Emerging Technologies
Grace Wickerson is the Senior Manager, Climate and Health on the Climate and Environment team at the Federation of American Scientists. Grace leads programmatic work to showcase how a changing climate impacts health outcomes and public health and healthcare systems, through emerging threats like extreme heat and wildfire smoke. Grace is committed to identifying policy solutions that secure access to a clean environment, while bringing down costs, bolstering the economy, and improving Americans’ quality of life. Grace holds a Masters of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University and a BS in Materials Science and Nanoengineering from Rice University.
The federal government needs to strengthen energy systems through investments in energy infrastructure across energy generation, transmission, and use.
Understanding and planning for the compound impacts of extreme heat and wildfire smoke will improve public health preparedness, mitigate public exposure to extreme heat and wildfire smoke, and minimize economic losses.
Extreme heat has become a national economic crisis: lowering productivity, shrinking business revenue, destroying crops, and pushing power grids to the brink. The impacts of extreme heat cost our Nation an estimated $162 billion in 2024 – equivalent to nearly 1% of the U.S. GDP.
The incoming administration must act to address bias in medical technology at the development, testing and regulation, and market-deployment and evaluation phases.
The federal government plays a critical role in scaling up heat resilience interventions through research and development, regulations, standards, guidance, funding sources, and other policy levers. But what are the transformational policy opportunities for action?
Through the broad uptake and implementation of the Heat Action Planning framework by key agencies and offices, the federal government will enable a more heat-prepared nation.
To better incorporate extreme heat and people-centered disasters into U.S. emergency management, Congress and federal agencies should take several interrelated actions.
In a blackout, access to critical services like telecommunications, transportation, and medical assistance is also compromised, which only intensifies and compounds the urgency for coordinated response efforts.
To protect the health and well-being of the nation’s children, the federal government must facilitate efforts to collect the data required to drive extreme heat mitigation and adaptive capacity in the classroom.
The National Institutes of Health should form an Office of Co-Production in the Office of the Director to ensure meaningful public engagement and rebuild trust.
When federal agencies need expert input, they look to advice from external experts and interested citizens through a series of public engagement mechanisms, from public meetings to public comment.
FAS introduces a cohort of over 20 experts from our Extreme Heat Policy Challenge to develop high-impact policy recommendations that comprehensively address the extreme heat crisis.