Heatwave: Anticipate Its Effects in Summer and Winter
- Written by J.J.
Did your community set local heat records this year? The first seven months of 2012 were the warmest in the U.S. since record keeping began in 1895. Average temperatures in July, throughout the lower forty eight states, exceeded those of the Great Heat Wave in 1936. More than 5,000 people died during that stretch of high temperatures. Many were over the age of 65. Today we have air conditioning, more sophisticated forecasting, and greater knowledge about health and yet 65+ continues to account for nearly 40% of heat related deaths. With the hottest days of 2012 behind us now this blog looks back at why heat heavily impacts older generations and how the heat of weeks ago will continue to impact us in the year ahead.
Heat endangers older generations in part because aging modifies the way our bodies regulate temperature change. Our body's response to spiking heat may slow or, in some cases, medicines we take may hamper our body's ability to respond. Diuretics, for instance, can cause us to lose too much fluid to stay hydrated during a heat wave. Some medical conditions can hamper our responses to heat and some medical conditions are triggered by excessive heat. Heat is dangerous if we don't understand how to react to it safely. It can be deadly if we live in a hot home or apartment and, because of limited mobility or transportation, can't get to some place cool.
Most of us received messages through media about the dangers of heat and where to find cooling stations. Education contributed to the remarkable fact that deaths and heat related illnesses did not climb like this summer's record temperatures. That progress brings hope that heat related death and illness can be dramatically reduced for older generations. New programs geared toward connecting volunteers with people who may be at risk during a heatwave can save lives. Weather.com, for instance, is experimenting with a Facebook application that will let you know which of your Facebook friends may be in need of help during hot weather.
Dangerous heatwaves radiate long after summer is over and hurt older generations on limited incomes by causing crop failure thereby impacting food prices in the coming year. High temperatures throughout the Midwest this summer damaged acres of corn and soy beans --the base for cereals and countless basic foods. Livestock suffered and stressed crops caused a rise in prices for feed which will drive the price for chicken and beef higher. The government is predicting a 3 to 4% increase in food prices as a result of 2012's extreme weather.
During the summer heatwaves, civic education and anticipation made a difference by arming people with ways to get cool and giving out information on safety and hydration. Now heatwave aftermath is a danger. With senior hunger on the rise resultant spiking prices will intensify hardship. We need civic programs and volunteers to man food banks, support meals programs, and assist older people living on inadequate funds. By taking action we can minimize the burden and reduce the incidence of death and hardship from heat.
Update January 8 2013: CNN article on the 2012 drought and it's impact on our food supply.
Update December 5 2012: NASA has released imaging that tracks and animates the progress of the U.S. drought 2010 to September 2012. They're hoping this tool provides early warning for farmers because it can predict and note when plants are in danger of waterloss.
Updates Jan 2015: A breakthrough study from Harvard gives Health organizations a better understanding of how heat harms older americans and what circumstances increase risk. See the overview here.
Jan 2015: Great article with strong links outlining the success of Baltimore's forward looking planning through the Disaster and Preparedness Project is protecting low income communities from heat, cold and disaster.
Jan 2015:
Lifelong Learning
- Written by J.J.
When I was young I watched members of the Bridge project, an innovative intergenerational living and learning program from Fairhaven college, riding in our summer parade. They weren't riding on a car, no, these 70 and 80-year old members were hanging on the side of a fire engine laughing, hooting and waving their text books. That small group of inspiring students motivated me to become a lifelong learner and showed the parade crowd that learning never stops! Today, lifelong learning is an educational premise that's enlightening mainstream America.
As libraries and universities are ramping up programs geared toward lifelong learners America is adjusting to the changing realities caused by lifelong learning. Dementia grabs many of today's headlines yet, quietly, throughout the workplace and in houses and garages, the wisdom and experience of age is increasingly being applied to invention, innovation, and problem solving. Intellectually active older generations are anchoring and guiding civic organizations and sharing their unique intelligence--tempered by time and enhanced by wisdom---with start-ups and non profits.
Just as the parade crowd of my youth witnessed the first advocates for lifelong learning America watches now as we remain active and intellectually inspired longer and longer in life. If 60 is the new 30 in physical age what new benefit and impact will we realize from promoting continual learning and intellectual vitality over our lifetimes?
We're already seeing benefits. Today more than half the Atlantic's list of the 21 bravest thinkers of 2011 are over 55, four are over 65 and 19 of 21 are 49 years old or older. A 2009 study of invention found that a third of all inventors at universities and very small businesses are over 55 years of age and AARP reports that 1/10th of the inventions that changed the 20th century were created by people aged 50+ working alone. As society continues to support and encourage lifelong learning the contributions of older generations will increase and gain greater recognition. When I was young I imagined a day when everyone would learn till they were 90. Today I imagine the end of 21st century when we'll finally see the great contributions of mature minds and, looking back, will count the benefits we reap from our commitment to lifelong learning.
Update March 2015: Universities and Colleges are bringing senior living on campus. See, for instance, the completed project, The Forest at Duke.
Update March 2015: Are you over 65 and still learning? Consider participating in the Silver Learning study.
Update March 2015: This New York Times profile of college grads over 50 years old focuses on education as a springboard to second or third careers.
Are you sure you're registered to vote?
- Written by J.J.
Very important elections are coming up this fall. Unfortunately, many states are restricting or putting qualifications on who can vote and it may affect you. These restrictions which are imposed, some say, to prevent fraudulent ballots or to clean up the voting list, are inadvertently impacting older Americans who may not realize they're no longer registered.
If you haven't heard about these new laws in states across the nation you're not alone. Many people take voting for granted and will be caught by surprise this year. A list of states with changed voting laws is available at the Brennen Center For Justice. Maybe you've skipped voting a few times. Your inactivity may have caused your name to be deleted from the list of eligible voters. Perhaps your state issued drivers license or ID card isn't up to date. 34 states now require current photo ID in order to vote. These things didn't matter in the past but this year they may determine whether or not you can cast a ballot.
It's easy to be daunted or discouraged by these new requirements but start today and hopefully you'll have no difficulty voting this fall. Contact your state elections officials (or US State Department if you're traveling) to confirm that you're registered to vote and update your government photo ID to ensure your ease at the polls. Did you know that older generations have specific voting rights protections ? Review your rights and research your candidates. We're older, yes, and we're also wiser and our voices need to be heard in the coming election!
Sorting Through the Past
- Written by J.J.
The past is a complex question that we often refer to philosophers. What is the past, really. Certainly the older we grow, the longer our personal past becomes. At some point our past becomes longer than our expected future. Over a lifetime we may try to hide it, forget it, remember all of it, or live with it. No matter how we orient to our past we find that it is just that---past. Maybe for that reason it can sometimes seem inessential to our present or frustratingly inalterable. At other times, it may be nostalgically dear or appear hard to integrate and curiously elusive.
Usually the past travels with us like a shadow only seen when our life is reflected in a certain light. However, during times of transition we sometimes find a need to sort through it. I'm doing that right now. Maybe you're doing that too. Other people in my life are also engaged in this process. An artist friend thirty years older than I am, nearing the end of her life, is sorting through a lifetime of art work. She's deciding what to do with it as she contemplates her creative past and whether it holds any enduring meaning. On the other hand, I have a friend who is transitioning from a science background to an artist's life. She's sorting through personal and material past trying to free her creativity and find her style. Yet another friend is settling the estate of her parent. While she sorts through her father's things and her memory of him she considers her past and it's role in the present. I'm sorting through my past, materially and mentally, in order to downsize and prepare for a move back to my hometown to be a family caregiver. Each of us are being prompted, by our phase of life, to release or reinterpret things representing the past in order to move forward. I guess. Is that what we're doing?
I turned to great thinkers for more insight. George Orwell wrote: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." Though he was probably talking about power in our society, Orwell's observations also apply to how the past works in our personal lives. The events and material from our past often do control the future we experience---for better or for ill. And who we are at present does determine how we narrate our past. By Orwell's logic I suppose it follows, for some, that sorting through the past gives a sense of order or control over it and thus, more space and freedom to move forward into a new future. I hope so.
Pasts follow us through life. Though they lie only a moment away in our minds, some of us will never look back. I believe the past holds keys that, at certain times in our lives, open doors to new understanding and which reveal new paths. Our past is a lifelong referential point we glimpse through our children, our photographs, or our hearts which can propel growth and transformation thereby laying groundwork for the challenge of our future.
Update May 2013, In Chaim Potak's, Davita's Harp, he writes, "…everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future.”