☀️Healing in the Heat
Climate Justice as Community Wellness
Each summer, headlines remind us of what many already feel in their bodies: rising heat, swelling energy bills, and communities pushed to the edge by climate extremes. From scorching sidewalks to overwhelmed power grids, global heatwaves are no longer a distant threat; they are here, reshaping how we live, breathe, and care for one another.
At Love Before ALL (LBA), we know climate justice is not just about the environment, it is about people, belonging, and wellness. The question is not only “How hot will it get?” but also, “Who is most affected, and how do we show up with love in action?”
The Unequal Weight of Heat
Extreme heat does not affect everyone equally. Overburdened and under-resourced communities, especially Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income neighborhoods bear the brunt. These communities are more likely to live in “heat islands,” where limited green space, fewer trees, and dense pavement trap heat. Residents often face underfunded infrastructure, aging housing, and barriers to healthcare all of which magnify the risks of heat-related illness.
Research from the EPA confirms that historically redlined neighborhoods in U.S. cities are often up to 5–12°F hotter than wealthier, predominantly white neighborhoods. These same communities face higher rates of asthma, cardiovascular conditions, and limited access to cooling resources. Heat, then, is not just a weather event. It is a justice issue intertwined with race and class.
This echoes what we lifted in our “Earth, Home, and Healing” blog: environmental justice is inseparable from racial and economic justice. If love calls us to prioritize those most vulnerable, then climate care must start with those most impacted.
Community Care in Times of Climate Crisis
While governments debate policies and corporations profit from fossil fuels, communities are already leading. Mutual aid, neighborhood organizing, and grassroots innovation have always been the frontline responses to crises, heat included. Here are ways communities can come together during extreme summers:
🌬️ Cooling Centers as Spaces of Connection
Schools, libraries, and churches can double as safe, cooling shelters. But beyond air conditioning, these spaces can offer water, meals, and community-building, reminding us that care is not charity but solidarity. It is a tangible example of love in action.
🥕 Food as Climate Care
Heat disrupts supply chains and spoils perishable food more quickly. Community fridges, gardens, and food distribution programs step in where systems fail. Just as we wrote in “Supporting Families and Healing a Community” (Jan 21, 2025), shared meals are more than nourishment, they are acts of healing in community.
🤝 Mutual Aid Networks
When power grids fail or bills spike, mutual aid funds ensure neighbors do not face heat alone. From covering utility costs to distributing fans, these small acts multiply into survival strategies.
🌳 Greening Our Blocks
Planting trees, maintaining shade structures, and supporting urban farms are not long-term luxuries, they are urgent community interventions. Shade cools sidewalks, reduces energy use, and fosters places for connection.
Environmental Love as Strategy
At LBA, we often talk about love as a strategy. Environmental love means recognizing that Earth is not a backdrop to our lives, it is part of our collective body. When we pollute the air, we choke our lungs. When we poison water, we weaken communities. When we ignore heat, we abandon the very people who need us most.
This is why our piece “Freedom Beyond Borders” reminded us that justice is not siloed. Climate injustice in one place echoes everywhere. When drought displaces families in one region, when hurricanes uproot lives in another, the ripple reaches us all. Love demands that we move from isolation to interconnectedness, from extraction to reciprocity.
A Call for Healing in the Heat
As temperatures rise, so must our commitment to care. The work is in policy halls and in neighborhood parks, church basements, and front porches. It is in checking on elders, sharing resources, advocating for infrastructure, and planting hope in the soil beneath us.
This summer, let us ask ourselves:
Who in my community is most vulnerable to the heat?
How can I show up for myself and for the collective?
What small acts of environmental love can ripple into resilience?
Healing in the heat requires more than fans and cold drinks. It requires a cultural shift where we see wellness as interconnected, where justice is measured in shade trees and shared meals, and where love guides us to protect both people and the planet.
Because climate justice is community wellness. And in this season of rising temperatures, love is the only force strong enough to cool, connect, and carry us forward.
💛 With resilience and radical care,
Your Curious Cultural Architect
Use our "Healing in Heat Community Action Steps" to generate collective care in your community: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nKyqJwjAa64-tXqVzmPIIw3b5nW5z6AF/view?usp=drive_link
