One Of Fastest-Heating Cities In US, Las Vegas Plans New Airport, More Development, More Roads, More Concrete/Asphalt

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For the 2.3 million people who call this valley home, the dangerous elements are harder to ignore. When temperatures climb, shadeless streets are hot enough to cause second-degree burns in seconds. This June was the city’s hottest on record. In July, things got even worse: the city experienced a record seven days at 115F or higher and set a new all-time high of 120F. The heat is just a signal of what’s to come. Temperatures in Las Vegas are rising faster than almost anywhere else in the US.

Meanwhile, Clark county, where Las Vegas is located, is bursting at the seams. The region is among the fastest-growing metro areas in the US. Roughly 2 million people have moved here over the last 50 years, with nearly a million more expected by 2060. To accommodate them, the county has thrown its support behind a federal bill that would open up 25,000 acres of the surrounding desert for housing and commercial development. The county also has plans for a new airport, slated for completion in 2037, that would pave over thousands more acres of arid landscape near the California border. New shopping centers and cul de sacs all mean more concrete – and more heat – in an area where the ability to afford or access air conditioning can already mean the difference between life and death.

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Louis Lacey spends most of his summer days trying to save the lives of people like Williams, as the director of Help of Southern Nevada, a non-profit organization that hands out water, hygiene kits, and hope as part of a larger mission to get more people into permanent housing. “I have been living here since 1972 and it would get hot – but not this kind of hot,” Lacey said last week as he drove through the city scanning sidewalks and drainages for anyone in need of aid.

As someone who has experienced homelessness himself, he said, the work is a calling. It’s also laced with heartbreak. There was the woman whose leg was amputated after she got third-degree burns from passing out on the scalding hot sidewalk. She now uses a wheelchair. Just last week, he and other aid workers rushed to revive another woman, age 81, who passed out in an encampment. They found her surrounded by her pet dogs, who had all died in the heat. He was relieved they were able to save her. That’s not always how the story ends.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/25/las-vegas-extreme-heat