Last updated August 19, 2007 4:38 p.m. PT
The poor are hit hardest by climate change, but contribute the least to it
RANDY POPLOCK
GUEST COLUMNIST
Two years ago, Hurricane Katrina awoke America to the relationship between climate change and social justice. Katrina, fueled by a warmer Gulf, devastated mainly black and low-income populations that couldn't avoid harm's way. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we don't have hurricanes, but climate change will still negatively impact low-income and minority populations disproportionately. We are not exempt from the "climate justice" issue.
In the Northwest, climate change is expected to bring us more extreme summer heat waves and winter floods. Human health implications include heat-related illness and mortality, mold-triggered respiratory ailments and possibly increased West Nile virus. Hotter temperatures likely will exacerbate urban smog levels and rural wildfires, triggering asthma attacks in those areas.
Low-income and minority populations will bear the brunt of those human health consequences, mainly because they tend to have limited access to health insurance. One recent study of Seattle residents reported that white populations had an 89 percent health insurance rate compared with 75 percent for black and 61 percent for Latino populations. Split by income level, one recent King County report shows a strong correlation between health insurance rates and income.
Heat waves are of particular concern to low-income and minority residents, who tend to lack air-conditioning (especially in the Northwest), live in higher crime areas (where doors and windows remain closed for security reasons, cutting air circulation) and congregate in highly urbanized neighborhoods (where temperatures usually exceed surrounding areas because of the "urban heat island" effect). One study by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation listed Seattle as a city where black populations were twice as likely as white populations to die from a heat wave.
At least heat waves are predictable. Floods and wildfires are not. Unfortunately, low-income populations are less mobile, often lack access to warning systems (including the Internet) or don't understand English warnings, making them more susceptible to catastrophe. Low-income populations also tend to lack adequate property or homeowners insurance, making wildfire and flood damage that much more devastating.
Climate change could cause regressive price increases for various necessities in the Northwest. In the summer, shrinking water supply combined with higher water demand (residential and agricultural) could increase summer water rates. Electricity rates could go up, as we are highly dependent on hydropower for electricity (72 percent of Washington's electricity comes from hydropower versus a 7 percent U.S. average). Food prices could increase as irrigation costs rise and farms suffer global warming-induced drought, wildfire and pest damage. All those scenarios will pinch the pocketbooks of low-income populations disproportionately.
The ironic part about climate justice is this: Low-income populations are hit the hardest by climate change, yet they contribute the least to climate change on a per-capita basis. Lower-income populations generally have smaller carbon footprints than higher-income populations as they (usually) buy fewer goods, own smaller homes and drive and fly fewer miles. A recent CBCF study showed that black populations nationwide contributed about 20 percent less in carbon-dioxide emissions per-capita than white populations.
Hurricane Katrina raised America's consciousness about the injustice of human-exacerbated "natural" disasters destroying the lives of low-income and minority populations in our own country. In the Pacific Northwest, climate justice must be considered in policy decisions and public dialogue. Every environmental issue poses a social justice concern, and climate change is no exception.