With recent record-breaking summer heatwaves, spiking urban temperatures have become a major concern for cities tackling climate change. Densely populated areas are warming far faster than their rural and suburban surroundings, creating dangerous “urban heat islands” that threaten public health, increase energy consumption, and disproportionately impact city-dwellers with lower incomes.

The planet isn’t warming evenly—it’s unraveling fastest at the top. In the Arctic, temperatures are rising four times faster than the global average, turning what was once Earth’s frozen stabilizer into a rapidly shifting engine of change.