Rhode Island is the smallest, yet most urbanized state in the nation. The state contains 139 square miles of impervious surfaces, amounting to 13 percent of its land area, according to a 2022 study. These surfaces form an “intricate network of interactions and conditions such as elevated surface and air temperatures,” according to the study.
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People living in these densely populated urban areas face higher temperatures than those in more leafy locations, and the phenomenon is exacerbated as the climate heats up. Scientists and advocates use the term “heat island” to describe an area that experiences many more days of extreme temperatures than those mere miles away.
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Across Rhode Island, advocacy groups are planting trees, turning parking lots into community gardens, offering cooling centers like the one at Emmanuel House, and advocating for utility justice so everyone has air conditioning and running water during heat waves. Their efforts often focus on the state’s densely populated urban areas, including Providence’s Silver Lake, Elmwood, and West End neighborhoods with population densities of 14,987, 15,793, and 17,245 per square mile respectively. In comparison, the city’s Blackstone neighborhood has a density of just 4,986 people per square mile.
Advocates said that “greening” neighborhoods by pursuing both on-the-ground actions and policy change will help keep them cooler as the planet warms.
Often this literally means dirty work. “It’s very tangible,” said Amelia Rose, executive director of Groundwork RI, which creates community gardens, offers summer jobs to Providence youth, and advocates for compost initiatives statewide. The organization’s work is “not just advocacy or going to the State House and lobbying for a bill,” Rose said. Those actions are critical, too, she said, but getting plants into the ground allows residents to see visible, immediate results.
“Healthy Neighborhoods,” one of Groundwork’s initiatives in Providence, promotes greenspaces as a way to promote healthier communities. Rose’s projects have reclaimed parking lots and used the space to create community gardens. The organization now owns and cares for a total land area of about a half-acre throughout Providence, including two residential housing-size lots. Other endeavors included the launch of its urban farm and greenhouse in 2015. Groundwork is leading an effort to create a composting hub in the West End, and organizing tree plants in an effort to increase green infrastructure.
“It’s a community pride type of thing. It changes the way people view their neighborhood,” Rose said.
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Not only are higher temperatures less comfortable, people’s health suffers. People living in heat islands are often impoverished, and as a result they tend to have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. This makes them more vulnerable to heat stress than those living in greener, and therefore cooler, neighborhoods.
Michael Marzullo, the director of the Emmanuel House homeless shelter in Providence, R.I., which also functions as a cooling center in the summer.Maya Kelly
Marzullo said he has noticed that as temperatures rise, Emmanuel House residents experience visibly deteriorating health. “It’s very dangerous for some of my clients. The older clients, especially the clients that have breathing problems. … I see them coming in here, they’re beet red and purple,” he said.
Cassie Tharinger of the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program holds monthly tree-planting parties in Providence. The program focuses its efforts on the most vulnerable communities: densely built areas that experience eight to 10 days above 90 degrees every year. Elsewhere, near the coast, temperatures reach 90 degrees only about once a year, at the peak of summer heat, according to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
While some of this temperature difference stems from ocean breezes, urban heat islands endure disproportionately higher temperatures because of their built-up environments. Concrete and other common construction materials do not reflect light well; they absorb more heat and foster hot microclimates, according to a study in the International Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Analysis.
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The Environmental Protection Agency defines heat islands as urbanized areas with structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure which absorb more sun than natural landscapes. These surfaces re-emit that heat, increasing daytime temperatures so that these neighborhoods reach average temperatures that are about 1 to 7 degrees higher than those in outlying areas.
It’s important to employ a wide array of methods, said Jessica Wilson, design planner for the city of Lowell, Mass. Her office advocates for policies, plants trees, and designs parks for the city.
“Confronting environmental injustices means both on-the-ground work like planting trees, but also advocating for policy changes,” Wilson said.
“All the tree planting in the world, as much as that provides shade and a million benefits, on the hottest day of the year, that’s not enough,” she added.
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Cassie Tharinger at a tree planting event in Providence, R.I., in October 2023.Maya Kelly
High density means more buildings, more traffic, and more concrete. One area in Providence’s South Side has a 47 percent poverty rate and just a 6 percent canopy rate — the lowest percentage of canopy cover in all of Providence, according to the Tree Equity Score, which measures levels of tree canopy coverage in cities nationwide.
Neighborhoods with higher poverty rates and more people of color are also the neighborhoods with the least tree canopy. This lower income demographic is also at high-risk for health risks from extreme heat, according to the state Department of Health.
Environmental justice advocates, furious with the disproportionate impacts of urban heat islands on Rhode Island residents of color, pressed the state to protect residents from utility shut-offs during heat waves. In 2007, the state passed the nation’s first summer utility shut-off moratorium. When the state temperature average reaches 90 degrees, no households in the state can have their air conditioning, running water, or gas terminated by utilities.
While advocates have welcomed this step, the policy is “flawed,” said Camilo Viveiros, director of the George Wiley Center, a labor union that organizes for “utility justice.” Temperatures vary greatly statewide, and temperatures in urban heat islands are well above the 90 degree threshold even when the state average is well below it. Given the conditions of the policy and the varying conditions statewide, the moratorium rarely goes into effect.
Raffini, the youth program director for the Southside Community Land Trust, who only uses her first name, has lived in the South Side of Providence for most of her life, in a neighborhood that includes the most prominent heat islands in Providence.
Raffini said the ideal South Side neighborhood would provide safety, gardens, green space, and summer jobs for young people — including in community gardens. Central to the Southside Community Land Trust’s mission is integrating racial justice work with their hands-on gardening practices.
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Any urban greening projects need to go hand-in-hand with education that links racial history with the importance of environmentalism. Not everyone is going to do this sort of work, Raffini said, but she encourages everyone to notice its value.
“I don’t want you to walk a mile in my shoes. I want you to stand in my garden,” she said.
Maya Kelly is a freshman at Brown University studying Urban Studies.
Rhode Island stands at a crossroads, poised on the brink of a significant economic opportunity that could transform our state. As technology-based economic development continues to shape regions worldwide, we find ourselves uniquely positioned to accelerate growth, particularly in the realm of ocean-based innovation. Yet, despite our advantageous geographic setting and historical prowess in innovation, we risk missing out on this golden opportunity.
Why am I so fixated on the blue economy? It’s simple. It necessitates the creation of tangible goods, fostering a multiplier effect in manufacturing jobs where nine jobs are created for every manufacturing position. According to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study, the blue economy contributes over $373 billion to the US economy annually, with projections indicating a steady increase. As we steer our state toward the future, focusing on technology is imperative. Leveraging Rhode Island’s natural geography, with its intricate bathymetry, sets us apart and provides a canvas for sustainable economic growth.
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A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State.
But the blue economy is still not a ubiquitous term. In Rhode Island, we define it as the sustainable utilization of our ocean and water assets to create a resilient economy and good paying jobs. This entails harnessing technology to not only create employment opportunities, but also to address pressing issues like climate change, sea-level rise, and national security. Offshore wind certainly plays a pivotal role, but the blue economy extends far beyond the visible blades above the water’s surface. Imagine if we possessed the same depth of knowledge about Narragansett Bay beneath its surface as we do about the air above it. The Economic Development Administration has recognized the opportunity in two designations with Grow Blue and the Ocean Tech Hub.
The projected growth figures for the blue economy are staggering. The global blue economy is expected to double its value to $3 trillion by 2030, according to the World Bank. With an estimated $20 billion in annual regional GDP and the potential to add 54,000 jobs over the next decade, the economic allure is undeniable. Furthermore, innovation and adaptation are in Rhode Island’s DNA. From pioneering the industrial revolution to becoming a hub for creative metal processing and technical sailing, our state has consistently embraced technological advancement to shape our communities.
However, realizing our blue economy potential hinges on our ability to connect with traditionally underserved communities. It’s disheartening that there are children in Newport who have never experienced the ocean firsthand. This stark reality underscores the urgent need to bridge the gap and provide equal access and opportunities for all Rhode Islanders, regardless of their ZIP code.
As someone deeply invested in Rhode Island’s future, I am committed to championing manufacturing and technology-based innovation as a catalyst for progress. Our state’s success hinges on our ability to harness the power of technology to drive economic growth, protect our environment, and empower our communities. Let’s embrace and invest in our Blue Future and ensure that Rhode Island remains at the forefront of innovation for generations to come.
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Christian Cowan is the Executive Director of Polaris MEP and 401 Tech Bridge, a nonprofit that stewards manufacturing and technology based economic development for the region.
When LGBTQ+ activists, lawmakers and students gathered at the Capitol on Feb. 28 to honor the life of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager from Oklahoma, their loss felt a lot closer to home than the nearly 1,500-mile distance.
“We gathered together today as a community to grieve the loss of Nex Benedict, a beautiful 16-year-old child, and to try and make sense of what is absolutely senseless,” said Rev. Aaron Miller of Metropolitan Community Church in Hartford.
Benedict, who used both he/him and they/them pronouns, died by suicide a day after getting into an altercation with three girls in an Owasso High School bathroom, according to the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner. Their death has sent shockwaves across the country, causing LGBTQ+ activists to renew scrutiny of Oklahoma’s anti-transgender school policies.
Gov. Ned Lamont, one of more than 100 attendees at the Hartford vigil, vowed: “We’re not going to let that happen in Connecticut. That’s not who we are.”
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But many advocates say state leaders could be doing much more to support Connecticut’s LGBTQ+ students.
Among state lawmakers, the debate is far from settled. Connecticut has some of the most comprehensive legal protections in the country for transgender individuals, yet for the past two years, Republican lawmakers have supported legislation the LGBTQ+ community takes issue with — for example, banning trans athletes from competing in school sports and mandating schools to notify parents when a child starts using different pronouns.
For a state often labeled as a “safe haven” for trans children, many LGBTQ+ students say they still face hatred in school based on their identity.
Surviving school
Ace Ricker, an LGBTQ+ advocate and educator, says “navigating” life as a queer person in Connecticut was far from easy.
Ricker grew up in Shelton. He came out as queer at 14 years old to his family but only told a few friends about his identity as a transgender man.
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Everyday in high school, he would show up with his hair in a slicked back ponytail, wearing baggy T-shirts and jeans.
No bathroom felt safe to Ricker in high school. At the time, he only used the women’s bathroom, where he says he experienced verbal, physical and sexual abuse.
“The few friends I had, I was telling them, ‘Hey, if I go to the bathroom and I don’t come back in 10 minutes, come and check on me,’” said Ricker.
One year in high school, he opened up to his civics class, sharing that he was a part of the LGBTQ+ community. He said he thinks that led school administrators to assign him to what he called “problem student” classes.
“I was seen in school as a rebel or a problem,” said Ricker. “I barely got through graduating because through school, it was about surviving— it wasn’t necessarily learning.”
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Ricker graduated in 2008, but stories like his are common among LGBTQ+ students in Connecticut.
Leah Juliett, a nonbinary activist who uses they/them pronouns, graduated from Wolcott High School in 2015. Like many trans and nonbinary students, Juliett originally identified as queer and later came out as nonbinary at 19 — the year they found out what “nonbinary” meant.
“I came out in high school. I was relentlessly bullied,” said Juliett, “My school binders were thrown in the trash and had milk poured over them. My school locker was vandalized on my birthday. I would get harassing messages and things like that on social media.”
Juliett says they were one of the few openly gay kids in school who not only had to deal with bullying but watched as local lawmakers proposed legislation to limit their rights.
“It becomes deeply hard to exist,” Juliett said. “I was engaging in self harm, suicidal ideation. All of this is a result of not being supported by my town, by my community, by my peers, by my family— all of it.”
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In recent years, parents of LGBTQ+ students in Connecticut have brought their concerns to the federal Department of Education.
In 2022, Melissa Combs and other concerned parents reported Irving A. Robbins Middle School in Farmington to the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights after school administrators declined to investigate an incident where students ripped a Pride flag from the wall and stomped on it.
Combs is the parent of a transgender son. During her son’s time at the middle school, she said he faced relentless bullying, where he dealt with students telling him to kill himself, getting called slurs and was assaulted by a student.
Two years later, the OCR investigation is still ongoing.
“We entered into this knowing that it was going to take a lot of time,” said Combs. “We entered into it with the hope that we could make some positive changes to the school climate in Farmington.”
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Since opening the investigation, Combs tried to reenroll her son in Farmington public schools, only to pull him back out again. She says not much has changed in the school culture.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Combs. “It was, again, a horrible experience.”
Events like this pushed Combs to take the issue up with the state legislature. Combs founded the Out Accountability Project that has the goal of “understanding” local issues affecting LGBTQ+ youth. She says she’s been having these conversations with lawmakers.
“I’ve spent a great deal of time in the LOB [Legislative Office Building] so far this session,” Combs said. “What I’m sensing is not only support, but a sense of urgency in terms of supporting families — families like mine across the state.”
The legislation
Republican lawmakers in state houses across the country have introduced a variety of legislation targeted at LGBTQ+ students. In 2023, more than 500 of these bills were introduced around the country, with 48 passing. Since the beginning of this legislative session, Benedict’s home state of Oklahoma has considered over 50 different pieces of legislation regarding LGBTQ+ children.
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In Connecticut, the “Let Kids be Kids” coalition, a group of elected officials — including legislators Mark Anderson, R-Granby, and Anne Dauphinais, R-Killingly — and religious leaders and parents advocated for two bills for the Education Committee to consider.
The first piece of legislation would have forced teachers to disclose to parents if their child started using different pronouns at school. The other would have required student athletes to participate in sports with members of the gender they were assigned at birth.
“Kids are best protected when parents are involved,” said Peter Wolfgang, the president of the Family Institute of Connecticut, during a February Let Kids be Kids press conference at the Capitol. “The state should not come between parents and their children.”
The Education Committee declined to raise the bills, and neither concept got public hearings. This hasn’t thwarted future plans by the coalition.
We’ve seen undeniable research that trans students face an inordinate amount of bullying and stressors in their lives.
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– Rep. Sarah Keitt, a Fairfield Democrat
“I am actually very encouraged, because we grew awareness at the General Assembly this year,” Leslie Wolfgang, director of public policy at the Family Institute, wrote in a statement to the Connecticut Mirror. “This session was just the first step in a multi-year process to grow awareness and look for ways to balance the needs of all children and their families in Connecticut.”
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Debates during the current legislative session have revealed nuanced views among lawmakers on transgender rights. General Assembly Democrats sparred over gender neutral language in House Bill 5454, which seeks to direct more state and federal funding toward mental health services for children, caregivers and parents. Members of the Appropriations Committee debated whether to use the term “pregnant persons” or “expectant mothers,” with two Democrats calling for an amendment to include both terms, saying they felt the bill was more inclusive that way.
Still, the legislature has advanced several bills this session that propose to expand rights and protections for LGBTQ+ individuals in Connecticut, and they heard testimony from the public on an effort to extend Shield Laws — laws meant to protect individuals who seek abortions from other states — to include gender-affirming care.
On April 10, the Senate passed Senate Bill 327, a bill aimed at creating a task force that would study the effects on hate speech against children.
The legislation calls for the group of educators, social workers, religious leaders and civil rights experts to file a report by the beginning of next year with their research and recommendations. The group would also study the environments students where face the most hateful rhetoric and examine if hate speech is primarily conducted by children or adults.
“We’ve seen undeniable research that trans students face an inordinate amount of bullying and stressors in their lives,” Rep. Sarah Keitt, D-Fairfield, said in an interview with the CT Mirror. “A lot of that comes at schools and we need to do much more to protect them.”
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The bill is currently on its way to the House.
In February, Senate Bill 380, An Act Concerning School Discipline, passed out of the Education Committee. The bill includes proposals that would require services for the youngest children who receive out-of-school suspensions and continues work initiated last year to collect survey data from schools on the “climate” facing their more vulnerable student populations. This year’s bill would also require school administrators to clarify the motivations for any bullying incidents — if they’re due to a student’s race, gender or sexual orientation, for example.
Another proposal comes as an amendment to the state constitution that would prohibit the discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity under the Equal Protection Clause. While Keitt expressed support for the amendment, she was doubtful on the likelihood of it passing.
“It is such a short session, we have very little time, and if we were to take up the constitutional amendment, it would mean that we wouldn’t be able to get other more pressing needs — not to say that those protections aren’t important.” Keitt also pointed to the statutory protections already in place statewide.
Another piece of legislation, House Bill 5417, would require local and regional boards of education to state a reason for removing or restricting access to public school library materials and prohibits such boards from removing or restricting access to such materials for reasons based on race, political disagreements or personal discomfort.
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Book bans, primarily targeting novels about people of color and LGBTQ+ community, have increased over the past few years in towns like Suffiled, Newtown and Brookfield.
“I think that it really protects gay and transgender authors of color,” Keitt said. “It allows our children to have a broader educational experience and protects our libraries from political attacks.”
Policy already in place
While state lawmakers have been considering new legislation, many LGBTQ+ advocates say they’d like to see more enforcement of existing legal protections for queer people.
Public Act 11-55 was enacted in 2011, prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or expression. This, among other protections, is why Connecticut is often heralded as a “safe haven” for transgender and nonbinary individuals.
But many advocates say the LGBTQ+ community, and those designated to protect them, are often uninformed of those legal protections.
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“You can pass all the laws you want, but if you don’t provide communities with resources to implement those laws, they aren’t as useful as they should be,” Matt Blinstrubas, the executive director of Equality CT, said. “We haven’t invested enough into educating people.”
According to Mel Cordner of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Q Plus, one of the most concerning trends they see in schools is when educators are unaware of the protections students have.
“I’ve had teachers [say] you can’t do any kind of hormone therapy or puberty blockers or anything until you’re 18. Or require kids to get parental permission to change their name in the school system, which you don’t need to do,” said Cordner. “Staff are either fooled by their administrators, or they just assume that kids don’t have certain rights.”
When the Nex Benedict news hit, that rocked our whole network of career kids really, really hard because every single one of them went, ‘Oh God, that could have been me.’
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While the Department of Education must keep a list of instances of bullying, advocates say many queer students do not report their harassment because they are not comfortable coming out to their families.
“I’ve grown up with many trans kids who only felt safe being openly themselves at school,” said Juliett. “And even then they were subjected to bullying and harassment, but they couldn’t be themselves at home.”
“When the Nex Benedict news hit, that rocked our whole network of career kids really, really hard because every single one of them went, ‘Oh God, that could have been me,’” said Cordner. “There were a couple kids I was worried about enough to reach out to personally, because that was them — that exact situation of being cornered and assaulted in a bathroom physically has happened in Connecticut schools more than once.”
Filling the gaps
Bullying, isolation and lack of support from family members are few of many reasons why gay, bisexual and transgender youth have a disproportionately high suicide rate.
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According to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization for the LGBTQ+ community, queer young people are “more than four times as likely” to attempt suicide compared to their straight, cisgender peers. In a 2023 study, the nonprofit found that 41% of LGBTQ+ youth have “seriously considered attempting suicide” within the past year. Youth of color who identify as trans, nonbinary and queer experience even higher rates.
Concerning statistics like these are why many LGBTQ+ advocates have taken it upon themselves to create a community-based support system for queer youth.
Miller, a Christian pastor from Metropolitan Community Church in Hartford, works with community members across the state to provide services like “Trans Voice & Visibility 365,” a ministry dedicated to helping transgender individuals get their basic needs, and at the Yale Pediatric Gender Program, a support center for people children exploring their gender identity.
Miller creates a place at his church where he can “celebrate” transgender and nonbinary people and coordinates with other LGBTQ+ groups like Q Plus to throw events where kids can explore their identity by exchanging clothes and trying on different outfits.
“Kids want to be themselves. We’re encouraging them to be themselves,” said Miller.
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It’ll never stop surprising me how many people work with teens and think they don’t work with queer teens.
While Miller helps build community for many transgender individuals, he finds himself on the front lines of many near-crisis moments. Miller said he once stayed up through the night talking a child out of killing themself after their family abandoned them.
Miller’s church is part of a support network for families he calls “medical refugees” — transplants from places like Oklahoma and Texas, where they faced death threats and allegations of child abuse. The church community helps these families find housing, medical services and other support.
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“The two greatest commands that we were given in a Christian understanding is to love God and to love each other as we love ourselves,” said Miller. “And yet, we’ve been telling people that they can’t love themselves or they’re not lovable, and that other people aren’t going to love us either.”
Cordner founded Q Plus in 2019 “with the goal of filling gaps” for LGBTQ+ youth programs. Q Plus operates in nine towns and cities across the state while providing a variety of resources for students from support groups to game night.
The organization also provides services aimed at adults that include programs that help parents better engage with their LGBTQ+ children as well as professional development trainings for school staff on the best ways to interact with queer students.
“It’ll never stop surprising me how many people work with teens and think they don’t work with queer teens,” said Cordner.
Q Plus also has a program where the organization is contracted by schools to “review and revise policies” to support LGBTQ+ students.
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“[The] bottom line is always listen to your kids,” said Cordner. “They will tell you what they need.”
Connecticut Mirror is a content partner of States Newsroom. Read the original version here.
An international artist has created unique art across the world and has taken his work to Rhode Island.
Thomas Dambo is a Danish recycling artist who in 2011 quit his job to create his works and follow his mission to ‘waste no more’.
“Our world is drowning in trash while we are running out of natural resources.”
Today, Dambo spends his life showing the world that beautiful things can be made out of trash.
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“I give new life to discarded materials by turning them into large-scale artworks. My journey has led me to create artworks in 20 countries across five continents, including my giant trolls, plastic works, birdhouses, and Happy Wall exhibitions. All these projects are realized using hundreds of tons of recycled materials, working in and with local communities, who are co-creators of the art that I make because the mission I follow needs the involvement of everybody.”
Dambo is showcasing his newest works at Ninigret Park in Charlestown, Rhode Island.
Charlestown Parks and Recreation expressed thanks to all who made the trolls possible in addition to issuing instructions to the public.
“A huge thank you to Thomas Dambo – the artist, Thomas’s family, all the volunteers that made the trolls possible, South County Tourism, Jeffrey Allen, the Charlestown Town Council, Charlestown DPW, Charlestown Police Dept. and the Charlestown Rec. Dept. for a collaborative effort to make this amazing project a reality! Please be respectful when parking. Please use the designated parking spots, do not park on the multi-purpose bike path or on the disc golf course. Also, please do not climb on the trolls, they do not like to be climbed on.”
Dambo isn’t only an artist. He also hosts talks as a speaker, such as TEDx talk, and sometimes hosts workshops to teach people how to reuse and upcycle.
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To learn more about Dambo’s art and cause, click here.
