A peer-reviewed open access journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Reducing consumption in affluent urban households is perhaps the most important driver of future natural resource conservation. This article examines how water consumption in individual households is affected by income and determines whether household amenities or attitudes toward community and the environment mediate the effect of income on residential water use, net of other factors. We matched household social surveys, property characteristics, and climate variables with 24 months of individually metered water usage records for single-family houses in Phoenix, AZ. Household income had a positive, significant effect on consumption that was mediated by house size. Irrigable lot size and landscape type also had significant effects on consumption, although attitudes did not. In order to promote environmentally sustainable behavior we must develop better models of the social organization of consumption and encourage affluent households to be more attuned to the water affordances of their lifestyles.

In this study we characterized the relationship between temperature and mortality in central Arizona desert cities that have an extremely hot climate. Relationships between daily maximum apparent temperature (AT_max) and mortality for eight condition-specific causes and all-cause deaths were modeled for all residents and separately for males and females ages <65 and ≥65 during the months May–October for years 2000–2008. The most robust relationship was between AT_max on day of death and mortality from direct exposure to high environmental heat. For this condition-specific cause of death, the heat thresholds in all gender and age groups (AT_max = 90–97 °F; 32.2‒36.1 °C) were below local median seasonal temperatures in the study period (AT_max = 99.5 °F; 37.5 °C). Heat threshold was defined as AT_max at which the mortality ratio begins an exponential upward trend. Thresholds were identified in younger and older females for cardiac disease/stroke mortality (AT_max = 106 and 108 °F; 41.1 and 42.2 °C) with a one-day lag. Thresholds were also identified for mortality from respiratory diseases in older people (AT_max = 109 °F; 42.8 °C) and for all-cause mortality in females (AT_max = 107 °F; 41.7 °C) and males <65 years (AT_max = 102 °F; 38.9 °C). Heat-related mortality in a region that has already made some adaptations to predictable periods of extremely high temperatures suggests that more extensive and targeted heat-adaptation plans for climate change are needed in cities worldwide.