BRACE FOR SUMMER

What's at stake as Trump targets experts on climate and heat

- BY SIMMONE SHAH

EXPERTS PREDICT THIS SUMMER MIGHT BE hotter than average—and the U.S. is not prepared to meet the challenge. Much of the Midwest and Northeast is forecast to see temperatures “persistently above average,” according to a Weather Channel prediction, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center estimates that the entire country will see above-normal temperatures—the only difference being in severity.

This comes as the Trump Administration has conducted layoffs on climate and heat-related initiatives, and cut funding for research grants on extreme heat. Experts warn that this will risk the country’s ability to protect communities from extreme heat.

Heat experts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) were told in early April that their positions would be eliminated as part of the cuts made by the Trump Administration’s Department of Governmental Efficiency.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s entire environmental-health unit was cut, though some jobs were restored in mid-June.

“What was lost there is a giant value to communities,” says V. Kelly Turner, associate professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Extreme heat is not recognized as a disaster in the U.S.—despite its being the largest weather-related killer in the country.