According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, it is “virtually certain” that extreme heat events have become more common and more intense across the globe in recent years due to human-caused climate change. Between May 2023 and May 2024, climate change added an average of 26 days of extreme heat throughout the year. And during the summer of 2023, 326 million people in the U.S.–97% of the population–experienced at least one day of extreme heat affected by climate change.

This increasing and intensifying heat disproportionately affects those who we as Christians are explicitly called to serve: the poor, the vulnerable, the elderly, and our children. Children, and especially infants, cannot regulate their body temperature the same as adults and are at higher risk of muscle breakdown, kidney failure, seizure, coma, or even death due to extreme heat. Prolonged exposure to heat is also linked to long-term consequences like lower sleep quality, sedentary lifestyle, and an increase in mood and anxiety disorders. 

Those in urban, lower income neighborhoods are often exposed to even higher temperatures due to the “heat island effect.” Fewer trees, along with more asphalt and infrastructure, can cause these neighborhoods to be as much as 12°F hotter during a heatwave compared to wealthier areas. This, in turn, leads to increased energy costs, lower air quality, and heat-related illness and death.