News

This summer SCORCH partnered with the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) in the UA College of Pharmacy, integrating “Climate Code Red” lessons into three educational programs – PharmCamp, Steps 2 STEM, and Our Land, Our Education, Our Health (OLEH) – and engaging middle and high school students from schools across Southern Arizona. Led by SCORCH interns and graduate students, Royani Saha, Imran Mithu, Charity Moparthy, and Ozlem Erol, SCORCH developed “Climate Code Red” curriculum to teach participants about the health impacts of extreme heat through a variety of hands-on activities. While the core curricular materials across the three sessions are consistent, each had unique approaches to engage students in discovering how the environment, specifically extreme heat, impacts our health and how we live while exploring innovative ways to build safer, more resilient communities.

In celebration of Earth Day 2025, SCORCH partnered with the Arizona Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) to host a dynamic workshop spotlighting the power of youth-led climate solutions. The April 28th event brought together University of Arizona (UA) faculty, students, and staff, alongside national and regional leaders, including a representative from the U.S. Green Building Council, the Southern Arizona Director for Senator Ruben Gallego, and a respected Tohono O’odham elder and environmental leader.

The workshop featured two remarkable youth activists, Ojas Sanghi and Owen Brosanders, who shared their work in leading the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) toward adopting the nation's most comprehensive school climate action resolution.

On May 29th, SCORCH co-sponsored a virtual Science Café, Extreme Heat & Worker Health Implications, featuring the powerful documentary film “Too Hot to Work.”  Following the screening, a panel session of experts and community representatives facilitated a timely conversation on the heightened health risks of extreme heat on outdoor workers and the imperative for implementing and enforcing effective worker safety protections.

On May 29, 2025, the University of Arizona's Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Heatlh Southwest Center on Resilience for Climate Change & Health and Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) are co-sponsoring a Science Café with the City of Tucson, its Tucson Resilient Together initiative, and La Isla Network.

Heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States with Arizonans living on the frontlines, disproportionately feeling the impacts of extreme heat than compared to states outside of the American Southwest. In 2023 alone, there were over 4,000 heat-related  emergency department visits and over 900 heat related deaths occurring across the state. In May of 2023, Governor Katie Hobbs proclaimed the first Monday in May to mark Arizona Heat Awareness Week and in 2024, she appointed Dr. Eugene Livar as Arizona’s first Chief Heat Officer to oversee the implementation of her administration’s Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan.

Heat preparedness is an ongoing effort in which tribal, state, county health departments, and other partners engage in planning and forecasting throughout the year.