‘Hotlanta’ is even more humid in these neighborhoods due to a racist policy of the 20th century | news

Like Scott, residents of the low-income communities of south and southwest Atlanta are struggling to tackle the hottest summer since the Dust Bowl period of the 1930s.

“It’s just so hot,” Scott said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead.

The astonishing temperature difference is due in large part to historical redlining, a federal government-approved effort that began in the 1930s and which exacerbated segregation by denying credit and insurance to potential home buyers in poorer and colored neighborhoods.

Although the racist practice was banned in the late 1960s, its effects can still be seen.

According to a study by Redfin, black homeowners in America’s largest cities are nearly five times more likely than white families to own homes in these historic red-bordered communities. These communities, like Scott in South Atlanta, endure the greatest stresses of our rapidly warming planet and are typically the hottest and poorest areas today.

Extreme heat today threatens the health and well-being of underserved communities, while predominantly white neighborhoods reap the cooler benefits of decades of investment.

“I went shopping the other day and thought I was going to pass out.” Scott told CNN. She said she suffered from high blood pressure and diabetes, which are underlying health conditions made worse by excessive heat.

For Scott and so many other disadvantaged community members, keeping the lights on, let alone access to reliable air conditioning, is hard enough financially.

According to a recent study by Climate Central, some cities like New Orleans and New York suffer from the worst urban heat in the country. Atlanta, affectionately known as “Hotlanta”, is also particularly hot.

Spelman College, a historically black college in Atlanta, has partnered with a NOAA campaign and other universities to map the hottest, most vulnerable communities. Spelman’s commitment is significant because it is the first time a historically black college or university has run an initiative like this, Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, assistant professor of environmental and health sciences at Spelman College, told CNN.

“When we think about global challenges like climate change, it’s one of the issues that disproportionately affects blacks and other color communities,” said Jelks. “That’s why it’s very important that we sit at the table.”

According to a recent EPA report, blacks are 40% more likely to live in areas with the largest projected increase in heat-related deaths when the planet hits 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. This rises to 59% when the planet reaches 4 degrees Celsius.

In August, global scientists said warming was already around 1.2 degrees Celsius and showing no signs of slowing.

People like Scott are the reason NOAA’s National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) campaign has been mapping America’s urban heat islands since 2017. This community-led, multi-city program has helped city planners identify and map the hottest neighborhoods in American cities.

The urban heat island effect occurs when the unshaded sidewalk and buildings of a city absorb heat from the sun during the day and radiate that heat into the surrounding air. This can make even average summer days unbearable in dense urban environments, especially for those who don’t have access to reliable cooling like Scott.

Jelks and Guanyu Huang, Assistant Professor of Environmental and Health Sciences at Spelman College and local director of the Atlanta Heat Mapping Campaign, are both very passionate about the work. They hope the data will transform the city they both live in.

“So this data will help the people in Atlanta, especially those in the downtown or intercity area, the people who actually suffer from heat and also don’t have access to an AC system,” Huang said.

Other cities that participated in NOAA’s heat mapping campaign have adopted the results and made changes such as planting more trees or adding more parks in areas suffering from the worst heat.

The inequalities in the green area are noticeable as you traverse Atlanta. As you drive through Scott’s neighborhood, there are fewer and smaller parks than nearby neighborhoods, which are mostly white, and natural shade from trees is also lacking.

Despite being referred to as the “city in the woods,” with trees abundant in much of the Atlanta subway, thermal inequality persists.

Brionna Findley, a former Atlanta resident and volunteer for the Urban Heat Islands Campaign, has an experience with inequality. She has seen firsthand that her community has no access to air conditioning and shaded green spaces.

Findley says she and her family survived countless Atlanta heatwaves while there. And it just seems to get hotter.

“When I took the temperature for that particular day, we had higher temperatures when it came to areas with low tree cover, more infrastructure and more asphalt on the road,” Findley said. “It was extremely hot, you can feel that. It wasn’t anything hidden.

This campaign is personal to Findley after her own grandmother experienced signs of heat stroke.

“It was like one of the hottest days in Georgia. And we went out and went through the mall and had to go home because you could see one side of her face going down. ”Findley explains. “She spoke indistinctly. It was very, very difficult to see. I was very scared.”

“She is fine. But we definitely don’t let her go outside that often, especially when it’s hot outside, ”said Findley. “Like Grandma, you have to stay inside today and do some activities inside.”

In general, much of the contiguous United States is warming and the urban environment is most affected by the heat because of these urban heat islands. The warming trend is evident in a new NOAA analysis of average weather.

In Atlanta, the city now has an average of 11 90-degree or hotter days in summer compared to the old 30-year average. Salt Lake City has an average of 10 more days at 90 degrees or more, and Houston has gained nine days.

Once the urban heat islands are mapped, urban planners will have more tools to tackle environmental inequalities, which experts believe will only be exacerbated by the climate crisis.

“If we bring together all of the data from all cities, it will be helpful for all levels of government at state and federal level to have a country-wide climate resilience plan. So that’s what we can do here, ”said Huang. “We can use it to do research, teach your classes on climate change, tell people that climate change is actually right there, right next to our neighborhood.”

Houston city planners used the data from the 2020 campaign analysis to create a climate action plan to help build resilience to climate disasters, including extreme heat.

Richmond, Virginia, is using the information to convert city-owned land into public green space and provide cooling for those in need.

“I lived in New York and there were cooling centers that the homeless could come to during the day to avoid being outside in the heat, to drink water, maybe get a sandwich and a snack. And I don’t have that down here (in Atlanta) never seen it before, “said Scott. “I think they (city planners) should plant trees in hot areas, especially near bus stops. I think they need to open some kind of center, you know, to keep people cool.”

While cooling centers were available in Atlanta during extreme heat waves, in the past those centers were not open overnight when high temperatures can be particularly severe health effects. The City of Atlanta did not respond to a request for comment on the availability of refrigeration centers.

Covid-19 has also made it difficult to access unofficial cooling centers such as libraries or shopping malls, while before the pandemic they may have been more accessible to the general public. In some cases, Scott has found that these locations are simply closed.

Jelks said these communities need investments and solutions that don’t crowd them out.

“We can add new trees, but we need to make sure that there is political support to keep the people who are currently suffering from lack of access to these amenities,” said Jelks. “We want to keep them in place and make sure they are not gentrified and driven out of their communities.”

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