Histories of Heat and Health in Post-war Liverpool

Gabriella Cantwell and Zoe Downey

The “Heat and Health in Post-war Liverpool” project, supported by a University of Liverpool Undergraduate Research Scheme grant, seeks to lay the groundwork for investigating intergenerational oral histories of urban heat. The project sprung from the need to expand global and local knowledge of climate change impacts and to understand how this is reflected through generational differences. 

Urban heat is understood primarily through the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, a climatological phenomenon causing urban areas to experience considerably higher average temperatures than surrounding rural areas[1]. As the global climate becomes hotter, the UHI will be compounded. The UHI has been understood by scientists and urban residents alike for far longer than previously thought.[2] However, historical perspectives are often missing from the study of urban heat.

When investigating Liverpool Echo publications of key heatwaves in 1976, 2003 and 2018, we found that many articles welcome the novelty of a ‘Mediterranean’ summer in Britain. However, threats to urban health are also apparent. Some newspaper articles (figures 1 and 2) show the impacts of urban heat on certain jobs that are often lower-paid or where working conditions are less flexible making them more susceptible to extreme temperatures during urban heatwaves[3].   

Figure 1: “Beat the heat bid…”, Liverpool ECHO, July 8, 1976, 3. [newspaper microfilm] reel 564, batch 113. Liverpool Record Office, Central Library, Liverpool.  

Figure 2: Emilia Bona. “Bus drivers given SHORT shrift in sweltering heat”, Liverpool ECHO, June 30, 2018, 2. [newspaper microfilm] reel 40586. Liverpool Record Office, Central Library, Liverpool. 

Urban populations suffer in unequal ways from urban heat, raising questions of climate justice. Previous studies linking meteorological and census data have shown that often low-income and ethnic minority areas experience the highest urban temperatures.[4] This makes these residents vulnerable to health effects of extreme heat alongside the elderly and those with chronic health conditions.[5]  

We believe that intergenerational oral history can draw out more enriched and diverse accounts of past urban heat events. The potential creation of new intergenerational community-based relationships could be vital in establishing the foundations for an ongoing collective environmental discussion and awareness. Contemporary mainstream consciousness of action against the global climate emergency has been overwhelmingly led by young activists, such as Greta Thunberg and Mya-Rose Craig. But the UK’s current national curriculum is extremely limited in how it educates young people about climate threats and in inspiring them to take positive action. As a consequence, and inspired by Thunberg’s campaigns, young people have turned to different kinds of action, acting out of fear and in awareness of the scale of future challenges.  The “School strikes for climate,” of which 3,489 had been recorded by August 2019, have received applause as well as some criticism.

For all their strengths, youth movements sometimes overlook local interpretations of environmental hazards to prioritise higher-profile global concerns. Nonetheless, the strikes have highlighted the different outlooks between those in power and environmentally-aware young people. Intergenerational oral history projects, in which young people interview their elders, might help carve out a new sphere for unofficial local narratives to inform past understandings of urban heat and influence policy decisions[6]. 

Action in the UK is needed. In contrast to overseas cities, such as Phoenix, New York,  and Shanghai[7]), British cities lack detailed heat mitigation policies. This is due in part to the UK’s less-extreme experiences of urban heat, as well as bureaucratic constraints to enacting climate policy.[8] Consequently, many British city dwellers are left at risk as heat related mortality is set to increase if the UHI effect is not mitigated.[9][10]. For instance, current heat health warning system models are unable to protect the most vulnerable.[11] Oral history projects, therefore, could be instrumental not only in gathering data, but as a citizen-led approach to raise awareness of urban climate change.[12]

In sum, the threats of urban heat and climate breakdown to public health are increasingly obvious. We must become more resilient to urban heat. Historical perspectives can enhance existing studies of urban heat and health, particularly in the form of intergenerational oral history projects. Citizens in Liverpool want to take climate action[13] and intergenerational oral history projects could empower them to act. It is essential that communities feel included and informed, and oral history projects can play a vital role. 

Gabriella Cantwell and Zoe Downey are undergraduate students in the Department of History at the University of Liverpool. The “Heat and Health in Post-war Liverpool” project, which took place in summer 2021, was supervised by Drs Laura Balderstone and Chris Pearson.

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[1] Howard Frumkin, “Urban Sprawl and Public Health”, Public Health Reports 117, no.3 (May 2002): 206-7. https://doi.org/10.1093/phr/117.3.201.

[2] William B. Meyer, “Urban Heat Island and Urban Health: Early American Perspectives”,  The Professional Geographer 43, no. 1 (1991), 38-48.

[3] Tord Kjellstrom, “Impact of Climate Conditions on Occupational Health and Related Economic Losses: A New Feature of Global and Urban Health in the Context of Climate Change” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health (January 2015) https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539514568711; Minio-Paluello, Mika. “The UK’s summers are getting hotter – and that puts low-paid workers at risk”, The Guardian, 21 July 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/21/uk-summer-hotter-low-paid-workers-extreme-heat

[4] Harlan, S. L., Brazel, A. J., Darrel Jenerette, G. et al. “In the shade of affluence: the inequitable distribution of the urban heat island”, in Equity and the Environment (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 15) edited by R.C. Wilkinson and W. R. Freudenberg(Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2007), 173-202, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0196-1152(07)15005-5;  Bev Wilson, “Urban Heat Management and the Legacy of Redlining”, Journal of the American Planning Association 86, no. 4 (May 2020): 443-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2020.1759127

[5] Margaret Loughnan, Neville Nicholls, and Nigel J. Tapper, “Mapping Heat Health Risks in Urban Areas”, International Journal of Population Research (2012): 1-12.  doi:10.1155/2012/518687

[6] Maren Levad and Aleah Vinick, “Creating Intergenerational Oral History Opportunities.” History News 67, no. 3 (2012): 2. Accessed 5 July,  2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43503061. 

[7] Center for Integrated Solutions to Climate Challenges at Arizona State University. “City of Phoenix: Cool Urban Spaces Project” July, 2014. [Accessed 20 July, 2021],  https://www.phoenix.gov/parkssite/Documents/PKS_Forestry/PKS_Forestry_NOAA_PHX_Urban_Spaces_Report.pdf; Justine Calma, “How New York City Is Tackling Extreme Heat in a Warming World” Wired, July 16, 2018. https://www.wired.com/story/how-new-york-city-is-tackling-extreme-heat-in-a-warming-world/;  Wei Wang, Wei and Jiong Shu, “Urban Renewal Can Mitigate Urban Heat Islands”, Geophysical Research Letters 47, no.6 (February2020).

[8] Climate Change Committee “Local Authorities and the Sixth Carbon Budget” December 2020;  

Friends of Earth. “33 actions local authorities can take on climate change” March 19, 2019. 

[9] Clare Heaviside, Sotiris Vardoulakis,  and Xiao-Ming Cai,. “Attribution of mortality to the urban heat island during heatwaves in the West Midlands, UK”, Environmental Health 15, S27 (2016), 49-59.

[10] Johanna Wolf, , Neil W. Adger,  Irene Lorenzoni et al. “Social capital, individual responses to heat waves and climate change adaptation: An empirical study of two UK cities”, Global Environmental Change 20, no.1 (February 2010), 44-52. 

[11] R. Sari Kovats, and Kristie L. Ebi, “Heatwaves and public health in Europe”, European Journal of Public Health 16, no. 6 (December 2006): 592-99. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckl049

[12] Angela M. La Porte,  “Oral History as Intergenerational Dialogue in Art Education,” Art Education 53, no. 4 (2000): 39-44. doi:10.2307/3193827. 

[13] Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, “Year One Climate Action Plan 2021/22”,  April 2021,3.