< >
When I was looking at the weather data for Prosper, TX, over the years, something caught my eye. The summer temperatures from 2015 to 2021 hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Interestingly, the summer temperatures in 2022 were around 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Climate experts say that this is resulting from an increase in carbon emissions. My community contributes to this because of the high number of new constructions. My proposed action to reduce this heat wave is to actively change the methods of construction, through which there would be decreased carbon emissions. During the process of making cement, the burning of limestone and fossil fuels in the kiln releases a high amount of carbon dioxide. Experts are saying that the production of cement will grow by 25% by the year 2030 and that the heat wave is here to stay. To fix this, we need to use renewable energy sources for the kiln and partially replace cement with carbon-decreasing geopolymers. Implementing this policy while building a large number of new constructions in this area can have a significant impact on decreasing the heat wave. This policy applies even outside my community due to the global relevance of this problem concerning heat.