During Boston Climate Week, CrisisReady convened a workshop at Harvard University bringing together representatives from 11 cities — including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Minneapolis, Lincoln, Tucson, and Phoenix — to explore the science, policy, economics, and politics of extreme heat in urban environments, and the emerging role of the public “heat officer.”
The workshop was co-convened by CrisisReady alongside the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, the Harvard Global Health Institute, the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University. It brought municipal leaders together with academics, labor activists, and others working at the front lines of urban climate adaptation.
Several key themes emerged from the discussions:
Heat is not one problem — it’s many. Extreme heat spans infrastructure dynamics and materials science, thermal physiology and medicine, public health, emergency management, economics, and policy. Holding all of these frameworks in mind at once is genuinely difficult, but without that attempt at synthesis we risk significant misunderstandings and missed opportunities.
Time frames change everything. Emergency management tends to focus tactically on limited-duration events — heat waves, health emergencies, and cascading risks. Policy, meanwhile, must focus on retrofitting infrastructure, shifting the boundaries of public discourse, mobilizing investment capital, and sustaining political will. The role of the heat officer is arguably overloaded with all of these elements at once, and these officials are asked to navigate between very different scales constantly. A central question for the workshop: how can the research and nonprofit communities best help heat officers do this work and build more diverse coalitions?
Focus on social flourishing, not just avoiding harm. Many of the most successful heat interventions are common-sense contributions to more decent societies — access to affordable housing and cooling, abundant green space, nutritional quality that builds individual resilience, and workplace rules guaranteeing shade, water, and rest. These measures carry substantial benefits well beyond extreme heat, and in doing so they create opportunities for broader social coalitions and cohesion.
Research must listen first. The research community needs to play a more active role in listening to the needs and agendas of local governments and communities, in order to support adaptation and response efforts that meaningfully protect populations and promote social flourishing.
The issues raised here are gaining urgency by the day. As the climate future arrives faster than anticipated, the workshop underscored how fortunate the field is to have strong municipal leaders, academics, labor activists, and others stepping up to take charge.
This workshop was hosted by CrisisReady in partnership with the Salata Institute, the Harvard Global Health Institute, the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University.
