Here’s the reality awaiting us any day now. Many residents of Denver and cities across our country are facing a real and largely unspoken health risk: extreme heat.

If you’re one of the thousands of people who don’t have access to cooling in your home, you can feel summers are getting increasingly warmer for longer periods of time. And with that comes real dangers for all generations who lack access to cooling in their homes and neighborhoods.

You likely won’t be surprised to hear a new study by Healthy Air and Water Colorado clearly shows our neighbors of color, those with lower incomes and those who rent are significantly more likely to lack cooling – particularly the most efficient forms like energy-smart heat pumps – for their homes. This finding is exacerbated by the real health implications for people of sustained high temperatures. These health issues are especially bad for individuals with underlying health conditions. The same types of conditions that are prevalent in the same communities with no access to cooling in their homes. It is unnatural to ignore our most vulnerable neighbors.

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The study focused on Denver’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, often the same redlined Disproportionately Impacted Communities we too often know. They have been underfunded for infrastructure, uncared-for environmentally, targeted from industries and left behind. Now we see climate impacts and systemic racism has added another issue to the list those community members deal with every day: the ratcheting up of the temperatures in Denver every summer for longer and longer periods. The cumulative impacts are unbearable.

For the record, Denver currently experiences an annual average of 44 days where the temperature is above 90. That’s more than a month and the number is expected to grow. The year 2021 was Denver’s third-hottest year since weather recording began in 1872.

Heat in the winter saves lives, so why do we turn a blind eye to people dying of heatstroke in their homes? We’ve reached the point where we have to apply that same moral logic to cooling. Yet the new study shows, if you are Black or Brown, if you make less than $35,000 a year or if you rent your home rather than own it, you are likely to lack cooling and significantly more likely to lack cooling that is efficient.

Certainly, that can’t be what we want in a city that values equity.

The good news is we can correct this situation and improve the health of our most vulnerable neighborhoods. Our city leaders should ensure your race, income or status as a renter won’t preclude you from access to the most efficient forms of cooling. Denver leaders have access to financial incentives through their Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resilience that could encourage the installation of efficient cooling methods that use less energy. The efficient window heat pumps on the market today could cool thousands of homes but not cost thousands of dollars for residents in increased utility bills due to inefficient methods of cooling.

We must insist Denver’s leaders make this equity issue a priority. The science is clear on many fronts to the devastating impacts to DIC. Our temperatures will continue to climb and will stay high for longer periods due to climate change with little to no natural, safe cooling spaces. Our health is degraded by the ongoing exposure to heat and particulate pollutants. The health of our neighbors with asthma, diabetes, heart disease and mental illnesses is worsened considerably more by our ever-climbing temperatures. To protect our neighbors will save lives as we learn to adjust to severe changes in our seasons.

Our commitment to health equity and environmental justice calls on us to act now with compassion and care. It calls on us to acknowledge this emerging equity issue and act before it grows worse. We can’t repeat the mistakes of the past and leave disproportionately impacted communities with no safety for our health. We have the solutions. We just need the will to implement it with strength and humility.

Renée Chacon is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Womxn from the Mountain, an indigenous non-profit committed to protecting communities and the biosphere. She also serves as the Ward III Councilmember on the City Council for Commerce City, Environmental Action Task Force Member and Co-Commissioner of Cumulative Impacts.