It is important for health equity to have a location
Environmental Racism in the City of Durham, N.C., during the Great Reclamation of the Civil Rights Act of 2021
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. They fanned out along prescribed routes in order to collect data on air temperature and humidity.
Redlining is linked to patterns that led to urban heat islands. In the 1930s the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation began ranking a neighborhood’s loan-worthiness based primarily on its racial composition and socioeconomic status. The policies reinforced segregation, exposed poor communities to industrial pollution, and limited investments in amenities such as trees and parks. A 2020 study of 108 cities in the U.S. found that 94 percent had elevated land-surface temperatures in formerly redlined areas compared with their nonredlined neighbors. The difference was as much as 13.6 degrees.
The tree cover in the Black neighborhoods were not as shady as in other areas. “The 10-degree difference between locations within two miles of each other was surprising,” says Durham County sustainability manager Tobin Freid. The hot areas don’t cool off as much at night.
Urban heat islands are tracts of hot concrete and pavement that are treeless. They aren’t healthy places. The human body can be made to feel sick from extreme heat. It can increase the risk of suicide, depression, and premature births, as well as amplify existing health conditions.
“It’s expensive to keep your home cool, and it’s even more expensive if you’re in an urban heat island,” says Jane Gilbert, who leads heat protection programs in Miami-Dade County in Florida. 70 percent of lower income residents live in rental apartments with small wall units, which are not required to be repaired or replaced.
Cities without a history of redlining have similar disparities, says climate scientist Angel Hsu of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It’s due to something wider, more pernicious and systemic,” she says. “It’s environmental racism.” Busy roadways and factories that heat the air are often placed in low-wealth communities of color, which lack the economic and political power to keep such things out.
Climate change is making dealing with heat islands more urgent. President Joe Biden launched a concerted effort to respond to extreme heat in 2021. It included guidance for heat exposure limits from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Many states have yet to adopt them. The federal infrastructure package encourages investments in green construction and other practices to improve air quality. And a 2023 federal grant program includes $1 billion to plant trees in urban areas.
Miami-Dade County has started training community health-care practitioners and disaster volunteers to deal with heat-related illnesses. The county also purchased 1,700 energy-efficient air-conditioning units to install in public housing and is working toward 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. To build support, she recommends talking about issues that resonate across different political ideologies—such as health outcomes and their ties to where people live.
There are solutions, they need better understanding and a new approach. Researchers are inventing healthier buildings, designing clinical trials with community involvement, and monitoring air and water to give people the power to protect themselves. They are pushing to create a more just world.
The Climate Crisis and Adaptation of Snakebite Envenomation: How Native Americans and Latinos Can Spread Its Diseases
Snakebite envenomation is one of the deadliest tropical diseases. It is most dangerous to the people with the lowest resources because they’re less able to defend themselves from being bitten or to access the best care. New treatments can save lives and limbs.
The climate crisis is changing the range and prevalence of many diseases. Valley fever has expanded into new locations, and those working outdoors in construction sites and dusty agricultural fields are the most at risk. Latino, Asian and Indigenous American people are more likely to contract the illness than white people who experience less severe symptoms.
