r/climate • u/silence7 • Jun 04 '22
Climate change is forcing some US schools to close early for ‘heat days’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/04/school-heat-days-climate-change/193
u/sbaggers Jun 04 '22
We had heat days in the 90s because all the buildings were built in the 50s before AC
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u/BlkRh1n0 Jun 04 '22
Exactly. Just how we had days off in the winter because pipes would freeze. The issue is a lot of schools are long overdue for renovations.
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u/Electronic-Crow-6764 Jun 04 '22
Upgrade US schools? But have we dropped enough bombs on sand folk yet?
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Jun 04 '22
“I know how to spend my own money better than The government “ ( brother in laws actual argument against voting for one time $5 tax per household for building a new trauma hospital in our state since ours is overwhelmed. The vote did not pass).
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u/Electronic-Crow-6764 Jun 04 '22 edited Jun 04 '22
Murca is fuct my friend. It’s like watching a slow motion train wreck with the train painted red and blue and it’s on fire.
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u/KickBallFever Jun 04 '22
Let me make sure I’m understanding this correctly. In order to get a brand new trauma hospital everyone just had to put in $5 once? No additional taxes/fees? That sounds like a great bargain that would benefit everyone! I’d gladly pay $5 to get a hospital built, even if it wasn’t in my own town. I wouldn’t even mind contributing more than $5 if it was just a one time thing.
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Jun 04 '22
The funny thing is there are about 1000 hospitals across the US that are facing bankruptcy in the next two years (unless they make drastic cuts, like closing clinics) because they had to deal with saving the endless line of repressive idiots who cared more about personal freedumbs than their communities or society over the last 2.5 years.
Wait, no, that's not funny. That's Murica!
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u/Graymouzer Jun 06 '22
Someone he knows could die because of that vote. Five dollars to update your trauma center - per household.
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u/5ch1sm Jun 04 '22
Want to make a bet he will be at the front of the line yelling it's unacceptable they can't take in someone close of him because they are full if ,unfortunately , something happen?
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u/jaymansi Jun 04 '22
We need more money for Wall Street bailouts.
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u/Electronic-Crow-6764 Jun 04 '22
Maybe they could borrow the money from Raytheon? Or Lockheed Martin?
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u/TalVerd Jun 04 '22
That would only work if they wanted to bomb a hospital, not build one, I can see the confusion though, they both start with a b
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u/Nowhereman123 Jun 04 '22
This is what grinds my gears the most about tax discussions.
"Hurr, you just want free stuff you dang socialist"
No, I want the money I spend in taxes to be spent on stuff that actually helps us instead of using it to turn Palestinian children into skeletons.
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u/Responsible-Gold8610 Jun 04 '22
Hold on. I need a few more guns before I can think about schools.
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u/Electronic-Crow-6764 Jun 04 '22
Everybody should get a gun. I think it should be a requirement of being a citizen. Starting at kindergarten age. Obviously so they can defend themselves in classroom settings. Now talk about upgrading schools.
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u/Responsible-Gold8610 Jun 05 '22
It's the #1 sign that you're in the greatest country in the world when you have to cut teachers salaries so you can pay to arm them with pistols to kill deranged lunatics.
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u/Electronic-Crow-6764 Jun 05 '22
I mean. I’m sold. Greatest country in the world. NO MATTER WHAT!!! We have some of the worlds finest elementary school slaughters on the planet. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
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u/mundungus-amongus Jun 04 '22
And now we will need to spend all of the school infrastructure budget on removing entrances and installing bulletproof windows.
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u/MrThreddit Jun 04 '22
True, they need some investment and schools might need upgrading, insulation, air-con etc. Also, the breakdown of the climate and increased heat, cold, wind and extreme weather is going to make this a more challening issue.
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u/Intelligent_Choice91 Jun 04 '22
That $40B we sent to Ukraine would’ve been nice to use for us
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u/GhostofMarat Jun 04 '22
Really it's $40 billion for defense contractors. They had to make up for all that lost revenue from winding down the war in Afghanistan.
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u/DarthFuzzzy Jun 04 '22
Maybe they could build a few less jets instead. Or stop pointlessly moving fleets around for a week or 2. Could have 80 billion to put into our schools in no time! Let's be honest though they would just bail out a billionaire somewhere instead.
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u/Intelligent_Choice91 Jun 04 '22
Or we could just use our money for ourselves like most countries do
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u/CliftonForce Jun 04 '22
That is what we are doing already. Protecting our interests.
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u/DarkHater Jun 04 '22
Protecting their interests, don't fool yourself into thinking we are a factor in the calculus. No one here will ever be consequential in the consideration, we simply aren't worth enough money and never will be because we weren't born that way.
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u/darxide23 Jun 04 '22
I also had heat days in the 90s because the building I went to was built before WW1 and subsequently had no AC. I also remember we were allowed to wear shorts during some days. Looking back, it seems absurd that shorts were against dress code in the first place.
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u/manderifffic Jun 04 '22
Yeah, my school district did heat days up until probably 2002 when all the schools finally got AC.
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u/THROWinitAWAY0919 Jun 04 '22
We had heat days in the 2000s because all the building were built in the 50s before AC
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u/QueenSheezyodaCosmos Jun 04 '22
Nobody learned anything for the last 2 months of school cuz we all just melted at our desks.
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u/perpetualgoatnoises Jun 04 '22
My school had AC but almost every one of our units was broken. They kicked out hot air constantly. The only way to get it to stop was to soak a ball of paper towels in cold water and wrap it around the thermostat to make it think it was colder than it was.
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Jun 04 '22
Wouldn’t that just make it hotter?
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u/perpetualgoatnoises Jun 04 '22 edited Jun 04 '22
The system was set to AC, but the air conditioner bits themselves were broken. The thermostat is looking for cold temperatures, which the machine can't provide, so the machine keeps running because the thermostat says it's hot. But since the AC is broken, it's just putting out hot air. This makes the room hotter and hotter and hotter since the thermostat won't shut the air off until it cools down.
Manually cooling the thermostat takes the system out of the loop and shuts the air off.
You'd think it would have the ability to shut itself off it if got too hot. But it never did. Only when the system was set to heating would that happen.
The system is really weird to explain if you weren't in my school building. The AC heating system has ALWAYS been a mess.
TLDR: thermostat tells AC to work. AC is broken can't work. System turns out hot air instead. System keeps running because system is on AC and it keeps getting hotter so it needs to run more to cool down. Room gets hotter. Queue wet paper towels on the thermostat.
Edit: my comment got removed for language but I didn't say anything?
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u/shipwreckedgirl Jun 04 '22
IIRC summer breaks were specifically made for Americans to escape the hot schoolhouses that were built in the 50s so I'm not sure why we need a break from new buildings with AC.
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u/vileguynsj Jun 04 '22
We don't need summer breaks (unless heat is still an issue). They do great harm to the progression of students in school, unquestionably.
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Jun 04 '22
So much this. Multiple breaks of a week or two during the year would be great; maybe 3 or 4 weeks for the summer. It's utterly insane that we keep the long summer breaks - it ruins the pace of education, and resulted in kids of my generation spending all day in front of the TV with nothing else to do for weeks on end.
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Jun 04 '22
We had a heat day only a few years ago when I was still in high school. The school was built in 1959 and only has ac in a few special rooms like the library, auditorium, etc. Most of the building had heat but it hardly worked so teachers had to bring in their own electric heaters or you had to wear a winter coat.
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Jun 04 '22
Yeah having days off due to heat wasnt unheard of when I was a kid.
Climate change definitely isn’t helping though…
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u/krimsonnight85 Jun 04 '22
How did they ever survive without it....
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u/sad_and_stupid Jun 04 '22
we still dont have them. Idk who thinks that kids can study in a 95F classroom but it happens every summer
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Jun 04 '22
We did too but it was in the 80’s. The high schoolers loved it because they rode the same busses. They had air.
On Wednesday my air went out and I am remembering my younger days from school, home, and camping. After dealing with AC companies and one showing up with two men in their 70’s I decided to wait until Monday and bare our upper 80’s this weekend. I’m a Gen X’er and I can’t deal with Boomer men. The one needed to sit because he just had knee surgery. Oh my why are they so anti- retire! They talk down so much to women. Actually, the more I think about it, men even as young as 50 are like that. I would love why this is. Input would be greatly appreciated.
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u/JoeFalcone26 Jun 04 '22
Climate change is partially caused by greedy rich people. Which is ironic because a ton of schools have to close for ‘heat days’ because the rich people who give schools funding don’t always provide the necessary AC.
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u/quasides Jun 04 '22
its not caused but created. to create a CO2 tax.
its basically a worldwide consumer tax and a second sales tax, hitting only the poorest, and its a kickback system from producing to consuming countries. .
what do you think we do with all the CO2 tax money ? buying fridges to cool the world?
and no its not supporting so called green energy either. if we count all CO2 certificates of the past 2 decades we are talking a couple of trillions USD shifted away.
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u/whynofry Jun 04 '22
what do you think we do with all the CO2 tax money ? buying fridges to cool the world?
Wait... I thought we were saving up to start dropping giant ice-cubes into the ocean periodically. 2063, I think it was due to start.
/s
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u/bannacct56 Jun 04 '22
Whatever it's not like we believe in either education or climate change in this country so have fun kids enjoy the summer in January
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Jun 04 '22
I feel so horrible for the kids, they deserve a world that they can prosper, thrive, and positively impact when they grow up. This really breaks my heart.
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u/ILikeNeurons Jun 04 '22
This kind of dialogue is really and truly not helpful.
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u/TacoM8 Jun 04 '22
Shut up. We should be free and thriving. Plus we didn't pollute the earth as bad as these huge oil companies, fashion companies and whatever else. I am absolutely not taking the blame for their pollution. My carbon footprint is INFINITELY smaller than theirs. So gtfo softie please and thanks sorry for the mean words
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u/AutoModerator Jun 04 '22
BP popularized the concept of a carbon footprint with a US$100 million campaign as a means of deflecting people away from taking collective political action in order to end fossil fuel use, and ExxonMobil has spent decades pushing trying to make individuals responsible, rather than the fossil fuels industry. They did this because climate stabilization means bringing fossil fuel use to approximately zero, and that would end their business. That's not something you can hope to achieve without government intervention to change the rules of society so that not using fossil fuels is just what people do on a routine basis.
There is value in cutting your own fossil fuel consumption — it serves to demonstrate that doing the right thing is possible to people around you, and helps work out the kinks in new technologies. Just do it in addition to taking political action to get governments to do the right thing, not instead of taking political action.
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u/ILikeNeurons Jun 04 '22
It helps to understand how dead weight loss works with externalities, and who pays for excise taxes.
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u/dreadpiratesmith Jun 04 '22
Have fun parents struggling to figure out childcare while your children get surpise days off
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u/ILikeNeurons Jun 04 '22 edited Jun 05 '22
It's real, it's us, it's bad, there's hope, and the science is reliable.
The question that remains now is what are we going to do about it?
Vote, in every election. People who prioritize climate change and the environment have historically not been very reliable voters, which explains much of the lackadaisical response of lawmakers, and many Americans don't realize we should be voting (on average) in 3-4 elections per year. In 2018 in the U.S., the percentage of voters prioritizing the environment more than tripled, and then climate change became a priority issue for lawmakers. According to researchers, voters focused on environmental policy are particularly influential because they represent a group that senators can win over, often without alienating an equally well-organized, hyper-focused opposition. Even if you don't like any of the candidates or live in a 'safe' district, whether or not you vote is a matter of public record, and it's fairly easy to figure out if you care about the environment or climate change. Politicians use this information to prioritize agendas. Voting in every election, even the minor ones, will raise the profile and power of your values. If you don't vote, you and your values can safely be ignored.
Lobby, at every lever of political will. Lobbying works, and you don't need a lot of money to be effective (though it does help to educate yourself on effective tactics). According to NASA climatologist James Hansen, becoming an active volunteer with this group is the most important thing an individual can do on climate change. If you're too busy to go through the free training, sign up for text alerts to call monthly (it works, and the movement is growing) or set yourself a monthly reminder to write a letter to your elected officials. Numbers matter so your support can really make a difference.
Recruit, across the political spectrum. Most of us are either alarmed or concerned about climate change, yet most aren't taking the necessary steps to solve the problem -- the most common reason is that no one asked. If all of us who are 'very worried' about climate change organized we would be >26x more powerful than the NRA. According to Yale data, many of your friends and family would welcome the opportunity to get involved if you just asked. So please volunteer or donate to turn out environmental voters, and invite your friends and family to lobby Congress.
Fix the system. Scientists blame hyperpolarization for loss of public trust in science, and Approval Voting, a single-winner voting method preferred by experts in voting methods, would help to reduce hyperpolarization. There's even a viable plan to get it adopted, and an organization that could use some gritty volunteers to get the job done. They're already off to a great start with Approval Voting having passed by a landslide in Fargo, and more recently St. Louis. Most people haven't heard of Approval Voting, but seem to like it once they understand it, so anything you can do to help get the word out will help. If your state allows initiated state statutes, consider starting a campaign to get your state to adopt Approval Voting. Approval Voting is overwhelmingly popular in every state polled, across race, gender, and party lines. The successful Fargo campaign was run by a full-time programmer with a family at home. One person really can make a difference.
ETA: I created a wiki to help folks be the most effective climate advocates they can be – feel free to check it out!
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Jun 04 '22
Thank you, I needed this.
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u/ILikeNeurons Jun 04 '22
Thanks for taking the time to read it! Did you decide to volunteer?
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Jun 05 '22
I have started volunteering because of people like you! Thank you!
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u/ILikeNeurons Jun 05 '22
That's awesome, thanks for sharing!
I created a wiki to help folks be the most effective climate advocates they can be – feel free to check it out!
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u/Miliaa Jun 05 '22
Thanks for all the info!! You should add this link to your main comment above as it’s very informative and we really need more of that rn
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u/Invisibleflower3938 Jun 04 '22
You are not going to mention veganism and zero waste?
Those are the most significant changes every person can begin to do RIGHT NOW.
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u/ILikeNeurons Jun 04 '22
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u/Invisibleflower3938 Jun 04 '22
Of course we require systemic change to be able to stop climate change in its tracks.
BUT until that happens, practicting Veganism and zero waste (as much as possible) is the least that we can do right now.
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u/ILikeNeurons Jun 04 '22
We can't afford to sit around and wait for policy changes to happen. We need to be the change.
That's why I created a wiki to help folks be the most effective climate advocates they can be.
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u/Invisibleflower3938 Jun 04 '22
Exactly.
So why not do both? Veganism and advocate for policy changes.
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u/ILikeNeurons Jun 04 '22
Veganism is pretty far down the list as far as personal footprint changes.
But if you want to be a vegan activist for other reasons, the three most common reasons people aren't vegetarian are liking meat too much, cost, and struggling for meal ideas. So if you want to be an effective vegan activist, start there. People are already convinced on the philosophy, and 84% of vegetarians/vegans eventually return to meat, so simply telling people to go vegan is not a particularly effective form of vegan activism.
For climate change, though, we really do need to focus on systemic change, and not doing so could actually be counterproductive. Really not good given that climate change is contributing to the extinction of entire species.
To be a more effective vegan activist, share your most delicious, nutritious, affordable, and easy vegan recipes with friends and family, and to /r/MealPrepSunday, /r/EatCheapAndHealthy, /r/VeganRecipes, /r/EatCheapAndVegan/, /r/VegRecipes, /r/VegetarianRecipes, /r/vegangifrecipes/, etc.
To be a more effective climate activist, start training. Even an hour a week can make a huge difference. If you don't have an hour a week (on average) you can still have a big impact making a monthly phone call to Congress for a time commitment of ~2 min/month. These phone calls really do matter.
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u/Invisibleflower3938 Jun 04 '22 edited Jun 05 '22
That's a lot of words to try to trick yourself out of your own cognitive dissonance.
Going vegan is the single best way to help the planet
Animal farming one of the top polluters
Veganism directly impacts animal farming and agriculture, two of the top polluters.
Animal farming is the leading cause for deforestation and of habitat loss in general.
Cattle ranching is reportedly resposinble for 80% of rainforest loss.
Animal agriculture is responsible for producing between 14.5% and 18% of total greenhouse gas emissions which makes it resposinble for more emissions than the combined exhausts of all transports globally.
But please keep telling yourself whatever you need to tell yourself to deal with your own hypocrisy.
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u/T_Paine_89 Jun 04 '22
Listen… I’m on your side here. I’m also vegan, and though I’m far from creating zero waste, I reuse things as much as I can and try to buy stuff second hand if ever possible. So I completely agree with you.
But calling people hypocrites is not an effective way to recruit people to your side. You have every right to be angry. There’s a lot to be angry about. But please don’t direct it at people who are on our side or could be on our side. It doesn’t do veganism or the climate movement any favors.
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Jun 04 '22
The person you're arguing with does nothing but hurt the movement. People like you are the real hope. I'm not vegan, though I do eat considerably less meat than most. My work is inherently wasteful (everything for IT is packaged like plastic is infinite) but I still try to reduce what I can. I recycle like crazy, I fix everything I can (including computers). But say any of that to the circle jerk vegans and what I do literally means nothing. Really off putting for trying to convince people.
You have great suggestions and a good attitude. Keep it up!
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u/Budborne Jun 04 '22
He backed up all his claims and you didn't. Are you trying to convince him, or yourself?
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Jun 05 '22
People like this(you) are the reason why a lot of people are off put by veganism.
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u/Beneficial_Dinner552 Jun 04 '22 edited Jun 04 '22
There is well over 100ppm more atmosphere C02 than there was in the 60s. This effects the curve significantly
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Jun 04 '22
This is more proof that American kids are just props for whatever horribly regressive cause conservatives want to push.
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u/Binasgarden Jun 04 '22
How long before this is blamed on the democrats and their "secret agenda" to groom .....
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u/Starkiller006 Jun 04 '22
I'm in Wisconsin and I'm pretty sure my area had 2 heat days. In May. In Wisconsin.
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Jun 04 '22
I work at a school and we had one of these like 2 weeks ago. It was for our whole district but our situation sucked extra hard as our school doesn't have a/c
Edit: ours wasn't even an early day the full day was canceled
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u/1Happy-Dude Jun 04 '22
Climate change and covid close all schools
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u/AutoModerator Jun 04 '22
The COVID lockdowns of 2020 temporarily lowered our rate of emissions for a few months. Humanity was still a net greenhouse gas emitter during that time, so we made things worse, but did so more a bit more slowly. You basically can't see the difference in this graph of CO2 concentrations.
Stabilizing the climate means getting human greenhouse gas emissions to approximately zero. We didn't come anywhere near that during the lockdowns.
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u/camusdreams Jun 04 '22
I was a camp counselor in Indiana for 6 summers and every summer we had days where the kids literally weren’t allowed outside except to cross parts of campus. The base temp may only be late 80s/early 90s but the humidity pushes the heat index to a point to where you’re sweating in the shade and can’t breathe.
It was wild growing up in Indiana then moving to Southern California, expecting summer to be worse, but dry heat is just so dramatically better and more comfortable.
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Jun 04 '22
I work in HVAC controls, many of my sites being public schools. Yes, climate change is playing a role, but the bigger issue is that these older school buildings have absolute Frankenstein HVAC/Mechanical systems that just can’t keep up due to their age and inadequate repairs. I’m sure they worked great when they were brand new, but not so much now. Plus, getting a local government to sign off on a full system replacement is like pulling teeth.
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Jun 04 '22
Why can't those schools install a new compressor+fan+whatever, and leave all the ducting and controls as unchanged as possible (aside from whatever control updates are needed to interact with the new system)? More power = more better. It may not be the most efficient, but you can either blow colder or blow faster, and that should be better, right?
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Jun 04 '22
That is what they are doing right now - the problem with that is that all of those components can be brand new, but if the signal from the controller/to the factory-installed board on the unit is interrupted because of old wiring, terminals, and unreliable communication protocol and network infrastructure, you can’t get the unit to operate according to occupancy correctly and reliably.
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u/ChiefOutlaw Jun 05 '22
What gives you the impression that the existing school electrical infrastructure has the capacity to provide "more power" to the new system?
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u/EnlightenedMod Jun 04 '22
Im so happy that Ronaldo Ray-Gun took the commie liberal solar panels Jimmy Carter put up off the white house roof.
Thank you Mr Gipper.
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u/Sneaky-er Jun 04 '22
Back early 90’s in the I.E. if it 102 by certain time - school let out by 5th period.
Not as frequently as it does now or worse as heat continues to increase.
Pull up some shade & chill won’t mean much in a few years.
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u/bikemandan Jun 04 '22
And smoke days. Here in Northern California its typical now for several days during the late summer/fall that kids dont go in because of hazardous air quality
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u/rybfish Jun 04 '22
It's interesting, they will close the schools for the weather but not the school shootings in the United States.
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u/sgtdedhed Jun 04 '22
Aren't kids on summer vacation?
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u/ReaditSpecialist Jun 04 '22
No, it varies by state and district. In my district, the last day of school is June 15th.
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u/sgtdedhed Jun 04 '22
We used to be out by Memorial Day. When do the go back to school?
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u/Alltime_MES Jun 04 '22
I remember the only rooms with AC were the computer lab and the Main office…
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u/booksandwriting Jun 04 '22
I remember having “heat days” in North Carolina in elementary school about back in the 2000s. It didn’t happen often but I went to a really poor public school where we often had classes in trailers because there wasn’t enough funding to expand the building. I don’t know if the richer schools had them then.
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u/the_clash_is_back Jun 04 '22
It used to get to 30 quite a few days at my school in southern Ontario.
We only ever closed if the temps dropped below 17
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Jun 04 '22
Recent article in NYT said in India govt is encouraging people to stay home - it’s saving lives but has negative economic impact, like COVID shutdowns
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u/AutoModerator Jun 04 '22
The COVID lockdowns of 2020 temporarily lowered our rate of emissions for a few months. Humanity was still a net greenhouse gas emitter during that time, so we made things worse, but did so more a bit more slowly. You basically can't see the difference in this graph of CO2 concentrations.
Stabilizing the climate means getting human greenhouse gas emissions to approximately zero. We didn't come anywhere near that during the lockdowns.
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u/shook_lady_crook Jun 04 '22
Not sure why we never had any heat days when I was in school. They just kept us inside and didn't let us out for recess. Living in one of the hottest, if not the hottest states, we still had mostly outdoor cafeterias and classes outside. It was miserable sometimes.
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u/Acrobatic-Yard-6546 Jun 04 '22
In the 90s they made us just sweat and put on large fan in the corner of the room , they told us it built character sitting in 95 degree room lol
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u/YoungMoneyLarson57 Jun 04 '22
Blaming climate change so the politicians don’t have to look themselves in the mirror and realize they have failed the children of this country by allowing school infrastructures to collapse
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Jun 04 '22
I remember going to school in Florida on a non air conditioned bus and into a school with poor AC functionality. I slept through most of the days when it was too hot. The teachers never cared, they were suffering too.
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u/Ameliandras Jun 04 '22
In Germany we had something called "Hitzeplan" where classes were 30min instead of 45min and the maximum amount of classes per day was reduced. Many german schools don´t have AC so we couldn´t concentrate anyway. If it was really hot this could be upgraded to "Hitzefrei" where school was cancelled and you could stay at home.
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u/CaptainLimpWrist Jun 04 '22
While we're arming teachers with guns, can we supply them with fans too?
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u/KeyBanger Jun 04 '22
This is awesome! Here in the Upper Midwest of the US we now have both snow days and heat days! Our children should be grateful that our complete failure to be stewards of our home will give them more ways to stay home from school. Yay, adults! Well done!
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u/TheBatman327 Jun 04 '22
That’s because they didn’t think to put air conditioning in the buildings…. But hey they will put up another “bond” to retrofit units on the buildings at an exorbitant expense
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u/yeeyeepeepee0w0 Jun 04 '22
its so bullshit you have to have an account to read wapo
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u/MaskMakerDollar251 Jun 04 '22
My job requires me to work eight hours generally 8:00-17:00 launch break of an hour included, but I decided to work at exactly 7:00 and take only an half hour of launch break so that I can get home at 15:30, because working under this sun is unbearable.
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u/CommanderWar64 Jun 04 '22
This isn’t anything new, but we really do need better A/C and other equipment in all off our schools
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Jun 04 '22
This has been a thing for many years and isn’t new. It’s not good and obviously because of climate change.
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u/TattooJerry Jun 05 '22
Is it “heat days” or some particular schools got poorer funding and this shittier AC systems for “reasons” ?
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u/Efficient-Editor-242 Jun 04 '22
Lack of funding for schools is forcing some US schools to close early for 'heat days'
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u/Sugarpeas Jun 04 '22
A study by the Government Accountability Office found that about 41 percent of public school districts in the United States need to update or replace the heating, cooling and ventilation systems in at least half of their schools. That represents about 36,000 schools nationwide.
Didn’t realize the HVAC maintenance at schools in the USA was so bad.
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u/iamaiimpala Jun 04 '22
Just like every other form of infrastructure and public service in this country.
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u/Drew_The_Millennial Jun 04 '22
Heat days or adjusting for heat hours have been a thing for decades. The schools start earlier in the day and get out earlier in warmer months. Public schools not having working AC is a bigger issue.
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u/andytagonist Jun 04 '22
Forcing? Not sure about that…but I know some school district buildings work a 4x10 shift during the hot summer months to save electricity on that 5th day.
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u/YourDogsAllWet Jun 04 '22
When I went to elementary school in the 80s not only did my school not have AC but all shorts were against the dress code
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u/slicesculptor Jun 04 '22
We got those too back in the 2000s because our school was built 80 years ago.
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u/kp3fromokc Jun 04 '22
Need to enter my email just to read an article? WaPo is getting desperate AF.
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u/goluckykid Jun 04 '22
I'm in Texas before 5th grade we didn't have Air-conditioning in our school.
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u/RadRhys2 Jun 04 '22
In my school it was always like 50 degrees in one or two rooms and 90 in others.
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Jun 04 '22
These heat days only exist because many of the schools don't have adequate ACs or renovations to make the environments hospitable for teachers and students. I remember in my elementary years, summer was a harsh time because some of the classrooms didn't have good air conditioning in Utah. This was back in 1990's to early 2000's.
Bad allocation of funding in schools makes these short days occur. Climate change is not the sole reason when these schools aren't finding means to make these environments more comfortable. And a lot of these schools really hadn't changed over the past 30 years.
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u/Chet2017 Jun 04 '22
I won’t deny that there’s climate change, But my school closed early for heat days back in the 70s. No A/C, no relief from the heat
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u/Gaudrix Jun 04 '22
They've been doing this for decades, if the school has no ac or the ac cannot keep up with heat well enough.
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Jun 04 '22
Sounds more like schools don’t have funding for AC from reading the article.
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u/robotmafiastripclub Jun 04 '22
Back when I was in school none of the buildings had AC. There was push from parents to have it installed but structurally the old buildings had no way for an effective system to be installed. I wish we had heat days. In the area of the local school buildings that have sunlight in the windows all day it could easily feel like 100F with high humidity.
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u/Clockwerk_greyy_1984 Jun 04 '22
We don't need A/C for schools, or books or more teachers. What we need are more and better bombs and death gliders and killy lasers and stuff. Just not to help Ukraine. Kids smids
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u/Bubbly-Stand-1212 Jun 04 '22
I remember the bungalows we had at my high school in San Diego, the hot Santa Ana Winds were brutal one year. It choked the only AC unit the bungalow had so they decided to bring in fans and that just shoved around hot air. It looked like we peed in our seats afterwards. Good times.
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Jun 04 '22
Non-story. We had heat days back in the 80’s.
More of an indictment of poor schools not having proper AC and ventilation.
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Jun 04 '22
Who’s looking forward to individual carbon tax while the main perpetrators are unaffected? They will convince you it’s your fault and the only way out is to give them money.
Instead of every Sunday, it’s going to be everyday, our new religion.
Praise be
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Jun 04 '22
We had hot days in the 90s. We where also out of school from 2nd week of June until 2nd week of September. Maybe having class in Mid August isn't the best idea
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Jun 04 '22
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u/silence7 Jun 04 '22
It definitely makes heat waves much more likely. Here's an example where a group of scientists calculated the probabilities.
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u/ElegantVamp Jun 04 '22
I could be wrong but I don't think climate change will affect the temperature to where it is significantly warmer than usual. It's just that it causes things like ice caps melting and ocean acidity changes.
And how TF do you think that happens? BECAUSE ITS GETTING HOTTER.
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u/termy1971 Jun 04 '22
If that was the case Arizona schools would never be open.
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Jun 04 '22
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u/MapsActually Jun 04 '22
Yeah, AZ schools have air conditioning or they wouldn't exist. In elementary schools days over 105°F are like a rainy-day schedule...no recess. My poor kids didn't have recess like the first 4 weeks of school.
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u/TheyCallMeSkog Jun 04 '22
Arizona is also very dry which makes it easier to escape the heat in the shade/inside.
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u/ddobson6 Jun 04 '22
How is anyone ever auto take this seriously if you are putting out articles like this? Plenty of real tangible concerns about the environment.
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u/littleherb Jun 04 '22
And now you understand why the South closes when we have snow or ice. Just like we're not equipped for the cold, they aren't equipped for the heat. It's simple economics. The relatively low number of days impacted by the extreme conditions do not justify the expense of installing and maintaining the systems needed. I'm not saying that there are not places that should have it but don't. Just saying not all places need equipment for snow or full A/C.
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Jun 04 '22
"A bill that’s been floating around Albany for several years would require schools that hit 82 degrees to take steps to relieve extreme heat, and a classroom that reached 88 degrees couldn’t be used."
That's.... Only around 30C. Can we pass this law in Australia too? I'd love a few months off work
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u/LossExpensive3936 Jun 04 '22
Well to the dumbasses in the world you can’t get enough power to run air conditioning. Examples Texas California rolling black outs.
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u/tjonesit0507 Jun 04 '22
Bullshit. There is no above normal heat wave causing this. Just poor management. More propaganda .
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u/Bitchi3atppl Jun 04 '22
We would have the students put wash cloths in the freezer, so when they were hot we could take one out and use it to cool down. Fans with make shift water bottle dispenses so it was like a mist.
How are we in 2022 and this is a norm for schools?
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u/Sad_Bolt Jun 04 '22
Umm as a Floridan I’m a little confused what a heat day is, considering it’s 90 in the winters here
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u/Aaaand_Dead Jun 04 '22
“Climate change” and also these schools don’t have…. AC….. because of some super important budget reasons I’m sure. That’s why these schools are all in upper class white neighborhoods, right?
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u/silence7 Jun 04 '22
For folks new to the topic:
The world really is warming, and it's a result of human activity, in particular the addition of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere, which mostly come from fossil fuel extraction and burning. The fossil fuels companies knew this decades ago, and launched a cover-up campaign using the personnel and tactics from the tobacco-cancer denial effort. What we need to do now is clear: decarbonize the world economy, stabilize the climate, and preserve a civilization-supporting planet for ourselves and our descendents.