Discrimination has made it difficult for people of color to live in urban areas
Urban heat islands are more expensive to live on than white or richer: A 2021 study of the Durham, North Carolina, community of artists and environmentalists
On a July day in 2021 that would become blazing hot, dozens of community volunteers gathered before sunrise at the Scrap Exchange, a reuse center for art materials in Durham, N.C. Using heat-sensing instruments, they fanned out along prescribed routes through the city, collecting data on air temperature and humidity in the morning, afternoon and evening.
A growing number of studies indicates that people of color are more stuck in these islands than their white and wealthier counterparts. The disparity is most pernicious during the summer, when extreme heat waves are becoming more common and lasting longer. “The average person of color lives in a census tract with higher summer daytime SUHI [surface urban heat island] intensity than non-Hispanic whites in all but 6 of the 175 largest urbanized areas in the continental United States,” wrote the authors of a 2021 study in Nature. A new analysis of 481 U.S. cities showed that the typical Black resident lives in air that is 0.5 degree F warmer than the average for their city. The typical white resident lives in the cooler part of the city. The patterns follow poverty and wealth levels.
Blocks in these black neighborhoods had less tree cover than other areas. “The 10-degree difference between locations within two miles of each other was surprising,” says Durham County sustainability manager Tobin Freid. She added that the hot areas don’t cool off much at night.
A study found that 4% of the deaths in 93 European cities were due to urban heat islands. The paper concluded that one third of these excess heat deaths could be prevented by a tree cover of 30 percent. Another analysis found that Kolkata and Mumbai in India and Manila in the Philippines were among the cities with the largest annual increases in extreme heat exposure worldwide between 1983 and 2016.
If you are in a heat island it is even more expensive to keep your home cool, claims Jane Gilbert who leads heat protection programs in Miami-Dade County. “About 70 percent of lower-income populations live in rental apartments with small wall units that landlords are under no obligation to repair or replace.”
Angel Hsu of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said that cities without redlining have the same disparity. She claims that it is due to something larger and more systemic. It is environmental racism. In low-wealth communities of color, especially those with less economic and political power, there are often busy roads and factories that heat the air.
Climate change making the world hotter is making dealing with heat islands more urgent. In 2021 President Joe Biden launched a coordinated effort to respond to extreme heat. The guidance for heat exposure limits was provided by the OSHA. (Many states have yet to adopt them.) The recent $1.2-trillion federal infrastructure package encourages investments in green construction and other practices to lower temperatures and improve air quality. A federal grant program will pay for 1 billion trees to be planted in urban areas.
Miami-Dade County has begun training community health-care practitioners and disaster volunteers to respond to heat-related illnesses. There are 1,700 energy efficient air-conditioning units that have been purchased by the county, which is working towards a goal of 30 percent tree canopy. Atlanta and New Orleans created new zoning regulations and set sustainable-development goals that specifically address urban heat effects.
“We have a lot of great research that we need to mobilize into feasible and effective policy solutions,” says Ashley Ward, a researcher at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. She says that to build support, you should talk about issues that connect to different political ideologies.
The most disadvantaged people in the world are the ones who breathe the most toxic air. This pattern is apparent at every level, from the smallest towns to the largest countries. Wealthy nations have shown that reducing air pollution saves lives, and some poorer countries are proving that clean energy can fuel economic development.
Climate change and the epidemics of snakebite envenomation: How vulnerable are we to the disease? A survey of the US and Latin American populations
Snakebite envenomation is a tropical disease with a high mortality rate. The people who have the least resources are the most likely to be bitten or to not have access to the best care. New treatments could save lives.
The range and prevalence of diseases are changing because of the climate crisis. The most at risk are those working in construction sites and in dusty agricultural fields. Latino, Asian and Indigenous American people are more likely to contract the illness than white people who experience more severe symptoms and are less likely to contract it.
Urban heat islands are more expensive to live on than white or richer areas, according to a study published in Nature. It found that the average person of colour lives in census tracts with higher summer daytime SUHI [surface urban heat island] intensity than non- Hispanic whites in all but six of the 175 largest urbanised areas in the continental US.