Urban heat islands are man-made areas marked by significantly higher temperatures relative to rural surroundings. A new study finds that “blacks, Asians, and Latinos are all significantly more likely to live in high-risk heat-island conditions than white people”:
[Researchers] compared Census population data with the 2001 National Land Cover Dataset, mediating for factors such as income, home ownership, and density. Richer folks of color who own their homes are less likely to live in a heat island than the poor, but still significantly more likely than whites. The study doesn’t point to causality, but does mention past and present lending practices which have concentrated people of color in dense, urban neighborhoods that may or may not receive the same level of civic investment as other areas.
Translation: This study highlights the persistent racial segregation of urban areas more than it does a lack of trees. All told, this is just yet another amenity that people of color are losing out on. … It’s not just a potential discomfort, but a serious health risk, when extreme heat is a factor in about one in five deaths resulting from natural hazards.
Ngoc Nguyen at New American Media interviewed study co-author Dr. Rachel Morello-Frosch:
NAM: What accounts for greater [heat] island risk in hyper-segregated cities?
RMF: What we are seeing in the physical environment — the planting of trees and infrastructure that tries to decrease heat island risk in cities — these kind of investments, you tend to see less of in places with high levels of racial inequality. The physical environment in cities is a reflection of the social environment, and it tends to disadvantage people of color particularly.
It’s possible in cities with higher levels of segregation, there is less investment to protect people from [heat] island risk, such as tree-planting campaigns, greening of space and neighborhood, reduction in impervious surfaces that really absorb heat, whiter roofs, those kinds of things, certain levels of public investment.
NAM: What was surprising in the study findings?
RMF: In metropolitan areas with greater levels of racial segregation, everyone — whites included – were more likely to live in heat-prone areas … what this shows is that, in some ways segregation adversely affects everyone. This form of social inequality affects everyone. Segregated places have much higher [heat] island risk compared to less segregated places.
The Dish 