET.

Emma Mejia: It looks like the milk jug is number two HDPEcard doesn’t have a number on it, but I just looked it up and it is made out of number three PVC.

Megan Hall: What do these numbers mean?

Emma Mejia: Single-use food and drink containers, like peanut butter jars and water bottles usually have a number one on them.

Isha Thakker: More heavy-duty items like milk jugs and detergent bottles typically have a number two on them.

Emma Mejia: Number three plastics are used for things like plumbing pipes and medical equipment like IV bags.

Megan Hall: Interesting. So do all the numbers get recycled the same way?

Isha Thakkar: No.  Type ones and twos are the easiest to recycle, while the plastics in the other categories aren’t always accepted at recycling centers.

Emma Mejia: This means they may be sent straight to a landfill.

Megan: Wait a minute? Those plastics aren’t recyclable?

Emma: In many cases, no.

 Megan Hall: Why not?

Emma Mejia: Recycling these plastics comes with different challenges.

Emma Mejia: For example, Number 3 plastics, which are PVC, contain toxic materials that are released during the recycling process, making recycling difficult.”

Megan Hall: So, why do all of my plastics have that recycling symbol on them? You know, the one with the three arrows in a triangle?

Emma Mejia: That’s actually called the chasing arrow symbol and believe it or not, it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just part of the process for labeling each type of plastic.

Megan Hall: That’s really confusing.

Isha Thakkar: It is. In fact, California recently passed a law to outlaw using the “chasing arrow” symbol on any plastics that can’t really be recycled.

Megan Hall: So, what’s the take-away here?

Emma Mejia: It’s not the chasing arrows  symbol, but the number on your plastics that really matters.

Isha Thakkar: And unless you see a 1 or a 2, plastics might not be recyclable.

Emma Mejia: To remember this, many states suggest a rule of thumb that only hard plastic containers can be recycled. So that’s bottles, jugs, and tubs! But you can check your state’s guidelines to be sure.

Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks Emma and Isha.

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

The post What do the numbers on the bottom of your plastic products mean? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

The post What do the numbers on the bottom of your plastic products mean? appeared first on Possibly.