Heat inequality: A study measures the impact of climate change on Rio de Janeiro's favelas

Every summer, Michele Campos cries when the temperatures in Rio de Janeiro rise above 40degC. The cement in the favela Chapeu Mangueira (where she lives) is heated up and makes her life in the windowless bedroom unbearable.

The 39-year old said, "Sleeping's the worst." In the favela, we feel the heat differently than people who have air conditioning.

Researchers at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, along with local partners are trying to understand how extreme heat?strains livelihoods for the 1.3 millions people, like Campos who live in Rio's?favelas - working-class neighbourhoods that were built by residents of Rio without any urban planning.

We don't have engineers or architects. "We build out of necessity", said Valdinei medina, the head of Percilia and Luco Renewable Energy Cooperative in Brazil's first solar energy cooperative located in favelas.

He said, "When it gets hot we suffer a great deal."

Researchers have placed thermometers inside homes in Chapeu Mangueira, Morro da Babilonia and other favelas to measure the temperature indoors. They also asked residents to maintain "heat journals" to document how high temperatures impact their bodies and their daily routines.

The aim is to demonstrate how climate change impacts people unequally in a city that is known for its stark inequality. Working-class homes are spread across rolling hills above wealthy neighbourhoods.

Francesca Pilo is the coordinator of the project and professor of urban planning in Utrecht University. She said that the data collected by the researchers could be used to inform public policies that take into account not only the heat levels on streets, but also the conditions inside homes.

She added that the study is "a starting point for understanding climate change, which is often seen as an environment issue, but that has become political." It also amplifies urban inequalities. (Reporting by Bruna Cabral in Rio de Janeiro, editing by Manuela Andreoni)

(source: Reuters)