How Common Shade sees heat

Six ideas

1. 1

   Heat is a system, not a single hazard

   One hot night costs sleep; lost sleep costs a shift; a lost shift costs a repayment. The map follows these links, so protection can be aimed where a cycle breaks.

   The map →

2. 2

   Protection is held up together

   A shaded rest point needs land, water, someone to open it and money to keep it going, and each belongs to a different body. Protection reaches people only when every part holds.

   Make it work together →

3. 3

   The missing middle

   The damage of heat is widely reported. The question asked less often is how protection is organised, paid for and kept going: who pays, who decides, who checks.

   How heat is reported →

4. 4

   Known, inferred, uncertain

   Every claim says what kind of evidence stands behind it. Measured and official findings are known; models and projections are inferred; reports not yet confirmed are uncertain.

   Sources and references →

5. 5

   Built together, open to correction

   Common Shade is built with the people who use it. When something here is wrong, unfair or unclear, we say sorry, correct it in the open and keep a record of what changed.

   Corrections →

6. 6

   A gap is a task to solve together

   Where the research found nothing, the site says so plainly. A gap describes what we found, never a fault of any country, city or organisation.

   The heat network →

How we check facts

• Every claim is sourcedEach figure links to the publication it comes from, and new sources keep an archived copy, so a claim can be checked even if a page moves.
• Evidence is labelled honestlyProjections are never presented as facts. Where reports differ, the site shows both and explains why.
• A careful, diplomatic voiceNo blame, no political positions, no ranking of countries, cities or organisations, and no individuals named in the site’s own text.
• A humble voiceThe site describes what helps, what it depends on and who could act. It does not instruct anyone: the people closest to the heat know their places best.
• Listing is not endorsementOrganisations, businesses and funders appear because of their published work, not as partners, and never in order of merit.
• Checked before publishingNew research passes seven checks before it appears: structure, sourcing, evidence, tone, a reviewer’s note, consistency with what is already published, and a test of every page.
• Kept current, with historyThe knowledge base is updated monthly. Older figures are marked as superseded, not deleted, so changes can be traced.

An open collaborative

Common Shade is free to use, share and adapt under CC BY 4.0. It grows with the people who use it: corrections, studies, plans and data are welcome, and contributions are credited. Help build Common Shade · Cite and reuse