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How natural disasters and global warming expose environmental injustices
In February 2021, fierce winter snowstorms blasted the state of Texas with extreme cold temperatures that froze waterpipes and besieged the state’s energy grid, causing blackouts across communities large and small. Millions of Texans grappled with a lack of electricity, heat, food and water while awaiting state and federal emergency response. Meanwhile, park and recreation professionals sprang into action to help their communities. City of Dallas Parks and Recreation, for example, opened its parking lots to chartered buses and mobile homes, which served as “Mobile Warming Centers” for residents to warm up, grab a meal and charge their devices.
While “The Great Texas Freeze” of last year inspired countless stories of local organizations and community members helping neighbors in need, it also reiterated a hard truth about climate change and the collateral damage natural disasters inflict — racial inequity.
Parks & Recreation magazine takes a closer look at climate change disparities related to race. It’s important to note that the professionals interviewed for this article are not climate scientists; however, their work in conservation and parks and recreation is quite relevant to this topic. Their firsthand observations and insights into climate change conditions in diverse communities offer greater context to the climate change conversation and the overall impact on marginalized neighborhoods.
Disparities in Disaster Recovery
In Texas, communities of color and underserved communities endured the brunt of the snowstorms’ wrath in February 2021, due to aging infrastructure and a shortage of essential resources in those areas. For example, The New York Times reported that Houston communities like Acres Homes, a northwest neighborhood comprising mostly Black and Latino residents, were among the first to lose power.
According to the Times, “[r]esearch has also shown that in Houston and elsewhere, lower-income, minority communities tend to live closer to industrial sites and be more exposed to pollution, a concern as the freezing weather shut down large refineries and other industrial sites. Large industrial complexes tend to release bursts of pollutants into the air when they shut down and again when they restart.”
“Underserved communities are less likely or able to prepare and recover from issues that are related to natural disasters…,” says Sara Hensley, city manager for City of Denton, Texas. Prior to her tenure at the agency, Hensley served in park and recreation positions in San Jose, California; Phoenix; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Austin, Texas.
In October 2018, she was working in Austin when severe rainstorms struck Central Texas, causing rivers to overflow, neighborhoods to flood, and residents to flee their homes as water levels rose. Hensley says the hardest hit areas were rental properties where many immigrants and people of color resided. She adds that none of those tenants who were forced to evacuate had renter’s insurance nor did they “have the means to find [housing] alternatives.”
The fact that low-income communities were already at a disadvantage due to underinvestment creates an even greater barrier to recovery following a climate event or even, more recently, a global health crisis like the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Hensley says food deserts occur in these communities because there aren’t enough accessible food sources, like grocery stores, to serve the population. Therefore, when a natural disaster strikes, those living in such areas struggle to find emergency supplies and food staples to tide them over until aid arrives.
For example, USA Today reported that the Austin Justice Coalition assisted more than 40 Austin families affected by the February 2021 snowstorms by delivering food. The coalition’s director of housing and community development, João Paulo Connolly, told the news outlet that approximately 90 percent of those served were from Black and Latino/Hispanic communities.
The Environment and Health
According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP): “The health and well-being of Americans are already affected by climate change, with the adverse health consequences projected to worsen with additional climate change. Climate change affects human health by altering exposures to heat waves, floods, droughts, and other extreme events; vector-, food- and waterborne infectious diseases; changes in the quality and safety of air, food, and water; and stresses to mental health and well-being.”
The frequency and severity of calamities, such as wildfires, floods, heavy rainfall and storm surge, also can dramatically impact public health. “These events can exacerbate underlying medical conditions, increase stress, and lead to adverse mental health effects,” according to USGCRP.
“Climate change is thought to be…this great multiplier. There are a number of impacts to communities of color, especially in urban areas,” says Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, assistant professor of environmental and health sciences at Spelman College in Atlanta. “Take Atlanta as an example, when we look at the climate projections and look at the projected hazards over the next several years up to the year 2050, we see things like increased heat [and] precipitation. Those are two things that impact a place like Atlanta quite a bit.” It’s no wonder why the city earns the nickname “Hotlanta.”
Given those projections, Dr. Osborne Jelks stresses the seriousness of the urban heat island effect, an occurrence whereby temperatures in urbanized environments (or built environments) measure relatively hotter than rural environments. “For instance, in one of the projects that I’m currently helping to co-lead is a project, called UrbanHeatATL, which is focused on mapping urban heat islands across the Atlanta area and understanding which communities are hotter than others. We’re looking at whether or not [there’s] green infrastructure in place. Do we have trees? Are there parks, open spaces and green spaces in these communities to help mitigate extreme heat? Those are some of the ways that people are impacted,” she says.
The public health implications due to unseasonably hot temperatures are immense. Dr. Osborne Jelks notes from a climate perspective, extreme heat is among the highest killers in the country. “That’s something that maybe a lot of folks don’t know,” she says.
According to a 2021 study published by Nature Communications, in the United States, heat-related mortality accounts for approximately 1,500 deaths per year, which is more than other severe climate events. Heat exposure also poses health risks, such as heat cramps, heat stroke and heat exhaustion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study also reveals that people of color are at a higher exposure risk to urban heat island effects compared to non-Hispanic whites in 97 percent of major U.S. cities. What’s more, those most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses, according to Dr. Osborne Jelks, are people living on fixed incomes, who perhaps aren’t living in homes with air conditioning or are living in dwellings whereby the system is not working.
Global warming also contributes to a lengthening of the pollen season, especially in cities like Atlanta. According to Dr. Osborne Jelks, this generally happens when we experience hot, or even mild, temperatures during the winter months — causing plants and trees to bloom earlier than usual. This impacts people who suffer from allergies and even asthma, she notes. “And with the warmer temperatures in areas that were traditionally a little bit cooler, we’re seeing a greater emergence of vector-borne or induced diseases,” she says. A prime example is West Nile virus.
In addition to rising temperatures and more extreme weather (e.g., heat waves, hurricanes), rising sea level and increasing carbon dioxide levels also adversely affect human health (see infographic, p. 34). There’s also the issue of forced migration and the mental health implications, especially when natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes displace people from their homes and communities, as was the case with more than a million residents from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The Level of Importance
Research has shown the connection of climate change to racial and socioeconomic inequities. But where does the issue of global warming rank among people of color in the United States? According to a Yale study conducted in 2019 — which analyzed whites, African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos about their beliefs, attitudes and actions toward climate change — people of color are more concerned about the environment than their white counterparts.
Looking at the data, slightly less than 70 percent of Hispanics/Latinos and 57 percent of African Americans are more likely to be “alarmed” or “concerned” about climate change compared to 49 percent of whites. Twenty-seven percent of whites are more likely to be “doubtful” or “dismissive,” followed by 11 percent of Hispanics/Latinos and 12 percent of African Americans.
A Pew Research Center study found that during the 2020 presidential election, the environment was an important issue for 75 percent of Hispanic/Latino voters and more than 70 percent of white voters who supported Joe Biden, while 54 percent of the Black electorate said the same.
Climate Change Is a Collective Issue
Viniece Jennings, assistant professor of public health at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, says when it comes to starting a conversation around climate change and race and what we can do to effect change, we all need to look at the bigger picture.
“While social vulnerability can pertain to a particular group — the initial vulnerability within that group is going to impact the collective at some point,” she says. “So, when we do not apply a collective mindset to these issues, we can lose sight of the larger system we are all in.”
She provides an example of a coastal area that is prone to hurricanes. When a major hurricane is coming toward that area, it doesn’t matter if you’re Black or white, you must evacuate. The problem is the people with the most resources can leave, while those who lack the means to evacuate ahead of the hurricane are at greater risk. “But at the end of the day, the damage was along the whole coast. If you’re in a high-income or low-income neighborhood, your property was damaged,” Jennings explains.
The challenge is to get everyone on the same page by recognizing that climate change is bigger than any one group or individual. Time is of the essence, and nobody has the luxury of saying: “It’s not my problem.”
“When we reposition our thinking and remember that we’re all a part of a larger system, that can bring a progressive perspective to race and climate as well as other issues going on in society,” says Jennings.
Parks and Recreation’s Role
What role should parks and recreation play in supporting climate resiliency and promoting environmental justice? Hensley says, “We can do a better job of working with our partners in city planning to build better sustainable development when it comes to housing in areas of the underserved population. And to me, that’s environmental justice — right planning in the right place at the right time.” Following are some suggestions for reducing your community’s carbon footprint:
Create more shade. “Shade is a big deal,” says Hensley. Go onto Google Maps to view the areas most impacted by urban heat island effect from lack of trees. “Guess where they are? In the underserved areas and in areas where people of color are living.” Hensley recommends creating additional tree canopies through a tree planting program. Will it reverse the problem right now? No, however, it will help improve conditions for the future.
Entice the butterflies. In Austin, Hensley worked on a campaign focused on milkweed plantings in areas that would attract Monarch butterflies. “We planted milkweed along the Interstate 35 corridor and in other areas, so that the butterflies could stop by, re-invigorate and then head down to Mexico,” she says, “and just by increasing the amount of butterflies and putting in milkweed, [we] helped with our environment.”
Establish food forests/edible gardens. To address the problem of food deserts in underinvested areas, take parkland or an area the city can purchase, and work with community members to plant food forests or edible gardens. This provides a place for people who don’t have access to a local grocery store to walk through and pick fresh produce off the vine, like grapes, tomatoes or other in-season fruits and vegetables.
Develop partnerships. For example, Rio Salado is a river that runs from downtown Phoenix, through different communities of color, to Tempe, Arizona. Hensley says some years ago, City of Phoenix partnered with the state, late Senator John McCain, and several other entities and neighborhoods to clear old tires and trash that had polluted the waterway. Working with park staff and partners, the city helped to transform Rio Salado from a deserted trash heap to a beautiful, thriving natural habitat featuring returning wildlife and welcoming trails. “So, you take areas that are not well kept from an environmental standpoint — and particularly those in an area of underserved populations — you work with the community and others to create a more viable, natural habitat, which then helps our air quality. And, it helps with our water quality through a natural filtration system,” contends Hensley.
Be a climate ambassador. City of Austin established its Community Climate Ambassador Program, which engages diverse community members who have been systematically excluded from the climate change discussion. According to Hensley, community members really took it upon themselves to work on a plan that focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, grounding climate action in racial equity and building sustainable buildings.
When it comes to environmental justice and what park and recreation professionals need to focus on, Jennings stresses that “it’s important to balance the scales between urban development and green communities where diverse people can remain and thrive.” What’s more, she contends that “inclusive leadership at multiple levels of parks and recreation plays an important role in the pursuit of health equity.”
Vitisia Paynich, is Executive Editor and Director of Print and Online Content at NRPA.