News from a Changing Planet -- #11
Earlier this week, cities on the East Coast had their hottest days of the year; Washington D.C. had its second-hottest night on record; levels of humidity in the South brought heat indices up to around 110ºF. A “heat dome” in the Pacific Northwest is threatening to bring some of these temperatures across the country. And it’s always hot in the summer in the Southwest.
This isn’t unusual, of course. But some of the extreme heat and weather this summer is happening earlier than usual: there have already been seven named storms in the Atlantic Ocean this summer (with an eighth on the way, Tropical Storm Hanna, which is expected to be a Category 1 hurricane before it makes landfall in Texas, currently a COVID-19 hotspot), which is more common for September than July. Plus, ocean temperatures on the East Coast are warmer than average, possibly making good on earlier predictions of an active hurricane season. (And there are serious concerns that emergency response agencies will be ill-equipped to respond to natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires because of the pandemic.)
While we wait for the hurricanes, it’s sweltering. Even though it might feel hot everywhere, heat exposure has disproportionate effects on Black communities and communities of color, who are both more likely to live in areas that are prone to extreme heat and to be vulnerable to heat stress. These unequal effects of heat are also the result of inequities in many areas: housing, access to air conditioning, access to green space, and exposure to air pollution. Members of these communities, particularly Latinx populations, may also be more likely to work outdoors, which can be dangerous during heat events.
In cities, housing patterns are a direct consequence of structural racism, and this fundamental inequality manifests in other physical ways too. For instance, shade can be unevenly distributed, as it is in Los Angeles, with Black communities, Latinx communities, and other communities of color living in areas with fewer trees (which exacerbates the urban heat island effect) and less access to green space more generally. Fewer trees and less green space can make these areas much hotter with fewer places to cool down. Last year, Los Angeles hired the city’s first forest officer as part of an effort to increase the amount of shade in underserved areas by planting more trees. Mayor Eric Garcetti has described shade as “an equity issue.”
But even more crucially, access to air conditioning is also unequal. Members of these same communities are less likely to have access to air conditioning, which can make them more vulnerable in heat waves. Nearly 90 percent of homes in New York City have air conditioning, and yet the risk of dying in extreme heat is unequally distributed. For example, fewer than 50 percent of those who live in public housing have AC.
More evidence: New York City has a map of the heat vulnerability index (HVI), which identifies those neighborhoods in which residents are at risk of dying during or right after an extreme heat event, on a scale of 1 to 5. Predominantly or majority Black or Latinx neighborhoods across the city score higher, with residents more vulnerable to dying of extreme heat. Most homes in these areas have air conditioning, but members of these communities are both more likely to have underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to heat stress and to have inadequate access to health care, both results of structural inequality. East New York in Brooklyn has a HVI of 5; it is 80 percent Black. Mott Haven in the Bronx also gets a 5; it is about 30 percent Black and about 65 percent Latinx. Similar trends hold across in Queens and Upper Manhattan as well.
And it’s not just New York: For instance, in the 1995 Chicago heat wave which killed more than 700 people, the death ratio between Black Chicagoans and whites was 1.5 to 1. The majority of those who died were elderly poor people living in the inner city in substandard housing.
Plus, indoor temperatures also take longer to go down compared to outdoor temperatures, meaning that those without air conditioning suffer for longer in the heat.
As an inadequate solution, many cities set up “cooling centers” in the summer, where people without air conditioning can cool off. In New York, though, they’re often out of the way and not used by many people. But this summer, in the middle of a pandemic, going to a cooling center may not be a risk people are willing to take, especially since those who might need a cooling center may also be especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Or, they might not have an easy way to get there, or would be violating shelter-in-place orders.
As the data has shown across the country, Black communities, Latinx communities, and Indigenous communities are more vulnerable to COVID-19 as a consequence of many structural inequalities, including environmental justice factors, particularly chronic exposure to air pollution, which can cause asthma, among other health problems.
And, of course, climate change will make extreme heat events and heat waves more frequent, adding to the urgency of correcting these inequalities. Extreme heat events also add to the formation of secondary air pollutants, which can cause or worsen these same health conditions.
Black communities and Latinx communities already care about climate change and climate action more than white communities. Black people, Indigenous people, and Latinx communities, primarily, have been protesting pollution and waste in their neighborhoods and communities, as well as climate change, for decades. Members of these communities are some of the original environmental activists, even though the white environmental movement has not always recognized their contributions. The largely white environmental movement needs to participate in this work, and follow and support these leaders, who are experts at dealing with environmental degradation and climate change already, since they've been dealing with it for decades. It is not possible to create a safe and habitable planet without creating a just and equal society.
Any conversation about climate change and pollution that is not fundamentally about justice and equality is one not worth having. Climate change, pollution, and the effects of both are, at their core, manifestations of racial injustice and inequality.
To that end, I am sharing some resources that have been helpful to me in learning about this issue recently and over the last few years, and that I hope can be helpful to you all as well (including 2 action items at the end!), though I am certainly not an expert.
1. This PBS series from 2019 about climate justice and social justice, “Freedom to Breathe” featuring Dr. Robert D. Bullard, the “father of environmental justice," who has been documenting and working issues of environmental inequity for nearly 4 decades.
2. ”Environmental Justice: Examining the Environmental Protection Agency’s Compliance and Enforcement of Title VI and Executive Order 12,898. This document provides a helpful and concrete example of environmental justice, and the consequences of the disproportionate siting of waste and pollution in low-income communities and communities of color.
3. A study published in 2017 found nitrogen dioxide pollution from vehicles harms Black, Latinx, and other communities of color at a disproportionate rate. In 2000, these communities were exposed to 40 percent more air pollution than white communities; in 2010, it was 37 percent.
4. This study on the racial and socioeconomic disparities in exposure to industrial pollution: Black Americans, low-income communities, and those with lower education levels are significantly more likely to live within a mile of a polluting facility, particularly in metropolitan areas of the Midwest and West and in suburban areas of the South.
5. A report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, “Watered Down Justice,” on the racial disparities in access to safe drinking water. The rate of violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act increased in communities of color, low-income communities, areas with more non-native English speakers, areas with more people living in crowded housing, and areas with limited access to transportation.
6. Climate change also disproportionately impacts Black communities, Indigenous communities, Latinx communities and other communities of color in the United States. In addition to possible vulnerability to extreme heat, members of these communities are more likely to live in areas prone to hurricanes, droughts, and more, and may be less able to recover from the damaging effects of these events. Climate change threatens traditional practices and diets in Indigenous communities; fossil fuel development threatens sacred sites and sources of water.
7. An interview with Rhiana Gunn-Wright, director of climate policy at the Roosevelt Institute and co-author of the Green New Deal, explaining the connections between the protests and climate crisis in the MIT Technology Review. Here’s an op-ed she wrote in the New York Times about COVID-19, the climate crisis, and how any government effort to address them requires commitments to justice and equity.
8. The New York Times interviewed three Black leaders in the environmental movement about how the climate movement can be anti-racist. Here is another piece they did about the links between racism and the environment.
9. Check out Rev. William J. Barber II and his work on the Poor People’s Campaign, which has a focus on environmental and climate justice. Consider making a donation.
10. Please consider submitting a comment opposing the Bureau of Land Management’s Mancos-Gallup Amendment, a plan to continue fracking in New Mexico which endangers the sacred site of the Greater Chaco Canyon. The Pueblo Action Alliance makes it very easy.
Tatiana