Asheville activists call for climate protection despite extreme heat
ASHEVILLE – Pritchard Park was chosen in part for its shade: A canopy of leaves is all the more important as many areas struggle with warmer than usual temperatures, activists say, fueling a call for “climate action” as they gathered there in the heart of downtown.
It was also chosen for its proximity to the Wells Fargo Bank — although the venue in front of which the rally was held was recently relocated, the building still bears its name — when Third Act NC, the state chapter of a national political advocacy group, brought the “Wall Street Summer of Heat” from New York City to Asheville.
“What are we leaving for my grandchildren?” asked 71-year-old organizer Cheryl Orengo. One grandchild is only six years old, the other a toddler. “What will they have to deal with? I can’t even think about it because it worries me so much.”
On July 12, about 40 people, accompanied by the radical brass band “Brass Your Heart,” chanted their protest slogans and raised signs in the middle of the park before leading their supporters on a march around several blocks.
The protest movement is calling on major U.S. banks to “stop using our money to finance fossil fuels,” said Karen Willey, an environmental educator and climate communicator based in Asheville.
Climate activist and author Bill McKibben founded Third Act to mobilize people over 60 on the issue of climate change.
Heat records are being broken across the country, and the Asheville area is experiencing unusually hot and dry weather. While temperatures are not as high as other parts of the state, it is still “unusually hot” for western North Carolina, Corey Davis, the state’s deputy climatologist, told the Citizen Times in early July.
The National Weather Service forecasts high temperatures for Asheville of 90 degrees Fahrenheit on July 13, above 91 degrees Fahrenheit on July 14, and temperatures of 91 degrees Fahrenheit for the rest of the weekend.
Orengo said she had never experienced such sustained heat in her 43 years in Asheville. Rally attendees recalled summers without air conditioning, relying only on cross ventilation from the porch and sleeping under a light blanket in the summer.
“Climate change is real and I see it everywhere. Even in this area, which is one of the areas of the country that is most affected by climate change,” said Peter Ronman of Black Mountain. He used to turn on the air conditioning twice a year.
“Now I use it practically every day in the summer,” he said.
For people without a place to cool off or those who work outdoors, the temperatures are dangerous, Willey said. She was thinking of people who work in landscaping and construction, and the city’s homeless population. In the winter, she said, there are purple-alert shelters to fall back on on the coldest nights. But what about when the heat is life-threatening?
Buncombe County issued a heat advisory on July 9 as the maximum heat index rose to 95 degrees. It warned of “dangerous” temperatures for people exposed to the heat or who are particularly at risk, such as older adults, people with disabilities, outdoor workers, children, people without air conditioning and pregnant women.
It shouldn’t be a political issue, said Orengo, who worked for the Buncombe County Health Department before retiring. “This is a public health issue.”
In January 2020, the Asheville City Council declared a climate emergency and passed a resolution recognizing the urgent need to combat climate change and the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis on low-income communities and communities of color.
Asheville is on a list of U.S. cities most likely to see an influx of residents due to climate migration, and Willey said it is proof that such developments have already begun.
Before coming to Asheville, Willey lived on a bay in southwest Florida and watched the sea level rise outside her door. She sold the house and moved downtown, but knew that when she retired, she “needed to get out of here and go to a place where the water wasn’t rising.”
More: Meet Asheville’s first urban forester. How will the city grow its tree canopy?
More: City of Asheville wants to integrate climate justice into policies and procedures
Sarah Honosky is a city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News tips? Email [email protected] or tweet @slhonosky. Please support local daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
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