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Playgrounds aren’t what they used to be! The Washington Post reports that across the US, schools are taking on projects that rip up pavements, concrete and asphalt in school yards to build shade structures, and plant trees and other greenery instead. The reason? With the soaring temperatures accompanying climate change, it is no longer just a small number of activists and teachers who want to transform heat-absorbing asphalt playgrounds into green oases with trees, shade, and nature-rich play areas.
Today, the need for cooler, healthier, more sustainable school environments has entered the mainstream.
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Recognizing the negative impacts of climate change
Various research projects show that asphalt play areas magnify the health risks of extreme heat, the Washington Post details. Hotter play spaces increase the risk of contact burns and heat illnesses in children.
Researchers at UCLA have recorded temperatures of 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degrees Celsius) on schoolyard asphalt, with alternatives like rubber and artificial turf liable to get even hotter. In other research, surface temperatures rose above 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Celsius) in a Los Angeles public elementary schoolyard in May 2021, according to data gathered by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports the Washington Post.
At a certain threshold, a 2021 Washington Post article reveals, a climate change-induced combination of heat and humidity makes it difficult for the body to sweat fast enough to cool itself down. Children’s bodies are less able to sweat, causing them to become dehydrated faster, as AP News reports.
Paved surfaces really heat up in the sun, AP News points out, because they absorb solar energy and slowly re-radiate it out as heat, boosting air temperatures by as much as seven degrees Fahrenheit (3.9 degrees Celsius.)
US nonprofit,Trust for Public Land, warns the Washington Post of a “massive need” to tackle asphalt play areas, built decades ago, as they magnify extreme heat. According to the group, public schools in America cover over two million acres of land, much of which has been cleared of trees.
The most vulnerable, low-income citizens tend to live in cities with little tree cover, where roads, buildings and parking lots absorb the sun’s rays, known as the “urban heat island effect.” So explains Jennifer Vanos of the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University to the Washington Post. Within these barren neighborhoods are outdoor play spaces, created in the 1980s, when asphalt was considered to be the safest surface, but which have effectively become smaller heat islands within the larger ones.
The New York Times reports on data from Trust for Public Land showing that among the country’s 527 large school districts, the majority are hotter than their surrounding areas.
Tomorrow’s playgrounds today
The good news is that, as the New York Times declares, “The bare hot asphalt schoolyard of the American past is getting a redo.” Schoolchildren are increasingly enjoying play areas filled with trees and native plants, canvas canopies shading their climbing gyms, and grounds covered in spongy material to absorb heavy rainfall.
While planting trees offers benefits to childrens’ well-being, learning, and play, the primary goal is to control heat, and mitigate climate change impacts.
Pupils in America’s hottest, most climate-vulnerable zones, such as Arizona, which in the summer of this year saw over 200 consecutive days with 100-degree Fahrenheit (38-degree Celsius) temperatures, are already witnessing many creative changes.
The New York Times discusses the forward-thinking Mesa, Arizona, school district, which is innovative because it has to be. Features already commonplace include outdoor recess in the early morning only, shaded pick-up areas, water stations in the sports fields, and ice baths to help folks cool down quickly.
The Trust for Public Land alone has helped renovate close to 350 school playgrounds in 23 states and on tribal lands. With a mission of creating parks and protecting land for people, ensuring healthy livable communities for future generations, building greener schoolyards is one of its key activities.
Scheduled to start soon, for instance, its Los Angeles Green Schoolyards Initiative will join forces with school districts and local nonprofits to transform 28 asphalt playgrounds into quality green spaces for both students and local communities by the time of the 2028 summer Olympics to be held in the city.
Aware that greening projects take time, many schools are adopting interim measures such as outdoor shade tents, to alleviate the difficult conditions.
There are other solutions that are readily available. AP News examines cooling ground surfaces, for instance. It reports that on a hot day in 2022, students at a school near Atlanta measured the surface of their basketball court, and got a reading of 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius.) After a roofing manufacturer helped them paint on a blue, solar-reflective coating, a second reading showed a drop in temperature to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius.)
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