Extreme heat in urban Milwaukee

08/25/21 • 35 min

Climate change is making summers hotter, leaving people without air conditioning in Milwaukee and other cities vulnerable to its dangerous health impacts. Low-income communities and communities of color are often more likely to experience the harsh impacts of severe heat brought by climate change.

In this episode, we travel to the Century City Triangle Neighborhood in Milwaukee where over half of residents do not have air conditioning. We break down the dangers of Milwaukee’s urban heat island effect, why some communities feel the impacts of heat more than others, and what can be done to protect people going forward. Hear from Yvonne McCaskill from the Century City Triangle Neighborhood Association, Clean Wisconsin Milwaukee Program Director Pam Ritger, and Caitlin Rublee from Wisconsin Health Professionals for Climate Action.

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Picking up the slack, a fight for clean water

Joe and Kathy Weitekamp have lived in the same home for nearly 40 years in the Town of Campbell, but they are just now learning of PFAS contamination in their private well.

And they are not alone.

Recently, La Crosse area residents are discovering PFAS in their drinking water, many over the state's recommended limit of 20 parts per trillion, from firefighting foam used by the city's fire department.

In this episode, we hear how residents are stepping up to advocate for clean water as local governments are slow to take action and how one piece of legislation moving through the state legislature could help not only clean-up current PFAS contamination, but help prevent more in the future.

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The importance of wetlands

When you think about Wisconsin’s great outdoors, you might picture our lakes and rivers, our hiking trails that lead to breathtaking bluffs and waterfalls, but you might not think about our wetlands.

Even though they cover more than five-million acres of our state, wetlands don’t always top the list of Wisconsin’s most beloved outdoor spaces. But maybe they should, especially considering we’ve lost more than half of our wetlands in just the last century or so.

In this episode, come along with us as we walk through a wetland in south-central Wisconsin with Katie Beilfuss of the Wisconsin Wetland Association to learn about these special places and why people are fighting to keep them protected and preserved.