Podcast: Cool Infrastructures on “Can’t Take the Heat”

In the northern hemisphere, as countries were starting to enter the hottest time of the year, the world shut down in lockdowns intended to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. What happened to people living in informal settlements who had to deal with the dual impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns and the heat season?

Elspeth Oppermann explains how the Cool Infrastructures team used a large scale remote survey to understand if responses to the pandemic had shaped people's ability to manage extreme heat in off-grid settlements. Poor building materials created "oven-like" conditions for some, and finely-tuned practices to cool down were disrupted in many cases. Listen to the full episode to learn more!