Frederica Freyberg:
I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” first up, a look at Wisconsin heat warnings heading into the weekend. Then a closer look at what kind of heat global warming may bring Wisconsin in decades to come. A check-in with Voces de la Frontera on immigration enforcement and the state Public Service Commission faces a powerful decision on new transmission lines. It’s “Here & Now” for July 19.
Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
Frederica Freyberg:
Conditions are brutal in parts of Wisconsin heading into the weekend. Today, Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency for the city of Madison and Dane County due to power outages and extreme heat. The National Weather Service declares southern Wisconsin is in the throes of an excessive heat warning. In the midst of the heat, Evers sent all non-essential state employees in downtown Madison home and the state Capitol closed Friday. That’s because two substation fires at Madison Gas and Electric caused power outages across the downtown. The utility says it is not believed the strain of excessive heat caused the fires and outages. They said it was a mechanical issue. But the cause was under investigation. At the same time, southwest Wisconsin saw roads and highways closed because of flooding after nearly six inches of rain Thursday into Friday.
We check in now with Tim Halbach who is on the phone with the National Weather Service in Milwaukee. And thanks very much for being here.
Tim Halbach:
Yeah, no problem.
Frederica Freyberg:
So the governor declares this state of emergency for Madison and Dane County because how dangerous are power outages in the midst of this kind of extreme hot weather?
Tim Halbach:
Well, everybody really relies on their air conditioning to keep them cool during these times when we have extreme heat like this. It’s pretty rare for us to get to these types of thresholds of heat and that combination of that with the humidity. So people really rely on that air conditioning to keep them cool. So if that goes away, that could be a big issue for people to try to beat the heat.
Frederica Freyberg:
What is your prediction as to actually how hot that heat index, that “feels like” temperature, is going to be Friday into Saturday morning?
Tim Halbach:
Yeah. So for today some of our high temperatures or the temperatures that we’re sitting at right now, there’s a lot of places that are between 90 to 95 degrees for the air temperature, and then on top of that most places have a dew point of around 80, which normally when you get to about 65 to 70 for a dew point, that’s when you start feeling the humidity. It’s very rare for us to get that high. So that combination of the air temperature and the dew point like that is what’s causing the heat index to be so high. And right now some of the measurements we have are the heat index up around 110, 115 degrees. A very dangerous situation we’re looking at right now. We did extend the excessive heat warning for the southern part of the state until tomorrow going into the afternoon. So that includes Dane County as well.
Frederica Freyberg:
Okay. So when the index gets into that range, it’s dangerous even for healthy people.
Tim Halbach:
That’s correct. Yeah. So you don’t want to be doing anything unnecessarily outside. The biggest concern is typically with people that are living on their own that might have health issues that might not have gone and put their air conditioning unit into their window even if they had power. Those are the people we always tell, check on them, your neighbors, your friends or family members that might be living on their own that may not have been able to physically put in that air conditioning unit. So dangerous all around.
Frederica Freyberg:
Meanwhile, it seems like there is potentially some wild weather out there. I’ve seen some tornado watches. Across the border in Minnesota, there appear to be tornado warnings. But also there’s been flooding in southwest Wisconsin. What do you know about the status of that flooding?
Tim Halbach:
So for the flooding, a lot of heavy rain that fell overnight from the La Crosse area through southwestern Wisconsin where they had about four or five inches of rainfall. Storms that just didn’t move and just kept on dropping a lot of rainfall in the same area. So that’s what caused quite a bit of flash flood warnings last night. A lot of the river, the Kickapoo River basin jumped up and will be going into the flood stage, moderate flood stage there as well. So quite a bit of flooding in that portion of the state from the overnight storms.
Frederica Freyberg:
What are we gearing up for over the weekend? More storms? More rain? More heat?
Tim Halbach:
Yeah. The initial concern is for tonight in the northern part of the state. There’s going to be very widespread wind damage and potential for long track tornado set-up up there. So there’s concerns about that severe weather to start off. The heat continues into tomorrow morning and afternoon for the southern part of the state before the cold front finally comes through. That’s why we extended the excessive heat warning for the southern part. We also have a chance for severe thunderstorms as that cold front comes through in the afternoon in that same area. So pretty active stretch going into Saturday. But once we get through that, looks like Sunday through the rest of next week looks to be much more on the calmer side.
Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Thank you very much for our personal weather update. Tim Halbach out of Milwaukee. Thanks.
Tim Halbach:
No problem.
Frederica Freyberg:
In a new report titled “Killer Heat,” a group called the Union of Concerned Scientists this week showed how, if left unabated, heat-trapping emissions could turn places like Wisconsin into the climate equivalence of Arkansas. Take today’s temperatures for example with a heat index or “feels like” temperature between 105 and 115 degrees. The study says that historically there has been one day per year on average in Wisconsin with a heat index above 100 degrees. It says by 2050 such extreme heat days would increase to 14 and to 32 such days by the end of the century. How does this provocative study square with the work of our own scientists here in Wisconsin? We check in with Michael Notaro and the Nelson Institute for Climatic Research and thanks very much for being here.
Michael Notaro:
You’re very welcome.
Frederica Freyberg:
As we mentioned, in southern Wisconsin the heat index is between 105 and 115 degrees. How close is that to what scientists describe as off-the-charts heat?
Michael Notaro:
Well, right now I think this is about as hot as it’s been since about 2012. So we have temperatures in the low 90s. We have dew points that are in the mid-70s. We have heat indices about 105 or so. Therefore an excessive heat warning. Back in 2012 we actually had it worse in turns of temperature where got about 103 degrees Fahrenheit, but somewhat comparable heat indices. This is pretty high up there. It’s much more intense than we typically get in Wisconsin. Therefore with the excessive heat warning, people are being advised to be careful, even healthy adults. The health impacts can affect even a healthy adult at this point.
Frederica Freyberg:
So when clinic scientists like yourself see this kind of perhaps “killer heat,” do you attribute it to climate change born of emissions?
Michael Notaro:
I would not attribute a single event to anthropogenic climate change, human-induced climate change as consistent of what we would expect in that direction. There’s a study from UC-Davis which basically showed we have in the Midwest what’s known as a warming hole, where the summer high temperatures have not yet warmed, but we’ve actually observed the dew point temperatures and heat indices have been increasing. As you referred to from the study from the Union of Concerned Scientists, there’s a large projected increase in heat indices. So it’s consistent in that direction, but although it’s difficult to attribute single events to climate change.
Frederica Freyberg:
Does your research square as we asked with this Union of Concerned Scientists?
Michael Notaro:
Yeah. So a lot of the work I’ve been involved with has been through the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts, which has been a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the DNR and other state government agencies, along with tribal organizations and businesses. We’ve done a lot of what’s called down scaling work, trying to develop climate projections for Wisconsin. A lot of what they’ve generated through their study was consistent with what we found. They’re using the same set of models in essence used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and they’re using a very commonly used statistical down scale climate product. So it’s consistent.
Frederica Freyberg:
So one finding was by mid-century with no reduction in emissions, a third of the United States will experience off the chart heat indexes. What are the implications of that?
Michael Notaro:
When they’re referring to off the chart heat index, basically you can picture a heat index table on which they show the high temperature versus relative humidity and it gives you an idea what the heat index is. There’s certain values once — that the Weather Service doesn’t provide heat indices for when it gets high enough, the heat index is no longer considered a reliable measure. They’re estimating that a significant portion of our country will eventually move into that realm. Even by the end of the century parts of Wisconsin may even encounter those kind of heat experiences. Obviously, if you zoom back to the July 2012 episode, even in Wisconsin there was about a dozen deaths and hundreds of hospitalizations and that pales in comparison to what would likely come. The example I like to give to is if you picture how uncomfortable today is in southern Wisconsin. This is going to be the new norm by the end of the end of the century. So this is going to be more typical of what you get in terms of temperatures with expected warming of air temperatures.
Frederica Freyberg:
What do you say to people who might discount this kind of research and find it to be exaggerated?
Michael Notaro:
Well, one of the ways you can show evidence that the warming is related to human activities is through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC. A whole series of climate models have been run. Both with human-induced carbon emissions and without it. And the only way you can reproduce the observed warming that has occurred is to include human-induced emissions. That’s one source of evidence. We also know the obvious source of evidence of greenhouse gases and the known physics find them in that they’re trapping in radiation producing warming. So it’s logical. You can look at the global trends that have been happening up to now. Almost the whole world is warming. Events are becoming more extreme in terms of precipitation. They’ve been very much consistent with what the climate models have been showing.
Frederica Freyberg:
What kinds of action could slow the increase in these hot temperatures?
Michael Notaro:
The nice thing with the Union of Concerned Scientists report is there’s a sense of hope offered there in that they were showing that if we are rigorous in attacking our emissions now and do a more favorable scenario, we can dramatically reduce the frequency of these extreme heat by the end of the century in particular. So that’s encouraging that we have to do something about it. But that involves being very proactive, reducing the use of fossil fuels, relying on clean energies, becoming active in the Paris Climate Agreement. But then also likewise, for both ends, the low end emission scenarios and the high end emission scenarios, it’s going to get hotter, so we need to adapt also. Not just mitigate. And that involves, as recommended by the Union of Concerned Scientists, developing plans to protect vulnerable populations, mapping out where those populations are, coming up with more clean energies. Energies that we don’t lose power so easily. Keep the energy, electricity flowing for people even if they don’t pay their bills, having emergency plans. Those are all sorts of balance of mitigation and adaptation.
Frederica Freyberg:
You mentioned precipitation as part of climate change. So what’s happening on that front in Wisconsin even as we speak?
Michael Notaro:
Yeah. So Wisconsin has been similar to most of the world, where extreme rainfall events are becoming more frequent and more intense. The physics behind that is as the air is warmer, it becomes a more effective sponge of moisture. And so when storms come through, you have larger downpours. You can see particularly in southern and central Wisconsin, we have a vast increase not just of annual precipitation, but the frequency of 2, 3, 4-inch rainfall events, flooding events. Not just the Lake Delton event but more recently in the Madison area. Those have very large ecological and societal effects. Overall you can really argue that the biggest effects of climate change are the extremes. So the hot days like today, which stress human health, heavy flooding events from heavy rainfall.
Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Michael Notaro, thanks for your work.
Michael Notaro:
You’re very welcome.
Frederica Freyberg:
Wisconsin U.S. Representative Mark Pocan reported back this week on his recent visit to a migrant children’s facility in Homestead, Florida. Pocan described the teenagers there were being held well over 20 days, which is the legal standard for migrant children’s detention centers. Federal authorities say Homestead is a temporary shelter and therefore not legally bound by length of stay requirements. Meanwhile, following a midweek hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Chairman Ron Johnson called for implementation of his plan to speed up asylum considerations of immigrants crossing the southern U.S. border. Among other things, “Operation Safe Return” would allow Homeland Security to deport immigrant families within 15 days if no determination of a credible fear of their returning to their country of origin has been affirmed by an immigration judge. We check in on these topics now with Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, who joins us from Milwaukee. Thanks for doing so.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz:
Thank you so much for having me.
Frederica Freyberg:
First, what’s your reaction to Senator Johnson’s “Operation Safe Return” plan, which is designed to quickly determine whether migrants’ asylum claims are valid and rapidly return those without valid claims to their home countries?
Christine Neumann-Ortiz:
There’s no question this will create more harm for families that are coming to the United States to be reunited, in many cases, with their family and are fleeing violence. Right now what we’re seeing with the Trump administration is that there is a human rights crisis that’s happening, where people are being — who are seeking refuge, who are fleeing horrendous conditions, are being paraded in front of the — not just the United States, but the world, to see how their humanity is being degraded. They are being, in many cases obviously being denied their – under international and national law – their right to seek asylum through efforts, as in trying to strong-arm other governments to prevent them from coming to the United States. They’re also being denied in many ways legal representation, being denied food, water, leading to deaths of children. So these are conditions that don’t have to exist, yet they are being created intentionally to degrade an entire group of people. And Senator Johnson is moving — basically accelerating a process that is abhorrent and is outraging so many people across the country which is why we saw, nationally, all these protests that were being organized around what we’re witnessing at the border.
Frederica Freyberg:
As we noted, Representative Mark Pocan visited the Homestead facility and he said that the numbers of children there were down and he said he didn’t see horrific conditions. Do you suppose things are getting better?
Christine Neumann-Ortiz:
No. They’re not getting better, because we know for a fact that people are still — right now they’re still being — that process, it’s being interfered with. We just have had those recent reports and other site visits. So maybe in that circumstance, if they know he’s visiting and what he’s going to report out, I don’t want to see those conditions, I don’t want that to be reported. But given everything that is happening — and all of the official reports that have come out basically declaring that this is state-sponsored terror that is happening in terms of how these kids are being impacted. And this is from, you know, a — formal investigations and interviews. I would say no, things are not happening the way they should. And we constantly see that every day when something is being announced.
Frederica Freyberg:
How many children and/or families seeking asylum have come to Wisconsin, if you know?
Christine Neumann-Ortiz:
I don’t know the total numbers, but we have been working with families. The ones that we have been working with closest have been coming from the Kenosha detention facility, and a number of those families are [unintelligible]. Also like in some cases — well, people in that situation what we find mostly is that the thing that they’re most desperate for is to try to connect up with a family member. And this whole detention process, it’s not just fueled by this kind of hatred and degradation of people from other countries. It’s also fueled by big business. So there’s now like fees to call someone. There’s all these ways that money is being made out of the detention of people that folks struggle. That’s part of the challenge of being able to even apply your rights when you can’t afford to make a phone call or to get a credit card to contact someone. So in many ways that’s how the community has been helping people to establish those connections or raise money for a bond. The bond which can be very expensive, which is another way to kind of price out someone out of their — out of the rights that they have.
Frederica Freyberg:
This past Sunday, as you know, was supposed to be a day when ICE conducted raids to pick up undocumented people in ten cities across the U.S. That didn’t appear to take place. But what is it like in the immigrant population even here in Wisconsin when these raised are announced?
Christine Neumann-Ortiz:
There is, of course, naturally, tremendous concern. People are — you know, they have like what so many people say. It’s like I have to go about my — I have to go about my daily business because I have — I have to support my family. But yeah. People live in fear. And what we have done to conquer that fear is since the Trump administration came into office and all these protections were taken away, that would take into account, you know, your record, how long your family ties, all of that, which now is irrelevant under the Trump administration. What we have done is create a 24-hour, seven-day emergency number. This is very common nationally as a way that immigrant rights organizations have responded so that if there is an ICE sighting that is reported and — first of all, really verify if it’s a legitimate rumor or not. We ask people to videotape or photograph, have people go there. If it is the case, obviously to work with those families. If things are happening in real time or haven’t happened, there is now a strong sentiment of resistance. The last time there was a major raid right before the 2018 elections here. The largest I had seen in 20 years of organizing that lasted several days throughout the state, a — for example, in Madison, you had hotel workers that reported that ICE agents were staying in the hotel and that was able to get out and there was an emergency community meeting and folks were ready to go and do civil disobedience in the streets to demand that ICE leave the community. Just in Milwaukee there was a shutdown of ICE facilities by 30 faith leaders. That would not have happened before. So the extreme sense of solidarity and standing up for immigrants and refugees at this time I would say is the other side of the coin of what’s happening, that there is something that is very inspiring and good.
Frederica Freyberg:
All right. We need to leave it there. Christine Neumann-Ortiz, thanks very much.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz:
Thank you.
Frederica Freyberg:
News today out of Madison was focused on power or lack of it due to a mechanical failure at the city’s main plant. Electric transmission is also the topic of our Wisconsin look tonight. It’s a look at southwestern Wisconsin, where some residents worry about the impact of a proposed power line running from the Madison area to Dubuque, Iowa. Student journalist Will Kenneally has more.
Will Kenneally:
The land has deep meaning for residents of Wisconsin’s driftless region.
Kiley Cates:
It’s a special place.
Will Kenneally:
That’s what lead Kiley and Eric Cates to spend a sunny afternoon away from their Iowa County farm to make their voices heard in Madison.
Kiley Cates:
We have strong commitment to conservation on our farm. But also so does our town community, our farming community. We don’t want to see the towers go up.
Will Kenneally:
The Cates are part of a group of Wisconsin residents voicing their concern over a proposed high-voltage power line that would connect just west of Madison with Dubuque, Iowa. The proposal is currently before the state’s Public Service Commission, which will ultimately decide whether the Cardinal-Hickory Creek project is necessary upgrade to Wisconsin’s energy infrastructure. American Transmission Company, one of the groups applying to build the line, says the project is crucial to alleviate the strain on the region’s energy grid.
Alissa Braatz:
Transmission lines don’t start and stop at state lines. It’s much like the interstate highway system. So that’s one of the benefits that this project actually addresses, is reducing the congestion that has come about over the years with the constraints on the electric transmission system.
Will Kenneally:
Ahead of their decision, the Public Service Commission asks the public to weigh in on the need for the new line, holding hearings in Lancaster, Madison and Dodgeville.
Sherill Randall:
This is very disturbing to us and would change our quality of our life, would change the aesthetics of the land there and cause all kinds of environmental problems.
Will Kenneally:
For the Cates, this is crucial to their area.
Kiley Cates:
You know, we live in a very small township that’s right off of the river and it’s very reminiscent of maybe 40 years ago farmland, 50 years ago. We have very strict ordinances in our township to where you can build a home and just in order to keep a very specific look in our township. And having a cell tower is just not something that we can get passed in our town. So to put this in there would be hugely divisive and hard, I think, for our community.
Will Kenneally:
The proposed towers would be upwards of 175 of feet and need 75-foot clearances on both sides. ATC says the lines would mostly be built on existing rights-of-way where power lines already are located. Roughly 5% of the new lines would be placed over new ground.
Alissa Braatz:
What we strive to do is to create the least amount of impact as possible.
Will Kenneally:
For those areas where new power lines are needed, residents would have to give up part of their land.
Eric Cates:
The first alternate route went right through our farm. But not only that, it went kind of like up and over this hill and up and over that hill. So just imagining — in my mind I was imagining how the heck would they build all that? It’s crazy.
Will Kenneally:
Those opposing the project are asking ATC and the Public Service Commission to explore alternatives, such as local renewable energy production or a battery-driven storage system. ATC says local solutions would be costly. The financial burden of the interstate line would be shared across a wide region, while a battery-driven system would be supported just by Wisconsin rate payers.
Alissa Braatz:
What it didn’t accomplish is all of the other benefits that the transmission line offers, which is access to lower-cost power, reduction of congestion on the electric transmission system and improved access to renewable energy resources.
Will Kenneally:
The Public Service Commission is expected to make a decision this fall on whether the project gets the green light. Reporting from Madison, this is Will Kenneally.
Frederica Freyberg:
Regulators in Iowa and with the federal government must also sign off before the project breaks ground in 2021. If approved, it’s expected to be operational in 2023. And this week Republican legislators whose districts are in the affected corridor sent a letter to the PSC questioning the need for the project. Last month, Democratic lawmakers in the region also voiced their concern, asking for a cost benefit analysis of the expansion.
That is our program for tonight. Next Friday, Marisa Wojcik reports on the human-made chemical hazard known as PFAS and we’ll talk with DNR Secretary Preston Cole about what the state is doing to handle that environmental threat. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a great weekend.
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Funding for “Here & Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
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