Best thing I read this week: How to cool down a city

After reading the New York Times piece "Snowfall" as required by my Digital and Broadcast Journalism class, I have a newfound appreciation for interactive and animated pieces of journalism.

While reading "How to Cool Down a City" I made a conscious effort to imagine how I would be feeling if the piece did not have any interactive elements. I came to the conclusion that if it had just been a wall of text I would have been having a significantly more boring time.

The elements that appear as you scroll not only add stimulation but also help inform the reader. Had the piece featured only static photos, it would be less illustrative that the moving drone shots and photo-turned-drawing elements. A picture of a new green building complex would give you a mental image of what the complex looks like, but the piece can go into more detail by then adding arrows demonstrating air flow or adding and subtracting foliage.

The content is also something that will become increasingly more important as the years go by. As mentioned in the piece there are already American cities facing the problem of overheating. Climate change is only accelerating and this kind of urban planning is something that will become vital to the viability of cities worldwide.

Heat is actually something that kills thousands of people every year, yet no one pays much attention to it. There was coverage of the bad heat waves a few months back and recent heat records, but I predict they may become normalized as time goes by. Rising temperatures are not as flashy as massive hurricanes. But heat and the problems it causes will become crucial to the future of humanity. As such, solutions like the ones in Singapore will become necessary, and good journalism bringing attention to these problems and solutions will be just as necessary.