By: Andrew Tao
The school was canceled in Grand Rapids, Michigan for students and teachers on May 21 due to high heat and sub-par air conditioning. This heat came from a heat wave.
Schools have been struggling with air conditioning for a long time, but with climate change, it is becoming more and more of an issue. When greenhouse gases are emitted from everyday machinery such as cars, heat is trapped in the atmosphere which results in higher temperatures. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, “41 percent of school districts need to update or replace heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems in at least half of their schools.” If this situation is not resolved quickly, a higher number of school closures could occur.
Michigan isn’t the only place where schools are closing due to heat. New England is also expected to get record-breaking temperatures. This is due to the Great Lakes having a high-pressure air system above it.
According to the Great Lakes Scuttlebutt, “Sun warmed air over the land rises and creates a weak low-pressure area over the land near the shore. Cooler dense air centered over the lake water then effectively becomes a small-scale high-pressure system over the lake.”
This high-pressure system over the great lakes causes warm air, which is expected to travel to New England. This warm air will likely raise temperatures in New England by 10 to 20 degrees, and according to the New York Times, “Highs in the upper 80s to low 90s from the Great Lakes into New England are expected on Thursday and Friday, and some areas in the region could come close to tying or even breaking daily records.”
Heat is extremely dangerous, especially for students in schools that lack air conditioning. According to Harvard University, “Too much heat makes our hearts, lungs, brains, kidneys and other organs do not work well.”
On top of organs’ function impacted it is easy to get heat stroke in high heat. On average, 702 heat-related deaths occur each year in the United States, and that number is climbing up higher and higher every year.