Hear New Orleans’ rising temperatures in music : NPR

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Like many parts of the country, New Orleans is getting hotter. You can see that in the data, feel it in the air and hear it in the music, as Drew Hawkins with the Gulf States Newsroom reports.

DREW HAWKINS, BYLINE: Danovon Calhoun-Bettis is our musician guide, and he’s about as New Orleans as it gets.

DANOVON CALHOUN-BETTIS: Music, background, church, school, marching.

HAWKINS: Your whole life.

CALHOUN-BETTIS: Whole life.

HAWKINS: The 35-year-old says his passion hasn’t changed, but when he’s marching in parades around the city, the heat is different.

CALHOUN-BETTIS: It’s way worse. And we’ve had hot summers. Especially growing up here, like, during the summer, you expect it to get hot. But now it feels like the sun is, like, right above us.

HAWKINS: We’ll get back to Bettis and his music in a sec. But first, let’s talk about the heat data.

JEN BRADY: It’s levels that we’ve never seen before.

HAWKINS: Jen Brady is with Climate Central, an independent research group. She says climate change is driving temperatures up at a faster and faster rate. Since 1970, the average summer temperature in New Orleans has gone up by more than four degrees to around 85 degrees Fahrenheit. But Brady says just looking at that increase on a spreadsheet, it might not look like much. That’s why showing what the data means is important.

BRADY: Some people like a map. Some people like a bar chart. Some people like music.

HAWKINS: So let’s look at the data using music. I asked our musician guide, Bettis, and his band, Bettis And 3rd Degree (ph), to help us out.

CALHOUN-BETTIS: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: Also, we should – we’re doing the slow – that’s the slowest version.

BETTIS AND 3RD DEGREE: (Playing trumpet).

HAWKINS: So they’re playing a song called “Joe Avery’s Blues.” It’s a classic second line song in New Orleans. It’s played in parades and for special events, like funerals.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HAWKINS: So I want you to pay attention to the tempo, the speed. Using beats per minute, what you’re hearing represents the first 75 years or so of average annual temperature data.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HAWKINS: But by the 1980s, the temperature starts to go up more quickly.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HAWKINS: Between 1980 and 2000, the average annual temperature in New Orleans goes up by more than a quarter of a degree, and it may not seem like much if you’re just looking at the data in a spreadsheet, but it is significant.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HAWKINS: And between 2000 and 2015, it jumps up again, almost a full degree warmer than the first 75 years of data. This is where things really start to pick up.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HAWKINS: Over the last decade, the temperature increase has accelerated even more, almost two degrees Fahrenheit more than the 1980s. And many climate scientists say temperatures are increasing faster.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HAWKINS: So in addition to being a professional musician, Bettis is also what’s known in New Orleans as a culture bearer, someone who preserves and maintains the city’s unique traditions. He says the heat affects everything, especially in the summer.

CALHOUN-BETTIS: I don’t even see what the preventative measures are or could be to, like, continue the culture the way we do it and still not, like, pass out or, you know, be in sweltering heat the entire time.

HAWKINS: So for now, musicians in New Orleans, like Bettis and his band, try to take gigs later in the day and stay hydrated. For NPR News, I’m Drew Hawkins in New Orleans.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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