The sun sets behind power lines in Los Angeles, California on September 3, 2020. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
As record-high heat hammers much of the country, a new study shows that in American cities, residents of low-income neighborhoods and communities of color endure far higher temperatures than people who live in whiter, wealthier communities.
Urban areas are known to be hotter than more rural ones, but the research published Tuesday in the journal Earth's Future provides one of the most detailed looks to date at how differences in heat extremes break down along racial and socioeconomic lines.
The authors used census data and measured land surface temperature with satellite imaging and focused on 1,056 counties that are home to about 300 million Americans. They found that in more than 70% of those counties, neighborhoods with more people of color and lower income people, "experience significantly more extreme surface urban heat than their wealthier, whiter counterparts."
The study found that in areas with higher rates of poverty, temperatures can be as much as 4 degrees Celsius, or 7 degrees Fahrenheit, warmer during the summer months when compared to richer neighborhoods. The same held true for Americans living in minority communities when compared to their non-Hispanic, white counterparts.
Americans can expect more days over 90 degrees
The study is the latest to show how climate change driven by human activity disproportionately harms people of color and poor people. The warming climate is making heat waves more frequent and intense. And even without heatwaves, Americans can expect far more days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit than a few decades ago.
The researchers — Susanne Benz and Jennifer Burney from the UC San Diego — found that in 76% of the counties they studied, lower income people experienced higher temperatures than those with higher incomes. When looking at neighborhoods by race, 71% of counties showed that people of color lived in neighborhoods with higher temperatures compared to white people.
The researchers say several reasons are driving up temperatures in these neighborhoods, including more buildings, less vegetation, and to a lesser extent, higher population density.
Prior studies have shown factors like less vegetation can impact a city's temperature, and neighborhoods with more people of color and lower income people typically have less tree cover.
Heat has killed hundreds in the Pacific Northwest
Heat is the biggest weather-related killer of Americans, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. An estimated 800 people have died in the heat wave that has gripped the Pacific Northwest this month.
The researchers also note that the temperature differences didn't just exist in larger, more developed cities. In smaller cities that are just starting to be developed, the disparity between white and non-white neighborhoods was clear as well, they said.
In order to combat some of the root causes of urban heat disparities in the future, they say, policymakers will have to focus on smaller areas at the beginning of their development.
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July 15, 2021 at 01:43AM
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Cities Are Hotter For Low-Income, Non-White Neighborhoods - NPR
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