When Israeli warplanes roared over her home earlier this month, firing missiles, Gaza resident Maryam El-Derawi knew the drill.

Just as she had done a year ago during similar strikes, she shepherded her two young daughters, Joud and Noor, into a hallway in the center of their apartment in the Gaza Strip, the only room with no windows that could shatter and splinter.

To take her daughters’ minds off the missile explosions, she told them stories of her days as a schoolgirl and, as the hours stretched out, fairy tales. When she ran out of tales, she scrolled the internet on her smartphone to find more child-friendly fables to pass the time.

“I spent my time thinking of how I can both save my children and provide them with comfort and support,” Ms. El-Derawi says.

“We have nowhere else other than this house. We have no shelters here in Gaza to save civilians from sudden Israeli strikes,” she explains. “This is all we have.”

With no safe houses or bomb shelters to flee to, Gazan families must make their own safety in a place where residential neighborhoods can become war zones at any moment and with little warning.

They are finding small comforts and redefining daily life to create a sense of security in lives full of uncertainty.

A fixture in Gaza homes

This month’s 147 Israeli airstrikes on Gaza – targeting the militant Islamic Jihad group in what the Israeli military described as a preemptive bid to prevent an attack – lasted three days and drew retaliatory rocket fire from Islamic Jihad. The fighting killed 22 Palestinian civilians, 17 of whom were children, according to the United Nations; wounded 70 Israelis; and caused destruction in both Israel and Gaza.   

While not as long or as devastating as last year’s war between Israel and Hamas, the August strikes have reinforced fears of how war can suddenly explode in the midst of daily life.

Conflicts between Gazan militants and Israel instill fear, destroy homes, and disrupt life in Israeli border towns too, but people’s ability to cope and adapt to the violence is much more limited in Gaza. There families, still living amid the destruction of the 2021 war, are hemmed in by an Israeli naval blockade, a shuttered border to the east, and an Egyptian-imposed border closure to the southwest.

Should missiles strike close to her home, Ms. El-Derawi, like most Gazans, has one emergency resource at the ready at all times: her “go-bag,” a backpack full of emergency supplies and family documents, including medicines, a first-aid kit, birth certificates, ID cards, leases, rental contracts, and even bank statements.

Hatem Moussa/AP

Palestinians search through the rubble of a building in which Khaled Mansour, a top Islamic Jihad militant, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip earlier this month. Civilians also got caught up in the fighting.

For many Gazans, the bag has become a fixture in their homes, almost like a family member.

“I prepare this bag and keep it in a safe place so that I can easily access it if we have to evacuate the house,” Ms. El-Derawi says. Often such evacuations are to the street.

Teenager Arwa Salah has her own emergency protocol: find and grab her pet cat, Shujjaa.

Sitting in the center of her family’s apartment during the recent airstrikes, she cuddled and calmed the cat as explosions rocked nearby neighborhoods, settling her pet’s nerves – and, admittedly, her own.

“My cat can’t cope with the sound of the blasts,” she explains sheepishly. “I feel sorry for him.”

Where good views can be dangerous

Weeks after the May 2021 war, when newlywed Hasan Aldawoudi went apartment hunting in Gaza City, like many Gazans he had two criteria in mind: the property’s rent and the likelihood that it might be hit by a rocket.

He looked for a place “far away from the beach” and thus less vulnerable to Israeli naval bombardment, “not in the far east of the strip near the border with Israel, and not in a high building,” Mr. Aldawoudi says.

Since the 2021 war, during which Israeli forces targeted 15 largely residential buildings of five floors or more, residential high-rises once seen as offering affordable apartments with good views are now seen by Gazans as a hazard.

Perceptions that coastal and border areas are unsafe have led to increased demand – and rising prices – for housing in the center of the enclave, though experts warn that the district is no safer than others from potential rocket fire.

For some Gazans, missile strikes mark out the rhythms of their lives.

In the 2021 war, Anisa Blima raced to find the safest room in the house and checked in on her relatives.

When missiles struck this month, though, Ms. Blima’s thoughts turned to a new concern: finding baby formula and diapers for her 2-month-old.

She happened to be visiting her parents in central Gaza, far from the airstrikes, so she could arrange an emergency delivery, fearing that Gaza could enter a multiday war.

“As a mother I need to prepare myself for the worst,” she says. Formula and diapers are now key items in her emergency bag.

Becoming a new father also brought a fresh perspective for Mr. Aldawoudi, who for the first time considered leaving Gaza after the recent strikes.

“In the past, I was only responsible for myself,” he says. “Now, I have a family to think of, a wife and a son. I promised not to let anyone harm them.”

For Gazans far from their families, the telephone can be the only source of comfort in times of war.

Gazan matriarch Faiza Awoda says she feels uneasy until she has spoken with her children and grandchildren to make sure they are all safe. It is a tall order; she has 12 children and 47 grandchildren living across the Gaza Strip. 

“I keep in touch with them to make sure they are fine,” Ms. Awoda says. “This puts a lot of pressure on me.”

Gazans’ constant state of insecurity has an outsize impact on children, who are overwhelming a health system already under stress, Gazan mental health experts say.

It has provoked what some call “Gaza syndrome” among young people, an “ongoing traumatic stress disorder” with symptoms such as bed-wetting, hallucinations, and recurrent nightmares, says Dr. Sami Owaida, a consultant psychiatrist at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.

“We are still working with children who are suffering since last year’s aggression, and now we have to prepare ourselves for another wave of cases,” he worries.

With the prospect of sudden war never far away, Gazans say they will continue to count on each other for emotional safe spaces when physical safe spaces are lacking.

“Like any other woman in the world, I only care about my children’s safety and future,” Ms. El-Derawi says. “But in Gaza this task is getting increasingly difficult.”

Ghada Alhaddad contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.

Manuel Valdes/AP/File

Sarah O'Sell transports her new air-conditioning unit to her apartment in Seattle on June 25, 2021, as Pacific Northwest residents braced for an unprecedented heat wave.

As heat waves sweep across the Northern Hemisphere this summer, there is increasing attention on what many experts have long warned will be a catch-22 of climate change: As temperatures climb and hot spells last longer, billions more people will need or want air conditioning – and because of expanding economic development, a growing number will be able to afford it.

But air conditioning and electric fans already account for about a fifth of the electricity used in buildings across the world, according to the International Energy Agency. And recent estimates from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, say air conditioning globally is responsible for around 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

In other words, as climate change warms the Earth, the demand for cooling increases. But more air conditioning means more warming. 

This has become the focus of a growing movement of engineers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and academics who are trying to balance the need for cooling with the necessity of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

It is a balance, many say, that will require everything from behavioral changes to new efficiency requirements to improved technology.  

“The demand for air conditioning is going up very, very steeply,” says Rachel Kyte, dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University. “But we’ve got the opportunity to take a vicious cycle and turn it into a virtuous cycle.”

Mark Schiefelbein/AP/File

A worker uses a gas torch on an air-conditioning condenser unit in a factory in Jiaozhou, China, Feb. 24, 2017. Air conditioners use a lot of electricity, and in developing countries, where much of the boom in air conditioner use is expected to happen, the primary source powering electricity is coal.

Air conditioning and electricity

The heart of the air conditioning paradox is both in how the devices work and what is happening to the climate.  

Essentially, air conditioners take heat from inside a house, or room, and then move that heat outside. They generally do so using chemical refrigerants, which, if leaked into the atmosphere, can have a global warming effect some 2,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide. That’s the first climate issue.

Secondly, it takes a lot of air conditioning to make the system work. When the temperature is higher inside, the air conditioner has to work exponentially harder to suck the heat out. And when it’s hotter outside, it takes even more effort to force that inside air into the external environment.

A recent study from the nonpartisan research organization Pecan Street, for instance, found that when temperatures in Texas went from 97 degrees in May this year to a high of 109 degrees in July, the 12-degree temperature differential led to a 48% increase in electricity demand between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“You have to have a place to put that heat,” explains Scott Hinson, chief technology officer at Pecan Street. 

And there is substantially more heat everywhere. Not only are average global temperatures warming – 2013 through 2021 rank among the 10 warmest years on record – but scientists know that climate change has made far more likely the extreme heat waves that have hit everywhere from Pakistan to Portland.   

Mr. Hinson and other researchers from Pecan Street evaluate electricity usage from homes across the United States where volunteers have agreed to allow circuit-level monitoring. Researchers can collect millions of data points from each home every day, Mr. Hinson says, and one thing is clear.

“What drives the energy use in a house is the HVAC system,” he says.

This wouldn’t have a huge climate impact if electricity grids across the world were all powered by renewable energy. But they’re not. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, renewables – or those sources that don’t add greenhouse gasses into the air – only contribute about 17% of the country’s utility-scale power. The rest is primarily natural gas, nuclear energy, and coal; in developing countries, where much of the air-conditioner boom is expected to happen, the primary power source is coal. 

Energy efficiency versus price

One clear fix for all of this is to raise efficiency standards on air conditioners, says Iain Campbell, a senior fellow at RMI, a nonpartisan energy think tank that helped run the Global Cooling Prize, an innovation contest for air conditioning. But the way the market works now, he says, is that consumers are far more focused on price than on energy efficiency. And companies, even though they can make far more energy-efficient units, focus on the mass market.

Charles Krupa/AP/File

Stacks of window air conditioners are displayed at the Home Depot store in Londonderry, New Hampshire, July 11, 2019. Vince Romanin's company, Gradient, uses heat pump technology to make a new sort of window unit that both heats and cools, while using less energy and cleaner refrigerants.

“The manufacturers of air conditioners recognize that people don’t really demand more efficient air conditioning; they demand lower cost air conditioners,” he says. “Much of the innovation within this space has gone into making air conditioners more affordable, … and the industry has done an amazing job of lowering the acquisition cost of this technology. But most of the equipment that we use is less than half as efficient as the best option that’s available on the market.”

Today’s minimum energy performance standards for an air conditioner are about 40% of the best technology available, Mr. Campbell says. If that requirement changed upward, it could save consumers tremendous amounts of money on their utility bills, and also take pressure off electrical grids, which, in recent years, have crashed because of spikes in demand during heat waves. And if manufacturers were required to make more of the higher-efficiency units, their costs would eventually fall as well. 

“We’ve got a problem with the pathway that we are on,” says Mr. Campbell. “But it’s not a know-how deficiency. It’s more of a market failure.” 

Equity through innovation

Vince Romanin, however, sees a market opportunity. He is the CEO of Gradient, a company that uses heat pump technology to make a new sort of window unit that both heats and cools, while using less energy and cleaner refrigerants. Gradient’s purpose, Mr. Romanin says, is both to mitigate climate change and to ensure that marginalized communities have access to economically fair and efficient cooling. In other words, to hit that balanced cycle that Dean Kyte believes is possible. 

“People are going to need AC,” says Mr. Romanin. “It’s a super important tool for protecting those communities against the worst effects of climate change.”  

Gradient’s room-sized units do not require any sort of building retrofit; the units drop over windowsills. This makes them particularly appealing for renters – or for landlords who are willing to make some updates for heating and cooling, but not the sort of expensive, full-building HVAC reconstruction that most high-efficiency, central systems require. This summer, the New York City Housing Authority awarded Gradient a seven-year contract to manufacture 10,000 units for its public housing facilities.

“It’s directly in line with our mission,” Mr. Romanin says. “It focuses on communities that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change and builds a resilient infrastructure … while also pushing the market forward with technology that can help us decarbonize more broadly.”

But it’s not just the air-conditioning technology that can help, experts say. Behavioral changes, such as turning the thermostat up by a few degrees, can save tremendous amounts of energy. This month, Spain prohibited public spaces, such as shopping malls and airports, from cooling below 80 degrees. Italy and Greece are also limiting uses of public air conditioners. 

Shifts in building and community design, whether adding canopy coverage to streets or awnings over windows, can also have a big impact on cooling, says Dean Kyte. There is a balance, she says, between technological innovation, efficiency, planning, behavior – and also a growing awareness of climate change.

“Extreme heat is going to have a really serious effect on the quality of life for many more people,” she says. “I think we’re getting to the point that more people are realizing that being able to stay cool is something that is going to require decision-making.”

Editor’s note: Rachel Kyte’s professional title has been clarified.

As millions of California students head back to school this month, they’ll get a bit more time before their alarms go off. The most populous state in the country is also the first to mandate start times in public schools – an effort to allow teens much-needed winks. Middle schools can start no earlier than 8 a.m., and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m.  

The law is based on studies that show teenagers aren’t getting enough sleep – and that their health and performance improve when they do. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has declared teen sleep deprivation a public health issue, calling teens “chronically sleep deprived and pathologically sleepy.” And a broad coalition of educators, parents, and health experts points to a large body of evidence that supports extending sleep times. 

“The overarching message is just to make sleep a priority,” says Lisa Lewis, a journalist and California mom who wrote the book “The Sleep-Deprived Teen.” “Sleep is not just a nice-to-have. It’s essential.”

But the law wrests control over school schedules from local communities, causing opponents to decry it as an imposition by lawmakers out of touch with the needs of families and individual school districts. Yet states across the country are considering similar measures – and perhaps learning from California about the level of cooperation necessary for implementation. 

What is the California law and what does it change?

SB 328, passed in 2019, allowed public school districts three years to transition to later start times. (Rural schools can opt out, because of their unique transportation needs.) The AAP recommends all schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m., but the 8 a.m. middle school start was a compromise based on the logistics of busing. 

In preparing for the change, California districts had to work through some expected challenges, including creating school days that start later but leave time for after-school activities like sports, band, other extracurriculars, and jobs. Transportation is also a major factor for schools – but even more so in districts that stagger start times so schools can share buses. In many cases, bus limitations caused elementary schools to flip to earlier start times, which affects child care needs after school.

Elias Funez/The Union/AP

New students at Bear River High School gather to see their schedules during the first morning of school, Aug. 16, 2022. California middle schools can start no earlier than 8 a.m., and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

In and around Bakersfield, most high schools will start an hour later at 8:30, some at 9 or 9:24.The latest start takes school days to nearly 4:00 p.m., which means evening activities will go even later. 

In Compton, where high schools will begin 30 to 45 minutes later this year, the school board started discussions with teachers unions and transportation staff early on in the planning phase to evaluate capacity and solidify a schedule. “It was incumbent upon all of us to come to an amicable solution to ensure we were in full alignment and that we were indeed in a position to seamlessly implement the start of the 2022-2023 school year,” says Micah Ali, school board trustee and president emeritus, who supported the mandate from the start. 

As a whole, the California School Boards Association was originally against the mandate, but “moved past the opposition phase once the bill became law,” says CSBA Chief Information Officer Troy Flint via email. 

What does the research say? 

Research on teens, sleep, and school schedules dates back to the late-1990s, when high schools in Edina, Minnesota, moved start times based largely on teenagers’ biological clocks. Schools in Minneapolis followed. 

The AAP and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend children ages 13 to 18 get 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night. Most of them – 73% of high schoolers and 58% of middle school students – get less than that. 

Studies show later start times equate to more sleep time, and that more sleep improves attendance, graduation rates, and academic performance; reduces sports injuries; and decreases drowsy driving incidents and related motor vehicle crashes.  

“There’s nothing that we do better when we’re sleep deprived,” says Ms. Lewis.

Researchers also call insufficient sleep a “risk factor for depression, suicidality, and substance use” in teens. This is especially relevant in light of a CDC survey released in April that examined the pandemic’s effect on high schoolers’ mental health: 44% “experienced persistent sadness or feelings of hopelessness,” and nearly 30% had either attempted or seriously considered suicide in the previous year. 

What other states are considering legislation? 

New York and New Jersey both have legislation pending. New York’s says no public schools could start earlier than 8:30 a.m.; New Jersey’s would prohibit public high schools from starting earlier than that, even though a state task force has already recommended against a mandate, preferring that local districts set their own start times. A proposal in Massachusetts mirrors the California policy. 

Utah, Pennsylvania, and Indiana encourage schools to consider students’ sleep needs when setting school schedules. And Maryland encourages – but doesn’t mandate – starting at 8 a.m. or later. 

Hundreds of individual schools across the country, in 46 states, have decided on their own to implement schedules that support sleep recommendations. 

The difference in California is that public schools are doing it on demand. “School boards and staff have worked diligently to find workarounds and accommodations that respect the law as well as the needs of students and families, and we applaud them for that effort,” adds Mr. Flint.

The pursuit of truth is a theme that runs through many of the selections this month. In much of the world, people are dissatisfied with the status quo and eager to see changes for the better. 

1. Moth by Melody Razak

This month marks 75 years since Partition – the creation of Pakistan from northern India. The novel “Moth” portrays one girl’s harrowing experience in the months leading up to that event. Alma, who is 14 and engaged to be married, lives with her Brahmin family in bustling, diverse Delhi. As independence from Britain dawns, religious tensions explode. Vivid and unflinching, the novel exposes the fissures created by rigid gender, religious, and caste-bound codes.

2. Madwoman by Louisa Treger

At a time when public trust in the media is at an all-time low, Louisa Treger’s “Madwoman” is a reminder of how journalism can drive positive change. This work of historical fiction tells the story of Nellie Bly, the first female investigative reporter, who not only demanded justice from powerful institutions, but also insisted on dignity and compassion for the most vulnerable citizens.

3. The Ghetto Within by Santiago Amigorena

Santiago Amigorena crafts an emotional tribute to his grandfather, a Polish émigré in 1940 Buenos Aires, Argentina, whose loved ones struggle to reach him as he becomes “imprisoned by the ghetto of his own silence.” His anguish is rooted in his mother’s increasingly dangerous circumstances in wartime Warsaw. The novel is layered with soul-searching prose and stark history.

4. All the Ruined Men by Bill Glose

Bill Glose cracks open the physical and mental challenges of American Gulf War soldiers and their families in this stellar collection of intertwined stories. Glose, a combat veteran, former paratrooper, poet, and journalist, writes movingly and with brutal honesty. He honors his comrades’ lives with empathetic and knockout storytelling.

5. American Fever by Dur e Aziz Amna

A 16-year-old Pakistani Muslim girl, aching to leave her familiar, proscribed world, embarks on an exchange program to rural Lakeview, Oregon, in 2010. It’s a bumpy ride. She chafes at others’ assumptions while wrestling with her own amid the challenges of high school, cultural vertigo, and illness. An affecting, well-told tale.

6. Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah

Oscar Hokeah brings to life a kaleidoscope of characters from an unforgettable Native American family. His depiction of Indigenous cultures honors their strength of community with remarkable love and healing humor, sending out a vital drumbeat of hope for future generations.

7. The Crossroads of Civilization by Angus Robertson

Journalist Angus Robertson delivers a lively history of Vienna stretching back 2,000 years. He winds through Roman and medieval times, successive invasions, Habsburg rule, Napoleon’s occupation, and the upheavals of the 20th century.

8. Nomad Century by Gaia Vince

Climate experts say that over the next 50 years nearly half of the world’s population will be living in uninhabitable areas of the planet. What will become of these people? Where will they go? How will they live? The answers, as Gaia Vince points out, are not radical nor implausible; the solutions lie with the migrants themselves.

9. Life on the Mississippi by Rinker Buck

Travel writer Rinker Buck built a flatboat and traveled from Pittsburgh to New Orleans on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. His goal was to better understand how river transport – for good and ill – made America’s westward expansion possible. 

10. The Inheritors by Eve Fairbanks

The end of South Africa’s apartheid regime in 1994 was met with jubilation. But the new government faced daunting challenges, and whatever its successes, it was bound to disappoint. Decades later, journalist Eve Fairbanks gets to know South Africans who grew up under apartheid and those who don’t remember it. The result is a moving group portrait of disillusion and resilience.

Reuters

Mahamat Idriss Deby, son of late Chadian President Idriss Deby, attends his father's funeral in N'Djamena, Chad, April 23, 2021.

For societies fed up with living under military control, the most difficult question is judging when conditions are ripe to develop trust with a ruler and negotiate for democracy.

In some places, the top brass frequently claim they prefer a return to civilian rule but, either by force or by guile, cling to power. In Sudan, for example, the main pro-democracy movement have refused to negotiate with a junta that reneged last year on a power-sharing pact and has killed at least 116 in crackdowns against protesters.

In contrast, Sudan’s neighbor Chad offers a different example and, potentially, a model.

Pro-democracy activists in the central African country could be on the verge of ending 32 years of military dictatorship. Formal transition talks between the government and more than 40 political groups and armed factions are set to open on Saturday.

That milestone is the result of many factors, from war fatigue to economic crisis. Yet humility and a recognition of shared interests have played a part. “I asked [the military and the opposition] to think about the youth [and] the country’s economic, cultural, and social development,” said Saleh Kebzabo, a former opposition leader in charge of the national reconciliation talks, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Chad’s pursuit of democratic transition started with a succession in April last year. Idriss Déby, the country’s longtime dictator who took power in a 1990 military coup, was killed in battle against the main opposition. The military tapped his son, Lt. Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby, to take over. The younger promised a negotiated transition to civilian rule and elections in 18 months.

Most Chadians were skeptical. In March, however, government officials and representatives from 52 opposition groups gathered in Qatar for a “pre-dialogue.”

Weeks of exquisite captivity in Doha’s plush hotels turned into months of consensus-making. Friendships were forged in elevator rides. “We were crabs in a bucket,” one rebel joked.

The talks were supposed to jump-start constitutional reforms and set plans in motion for elections in October. Instead they achieved something that, in the long run, may be more important. They gave “credibility to the national government’s safety guarantees that the main groups – those with a history of violence or just opposition parties – will be able to come back to N’Djamena [the capital] and be reintegrated into the Chadian political game without risk [to] life or detention,” Benjamin Augé of the French Institute of International Relations told Al Jazeera.

Last week the junta and 43 of its adversaries signed a peace accord establishing a cease-fire and setting the stage for formal negotiations. A few key armed groups remain outside the agreement, but they are still welcomed to join, Foreign Minister Cherif Mahamat Zene told Deutche Welle. “Peace is priceless,” he said. “War never solved anything.”

When Chad’s rival factions gather around the table this weekend, thorny issues await them. Yet the pro-democracy side has taken the hard step of building up mutual trust after years of conflict. At the negotiating table, the military will now be just one of many equals. That could ripen the moment for restoring Chad’s democracy.