🌅 Keeping Los Angeles Cool for the Olympics

SOURCE

UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation

WHAT TO KNOW

• Extreme heat is the most dangerous climate threat facing Los Angeles, largely due to the city’s dense population, concrete infrastructure, and uneven tree coverage. The lack of trees gives Angelenos just 21% shade coverage at noon (when the Sun is directly overhead), well below the 27% national average.

WHY IT MATTERS

• By 2050, the annual number of extreme heat days in Los Angeles is projected to increase by 31%, while the number of heat waves is expected to climb from an average of 2 per year from 1961-1990 to 14 per year from 2051-2080. Creating more shade—whether from trees or infrastructure—is one of the most effective, low-cost methods of reducing heat risk, lowering a person’s heat burden by up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit when compared to being in the Sun.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The lack of shade in Los Angeles has officials nervous as the city prepares to host a trio of major sporting events in the coming years: the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl, and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. To prepare, USC Dornsife Public Exchange, along with the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, city and county officials, and the Los Angeles Olympic organizing committee, announced ShadeLA, a new campaign to expand tree and shade infrastructure across key parts of the city.