Scorching heat and ghost towns – How America wants to save its metropolises

Washington, San Francisco Climate change is threatening big cities. Experts warn that rising temperatures could make many of the world’s metropolises uninhabitable in the future. In the USA, therefore, they now want to change course drastically. Climate managers with far-reaching powers are to reinvent urban spaces in Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere. The so-called “Chief Heat Officers” (CHO) develop concepts to prevent the nightmare scenario of hostile, glowing ghost towns.

It does not have to be temperatures of 55 degrees Celsius, as are currently being measured in California’s Death Valley. But in the face of ever new temperature records, the debate about the future of the big cities is increasingly penetrating public awareness.