Beating the heat: the MiamiDade way

In Miami-Dade County, we know heat! We live in the sub-tropics and heat has always been part of our lives – even our basketball team is the ‘Miami Heat’. Yet, heat is known as the ‘silent killer’ because heatwaves threaten the health and wellbeing of billions of people across the globe and is set to only become a bigger issue in the future due to climate change.

We also know extreme heat does not impact people equally. Disadvantaged communities and Black and Hispanic people bear the brunt of the public health impacts. In 2020, a group of communitybased organisations conducted a series of focus groups and surveys among lower-income and marginalised communities in the county and found that the two top concerns were increasing economic and health risks related to extreme heat and fears of displacement due to climate gentrification.

For that reason, I appointed the world’s first-ever Chief Heat Officer (CHO) and we joined the City Champions for Heat Action initiative – a cornerstone program of the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance. Since then, more and more councils are appointing Chief Heat Officers including Phoenix, Arizona and Los Angeles.

Appointing a CHO has helped expand, accelerate, and coordinate our efforts to protect people from heat and save lives. For example, our CHO launched a multi-lingual public awareness campaign about the risks of extreme heat and what people can do to protect themselves and others. The campaign reached over 250,000 people locally through social and traditional media, posters in public spaces, and educational programmes in summer camps. They also codeveloped a Climate and Heat Health Toolkit that informs internal and external stakeholders about what can be done to better manage and mitigate the impact.

In partnership with The Miami Foundation, we are engaging diverse groups of stakeholders and the public in the development of a detailed three- year plan to improve our action towards preventing heat-related illnesses and deaths. This includes a Heat Vulnerability Assessment by Florida State University and a Climate and Heat Health Task Force. I’ve fast-tracked this work because of the threat heat poses to our communities and the direct effect it has on other community-wide issues like access to green spaces, safe and affordable housing, and public health. The nexus between the environment and many socio-economic issues is crystal clear.

Through our workshops and conversations, we realised that we not only needed to make policy changes but to work at a more grassroots level in our most vulnerable neighbourhoods. The CHO has now developed heat enhancement training for the County’s Citizen Emergency Response Team Disaster Volunteers. The training is provided in our neighbourhoods and upon completion, each volunteer receives a heat response tool kit with resources like a thermometer, instant icepacks, electrolytes, and cooling towels. Communities watching out for their own is a key approach in our strategy and preparing engaged citizens with the knowledge and tools to help others is priceless.

We’re also planning a ‘Heat Season’ campaign that builds on public awareness and elevates it to the level of hurricane preparedness outreach that is done every year. We want Heat Season to become part of our community vernacular and for residents to be prepared and able to recognise and address the signs of heatrelated illnesses or stress.

I am incredibly proud that Miami-Dade is leading the way in this important work. We’ve learned so much from engaging everyone, from healthcare professionals, outdoor workers, scientists, social workers, school kids, and environmentalists, among others. It truly is a community-wide effort, and therein lies the success we’ve seen so far but there is, of course, more progress to come. To all the readers out there, stay cool and stay informed!

At the start of the decade, the world’s second-largest metals and mining corporation, Rio Tinto, blasted the historic sites at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, resulting in mass public fallout and devastation among Indigenous communities. This reaction was only enhanced by the revelation that Rio Tinto had, in fact, been granted Ministerial consent to permanently destroy this sacred site and retrospectively admitted that they could have adopted alternative methods that would have kept the caves intact.

This incident, like so many others around the world, highlights the deeply troubling reality of misunderstanding, disrespect and marginalisation that are experienced daily by Indigenous and minority communities everywhere. All of which is condoned by the legal and societal structures – which, at best, isolate communities, at worst, bring them tremendous harm.

Undoubtedly, law and culture are deeply entwined. Laws reflect the culture in which they were made, and in turn, these laws reinforce that culture once made. Whether the law is just or unjust, it nevertheless shapes behaviour – and that’s the problem. Laws, policies and governing bodies in Australia and further afield are still playing catch-up while there is an urgent need to properly protect the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples today – and that can and must be addressed on a local government level.

Guidance for local government

– Respect their relationships with Indigenous peoples and communities and work to serve their interests in the same way as all citizens, as is a core responsibility of local government.

– Recognise the rights and interests of Indigenous people and ensure the delivery of local government services is in harmony with those laws.

– Amend local government acts, policies and strategies to include provisions for Indigenous communities and their values and heritage.

– Become aware of Indigenous rights and interests, including cultural heritage matters and key sites. And, advocate alongside Indigenous citizens for the protection of that heritage – just the same as you would for an old building, church or beautiful landscape.

– Integrate issues of Indigenous rights and interests into strategic and corporate planning requirements, so that these matters are not treated separately as a ‘specialised’ or ‘unusual’ area of concern.

– Lastly, expand forms of engagement with Indigenous communities, and find ways to effectively link Indigenous community governance with ‘western’ local government.