Climate Change Endangers the Lives of People of Color First and Foremost by Disha Cattamanchi

It is already established that climate change is a global issue. It is an issue that each country in the world is somehow fighting—fighting to combat or fighting to ignore. Nonetheless, countries in the world have resorted to debating over the differences regarding the responsibility of which country “caused” climate change, or their response to its mitigation and efforts to adapt to it. Because of this inter-country blame, race inequality has risen to the forefront of the climate justice conversation, as we continue to blame different races and cultures for climate change’s myriads of effects. This view of inter-country blame has begun to dominate the discussion of climate change, but it has made us forget the divide that climate change has strengthened within our own country, as it exacerbates racial inequalities.

The way that people of color are hurt by climate change is commonly known as the climate gap. The climate gap is the unjustifiable and discriminatory impact that the climate crisis has on people of color. The climate gap highlights the disproportionality of how communities of color are treated and unable to cope with climate hazards that may impact them. It most notably has the highest impact on the socioeconomic status of most people of color.

Socially and economically disadvantaged people of color are disproportionately affected by climate change, as it affects people that are subjected to the vicious cycle of economical marginalization. As African Americans and Latinos are more likely to attend high poverty schools than Asian Americans or Caucasians, high school dropout rates among Latinos and African Americans remain the highest. Along with this, there are fewer available resources directed towards African American students which dramatically increases the education gap between people of color and Caucasians. These gaps in education feed into the poverty rates of people of color. More than 82% of America’s population living in poverty are people of color, with 25% being native American, 20% being African American, 17% Hispanic, and 10% being Asian. This is extensive compared to the 10% of white people living in poverty.

This matters because poverty and a lack of resources makes people of color more susceptible to the negative implications of climate change. Essentially, people of color are at the forefront of this issue and are affected by it first and foremost. People of color in low income neighborhoods have a greater exposure to climate hazards such as air pollution and tornados, and in turn, have an inadequate response to combat them. They face the brunt of the damage that climate hazards impose and have an inability to cope with it. As a result, the climate gap increases the disparities between people of color and white people, because it increases the economical gap between them. Low income families of color have to suffer to fix the additional deterioration climate change has inflicted on them, compared to privileged white people. When privileged white people are subjected to this, they are left out of this cycle because the majority of them compared to POC have the support and money necessary to settle the damage. Privileged white people are not affected by climate change as much because they are not at the forefront of this issue. They are not the ones being shunned by a crippling system that forces people to be subjected to this cycle of economic disadvantage. Because this system continues to be re-enforced by a lack of support from the government, the climate gap is also indirectly strengthened.

The health of communities of color is also compromised due to the effects of climate change. Most notably, extreme weather events such as heat increases the mortality rates for African Americans-- particularly elders and children. In a study done in California from September of 1999-2003, it was found that for every 10 degrees that the ambient temperature increased, there was a 2.6% increase in cardiovascular mortality. Another indication that people of color are disproportionately influenced by the heat wave is because most agricultural and construction workers are people of color. Mexican and Central American Immigrants come to places like California to work in agriculture or construction to make a living, but due to the harrowing conditions and long workdays in the sun, many POC workers can contract more heat-related illnesses. Predominantly white middle class neighborhoods won’t have this problem, because the effects of a heat wave would have been abated. These neighborhoods have an abundance of technological, informational, and social resources available to them. Yet, most neighborhoods of color do not. Air conditioning is a game changing coping commodity for people in these conditions, but most POC families are less likely to have access to it compared to the general population of white people.

This disproportionality of environmental factors is further impaired because of the “heat island affect.” The heat island effect occurs in urban areas, predominantly because there is a lack of tree cover and an abundance of dark roads which coax the sun to the area. Because of the tall buildings and construction, the heat is absorbed creating the “heat island” effect. Communities of color are often more vulnerable because they are more segregated to the inner parts of cities where there is a lack of construction to absorb the residual heat. This makes people of color in these communities more extraneously exposed to the heat wave, when it could have been prevented by the development of more roads and buildings.

People of color are also more likely to breathe in air pollution. According to the NAACP’s “Coal-Blooded” study, communities of color breathe in 40% more air pollution than white communities. This is because most of the population living near coal plants are people of color. They inhale the fossil fuels and garner health diseases related to the air pollution. 68% of the 13% of African Americans living in the US live within 30 miles to a coal plant, while 39% of the 13% of Latinos living in the US also live near a coal plant. This shows that people of color are at the forefront of climate hazards, being forced to face them in their day to day lives.

Most communities around toxic sites, are also communities of color. When the BP oil spill happened in 2010, 184 million gallons spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill washed up onto the shores of Louisiana and Florida, which are primarily filled with African American communities. This made the African American people living in these areas more compromised to the environment then they would have been before, and the consequences more detrimental. The BP oil spill imperialized the lives of many fish that lived in the area, which happened to be linked to the livelihoods of many black people who relied on them for their jobs. While things such as the BP oil spill, heat waves, and living situations do not directly target people of color, you cannot deny that climate hazards end up affecting them anyway. Communities of color end up being marginalized to the parts of society that are underdeveloped or are in need of more governmental support to keep up the integrity of the environment. Yet while many predominantly white neighborhoods were under constant upkeep for this spill, neighborhoods of color just seemed to have been neglected until there was too much outrage to ignore.

In America, the talks on climate change have been expansive, though frequently shut down by government officials denying its validity. They try to feign ignorance that climate change would not affect them, and it does not. Climate change cannot touch these people in power, because they have more protection and support to evade its effects. However, just because the contaminated water and heat waves don’t touch the homes and lives of privileged white people, it doesn’t mean that the risk is not out there, ready to harm someone else. All the while, communities of color have historically received less protection than white communities in hazards by climate change. Hence, at the rate at which climate change is growing, more and more people of color will continually be hurt by its catastrophes, unless those with power offer aid to those who cannot protect themselves against it. So while the climate crisis is out there, the government should take accountability for its part in prolonging it, and endangering the lives of so many POC. The government should provide more resources for communities of color to combat the ways climate change has impacted their lives. To that regard, climate change treats people of color negatively, and offers a much wider disparity between the livelihoods of communities of color and white people.

By Disha Cattamanchi

Disha Cattamanchi (she/her) is currently a sophomore at Juanita high school who is completely enamored with writing. After falling in love with it, Disha has dedicated her writing to convey her thoughts on global issues, and literature/film. When she isn’t reading film screenplays, you can find her writing reviews as one of the TeenTix writing staff, or adamantly expressing her views on mental health and abortion rights through prose. Disha is also a huge Asian representation advocate, which is heavily influenced by her South Indian roots. 

Cover photo: Children walk through the neighborhood of Wilmington, California, near a Conoco Phillips oil refinery. Jesse N. Marquez

*This article is a collaborative project between Last Real Indians, Mazaska Talks and the Colorization Collective