Heat and Racism in America’s Cities

by: Hamani Wilson, Asia Jackson, Nasif Azher, Zarif Azher, Dr. Sacoby Wilson

There are many health hazards that the public should be aware of during 2021. However, one of the most important threats to public health is heat. Heat is a physical stressor, killing as many as 1,200 people a year. According to a 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a total of 10,527 deaths resulting from exposure to heat-related conditions were identified from 2004 to 2018 with approximately 90% of these heat-related deaths occurring during the months May — September [1]. According to the CDC, Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities are at significantly higher risk of deaths related to heat exposure; for example, non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives had a heat-related death rate of 0.6 per 100,000, which was the highest among all race/ethnicity groups [2].

Figure 1: A graph showing the trend of summer deaths due to heat and cardiovascular disease in the USA, distributed across three groups. Non-hispanic Blacks and those aged 65+ had consistently higher rates than the general population. SOURCE: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

If you consider that bad news, then consider that we have yet to experience the worst of this trend. According to a report by National Geographic, millions of people in the United States could be exposed to dangerous “off-the-charts” heat conditions of 127 degrees Fahrenheit or more in less than 20 years posing unprecedented health risks [3]. In other words, there will be millions of people in the country exposed to heat temperatures that are so high that today’s meteorological instrumentation does not currently record them. What is the reason for the continued increase in heat and heat related deaths? If you guessed climate change- then you are mostly correct.

Heat Waves Are A Problem

There are times when heat and relative humidity are heightened for an extended period- these events are known as heat waves. Heat waves are extended periods of abnormally hot weather that can last for days or even weeks in most cases and the temperatures have to be outside the historical averages for a given area. Heat waves have been around forever, the problem is that they are occurring more often and are lasting far longer. Heat waves are occurring from an average of two per year during the 1960s to more than six per year during the 2010s and the season in which they occur is 47 days longer on average [4]. To illustrate the extent to which climate change is a contributing factor, consider that the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) declared 2020 as the hottest summer ever recorded [5]. By mid-century (between the years 2036 and 2065), more than 250 U.S. cities will experience the equivalent of a month or more per year on average with a heat index surpassing 100 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to just 29 cities historically [6].

These trends of longer heat waves are being observed all over the nation. According to Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the climate and energy program Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and co-author of its report Killer Heat in the United States, people are truly underestimating the risk that extreme heat represents. The report projects that by mid-century, more than 90 million Americans will be exposed to 30 or more days with a heat index above 105 F (40.5C) each year, compared with just 900,000 now.” [7] Applying that estimate of exposure to the current number of deaths (12,000) would mean that approximately 1.2 million people could be dying from conditions resulting from heat waves in 2050.

Figure 2: Projected number of Americans exposed to various levels of heat by the middle of the 21st century; with no or slow action, the number of people exposed to high levels of heat will increase by millions compared to a historical baseline. SOURCE: The Guardian

Dallas historically averages eight days per summer with a heat index of 105F (40.5C ). However, by mid-century, Dallas can expect 62 days above that 105F threshold according to researchers at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In the summer of 2011 in Dallas, heat killed an estimated 112 citizens, and heat-related deaths are projected to increase by 150% by mid-century.” [8] Even potentially more frightening, many of these estimates for cities are conservative because heat added by urban heat island effects are not represented.

What is an Urban Heat Island (UHI)?

An urban heat island (UHI) is typically an urbanized area that experiences higher temperatures than outlying areas and surrounding suburbs. These areas — often inner city neighborhoods — absorb and trap more heat due to all the cement and concrete used in city infrastructures. The building of such infrastructure requires the removal of greenspaces and trees which would help to lower surface and air temperatures by providing shade and cooling through evapotranspiration. Several studies [9–11], revealed that the Urban Heat Island effect can increase air temperature in an urban city by between 2 and 8°C and recent studies illustrate that a more accurate range is between 5 and 15°C [12]. Akbari and Rose [13] found that the average urban surface of four different metropolitan areas in the USA were characterized by 29–41% vegetation, 19–25% roofs and 29–39% paved surfaces, which demonstrates that over 60% of an urban surface can be covered by hard, man-made, heat-absorbent surfaces.

Another factor contributing to the higher temperatures would be the concentrated volume of machinery and heat emitting devices on automobiles that are condensed in smaller locales. To combat higher temperatures, there is often a need to run air conditioning units or electrical cooling devices more often and longer to provide relief, which causes more energy consumption and higher electrical usage. The higher energy demand in these locations cause additional heat problems for people that live in these areas due the emissions of greenhouse gasses that create a feedback loop of increasing temperature into the future. There are also air pollutants including ground level ozone and particulates that cause health problems for people that live in these inner-city environments. Ground level ozone is formed by chemical reactions in the presence of sunlight between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), which are both found in pollutants such as automobile exhaust and industrial emissions. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ozone exposure can cause heavy coughing and breathing issues, internal inflammation, and aggravation of conditions such as asthma [14]. As related research increases, additional negative health effects and their uneven distribution among communities are becoming clearer. For example, one study indicated that higher levels of ozone exposure is associated with increased acute effects of sickle cell disease [15], a genetic disorder most commonly found in African Americans. Alongside disproportionate distribution of heat on the basis of location, racial disparities along such fronts can also be observed.

Chicago Heat Wave 1995

Just over twenty-five years ago, Chicago — one of the most segregated cities in the nation — experienced an unprecedented heat wave which exemplified threats of urban heat islands. On July 13, 1995, temperatures shot up to a frightening 106 degrees and remained stuck in high double digits for five days, killing 739 mostly impoverished and elderly people of color [16]. Many victims were found decomposing in their apartments due to this weather disaster. In fact, the city needed refrigeration trucks for bodies to store the deceased as emergency rooms and morgues reached capacity. The 2018 documentary “COOKED: Survival By Zip Code’’ — blamed the high number of elderly victims in South and West side zip codes on the city’s failure to address poverty and disinvestment in such neighborhoods [17]. Today, news cycles move faster — perhaps social media could have garnered greater attention for this heat wave event had it existed in 1995. Following this tragedy, Chicago invested in policies, community education, and cooling centers designed to limit future heat-related deaths [18]. However, one must wonder if effective lessons have truly been engrained from the Chicago Heat Wave as warming temperatures increase the likelihood of more intense events going forward, presenting further hazards for BIPOC communities nationwide.

How did we get here? Institutional Racism and Discrimination

Have you ever wondered why many urban metropolises are heavily segregated long after government policies outlawed housing discrimination in the 1970s? Assumptions that people typically self-segregate themselves based on race or that housing disparities are typically due to stratifications in income do not match historical evidence. Some would describe the current housing landscape that led to these health disparities as a product of unfortunate circumstances, yet history reveals that people often live where they do because of systemic housing practices. The fact of the matter is that decades of racist housing policies and practices such as covenant laws have contributed to BIPOC communities bearing most of the negative impacts that result from excessive heat conditions. Covenant laws are some of the early racist laws that prohibited Black people from moving to certain neighborhoods within a city, even if they could afford to do so.

In February 1944, Clara Mays, an African-American federal government employee, purchased a three-story row house in the Bloomingdale neighborhood in Washington, DC. The South Carolina native and her large family had been forced to seek a new home when the place they had been renting was sold. Mays settled on 2213 First Street NW, part of an elegant Bloomingdale row built in 1904. Warned that she would be taking a risk in buying the house because a racially restrictive covenant barred its sale to African-Americans, Mays went ahead anyway because she lacked other options. When White neighbors sued to stop the Mays family from occupying the property, a D.C. court ruled in their favor [19]. Mays and her family, which included three sisters and four nieces, were given 60 days to get out. Overt racist laws were outlawed through gains made during civil rights, but housing inequities continued through processes like redlining.

What is redlining? In the 1930s, the federal government created maps of hundreds of cities, rating the riskiness of different neighborhoods for real estate investment by grading them “best,” “still desirable,” “declining” or “hazardous.” [20] The impacts of redlining have been illustrated for decades as people in these areas have been denied access to federally backed mortgages and other credit, fueling a cycle of disinvestment. Areas within a city that were designated for people of color were labeled as not valuable and are the same locations that are often disproportionately policed and considered to be food deserts in 2021.

This past summer, the Associated Press (AP) reported finding from a study that stated that “Rich Americans produce nearly 25% more heat-trapping gases than poorer people at home, according to a comprehensive study of U.S. residential carbon footprints.” [21] Not only are these communities facing greater exposure to heat related hazards, the exposure is the result of more affluent and typically whiter communities that are creating the pollution. How is this possible? How are people who do not live in these areas able to direct their pollution outputs to poorer communities?

City planners also targeted redlined areas as cheap land for new industries, highways, warehouses, and public housing, built with lots of heat-absorbing asphalt and little cooling vegetation [22]. Placing undesirable infrastructure in these BIPOC communities further lowered the value of property and jeopardized the health of inhabitants by increasing pollution leading to higher instances of chronic illness.

To illustrate how more affluent communities outsource their pollution and hazards to poorer BIPOC communities consider Washington, DC. Blue Plains, the largest sewage treatment facility in the country, is located in a predominantly African-American section of the city. The sewage treatment facility receives sewage from over 2 million people in DC, Maryland and Virginia. Beyond the likelihood of any potential pollution or nuisance smells there are far greater threats to nearby residents. A Washington Post article in 1999 noted that the facility houses at least 180 tons of highly poisonous chlorine and if just one of the 90-ton chlorine tankers stored at the site were to rupture, people within 3.4 miles could be at risk of death within seconds [23]. This is just one example of how redlining forced “frontline” communities that are largely poor, and people of color live under potentially hazardous conditions for the comfort of wealthier and often whiter communities that live miles away.

Redlining and a Warming Climate

Vivek Shandas, professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University who led a study linking redlining to hotter communities said that “this systematic pattern suggests a woefully negligent planning system that hyper-privileges richer and whiter communities”. [24] The recent study found formerly “redlined” neighborhoods to be 5 degrees warmer, on average, than non-redlined neighborhoods [25]. The seeds of racism and discrimination that have been planted for decades are manifesting in the mortality and morbidity of BIPOC communities around the country. This is modern day terror in the vain of police brutality or terrorism that has gained awareness in recent years.

Redlining and associated unequal impacts are nothing new. In 1956, the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act was passed and created 41,000 miles of the vast highway network in American today. Importantly, the placement of these robust roads largely intentionally ran right through vulnerable African American communities, and development upended countless homes and businesses by using methods such as eminent domain. This contributed greatly to the more than 1 million people displaced directly by federal highway development [26]. Also around the same time, the practice of “urban renewal” (more commonly known as urban removal) proliferated as a result of federal policy; investment and development was brought to low-income and primarily African-American communities to help revitalize them. However, when subsequent promised aid failed to materialize and rebuilding engulfed existing communities, huge populations were displaced [27]. Inequity brought by these practices continues to hurt people today. For example, the highways and industrial pollutant sources built back then, now bring dense automobile usage and ground level ozone straight to African American communities.

When cities are deciding where to put municipal factories or other polluting entities into their cities, they are systematically choosing locations largely inhabited by people of color. The luxuries afforded to the privileged in wealthy parts of most cities are paid for by the pain and suffering of people of color and the poor. In some cities, researchers found differences between formerly redlined and non-redlined neighborhoods to be as high as 12 to 13 degrees Fahrenheit on average [28]. During a heat wave, every one degree increase in temperature can increase the risk of dying by 2.5 percent because higher temperatures strain the heart and make breathing more difficult, increasing hospitalization rates for cardiac arrest and respiratory diseases like asthma [29]. Redlined neighborhoods are 13 to 33 percent more likely to die from extreme heat weather events than non-redlined neighborhoods. Urban neighborhoods historically denied municipal services and support for home ownership during the mid-20th century are now the hottest areas in 94% of the 108 cities analyzed by researchers at Portland State University and the Science Museum of Virginia [30]. This information, in the context of previously cited research that predicts more intense and longer extreme heat waver events is especially concerning for these communities.

Many BIPOC communities are already facing precarious health situations with high rates of chronic health ailments that are only exacerbated by this observed trend of extreme heat caused by climate change. High blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, and addiction are all observed at elevated mortality and morbidity rates for these communities. A 2016 study found that extreme heat and combined renal(kidney)/heat/respiratory hospitalization associations were stronger among blacks, the very old, in ZIP codes with lower educational attainment or older housing and in cities with lower air conditioning prevalence [31]. Another factor compounding these problems is that these communities are less likely to be able to receive adequate health care to prevent and treat these ailments. In some places around the nation, there are BIPOC communities that have such dire health conditions that they provide a look into what the future could be like for the majority of BIPOC communities if things don’t change.

In Gilpin, a community in Richmond, Virginia, the average life expectancy is 63 years. This is almost ten years lower than the average lifespan for African Americans nationally. There are many socioeconomic and health-related factors that contribute to decreased life expectancy, but they all can be traced to trends resulting from redlining, such as the lack of greenspace and abundance of concrete in redlined areas such as this one. During especially hot days, neighborhoods like Gilpin can face temperatures up to 15 degrees F higher than wealthier and Whiter parts of the city. This is especially concerning taking into account that as we mentioned, every one degree increase in temperature can increase the risk of death by 2.5% during heat waves. It should thus come as no surprise that Gilpin’s ZIP code has one of the highest rates of heat-related ambulance calls in the city. Just a short drive over the James River sits Westover Hills, a largely White, middle-income neighborhood that greets visitors with rows of massive oak trees spreading their leaves over quiet boulevards. Life expectancy there is 83 years [32].

Climate Change and COVID-19

Nobody could have predicted exactly the impact on our lives as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, a review of American history would have been able to predict scenarios when BIPOC communities would be in greater danger from this public health crisis. Overall, data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data shows, life expectancy at birth for the entire U.S. population in the first half of 2020 was 77.8 years. For Black Americans, it was 72, for Latinos 79.9, and for Whites 78 [33]. The same way that these communities suffer more from climate crises such as the Chicago Heatwave in 1995 or Hurricane Katrina 2005, you could have unfortunately predicted the same for COVID-19. While we are still very much amid the pandemic, there has already been evidence to suggest that the life expectancy for Americans has fallen due to mortality rates. Black and Latino Americans were hit harder than Whites, reflecting the racial disparities of the pandemic, according to the new analysis as Black Americans lost 2.7 years of life expectancy, and Latinos lost 1.9. White life expectancy fell 0.8 years [34].

“Communities of color do not have just access to good quality housing, jobs, recreation, food infrastructure, transit, or healthcare. These same communities have been used as sacrifice zones for environmental hazards due to environmental racism, experience climate change impacts differently, and now are dying at higher rates from COVID-19”, says Dr. Sacoby Wilson, at the University of Maryland. Dr Wilson describes the amalgamation of health and social disparities that have and continue to affect people of color disparately since the inception of America as a “Syndemic”. As previously established, this trend of the aforementioned communities suffering the burden of recurring and emerging climate change events, leads to the same communities being disproportionately impacted by heat hazards. And the same people suffering from climate and heat inequities are the ones who have suffered the most from COVID-19.

COVID-19 is an obvious massive challenge and tragedy, which resulted in 375,000 deaths in 2020 alone. Yet as we discussed earlier, using current estimates, about 1.2 million people could be dying from heat wave-related conditions by 2020; that would potentially be two times the amount of deaths resulting from a once-in-100-yr pandemic, every year resulting from heat waves in America.

Things Have Not Changed

Previously, we discussed the impact of the Chicago heat wave 25 years ago. Look at how the racial disparities in mortality from that event mirror those of the COVID 19 pandemic. The total number of COVID deaths in Chicago has surpassed 2,600, over eighty percent of these deaths occurring among people of color [35]. These graphics display similar trends of who is dying from heat related illness during the 1995 heat wave as well as during the 1995 Covid-19 pandemic.

Figure 3: Assessed alongside their distribution within the population, communities of color have disproportionately suffered death from COVID-19, especially compared to white communities. SOURCE: Center for Disease Control (CDC)

One of the ways cities have begun to attempt to mitigate extreme heat events is through the creation of cooling centers. During the pandemic the effectiveness of those centers were compromised by the spread of COVID-19. CDC guidance recommended measures such as physical distancing and separate areas for those with COVID-19 symptoms. Though prudent for preventing the spread of coronavirus, these limited the capacity of cooling centers and made them less efficient [36]. There have been varied responses to the need to identify solutions for the heat problems that consistently worsen around the nation.

Solutions

How do we fix decades of institutionalized racism and discrimination that has manifested in the death and mortality of BIPOC particularly African Americans around the nation and prevent further heat-related deaths? The first step would be acknowledgement. George Floyd’s killing has sparked conversation nationally in that many are acknowledging the existence and pervasiveness of institutionalized racism in ways they hadn’t previously. The Biden administration has pledged an approach to achieve environmental justice, signing executive actions on climate creating a White House council on environmental justice and a pledge that 40% of the benefits from federal investments in clean energy and clean water would go to communities that bear disproportionate pollution [37]. This is a step that certainly helps, but what about the people that have suffered for decades and those that are still dealing with grief from mortality and morbidity as a result of racist policies.

There needs to be an apology but more specifically atonement if we are to truly heal from sins of America’s recent past. Time will tell if the stated intentions from the Biden administration prove effective in atoning for the lack of significant meaningful support for the BIPOC community. At the state level and metropolitan level, there are initiatives in place that are aiming to reduce the effects of urban heat islands in some cities. Chicago’s Department of the Environment has launched the Chicago Green Roof Program, one of the leading green roof efforts in the United States. Through this program the city has been constructing green roofs on public buildings, doing research to estimate impacts from green roofs, providing grants to encourage green roof installations, and educating the public about green roofs in general.

A green roof is when plants or gardens are installed onto the roofs of structures. As you may recall, it’s the concrete and asphalt of urban landscapes that absorb and trap heat creating the island effect compared to cooler areas with more green space. A recent study has confirmed that Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) has been linked to regulation of regional climate and has been associated with reductions in childhood obesity, cognitive fatigue, and stress as well as feelings of anger, depression, or anxiety [38]. Conversely the same study revealed that high-income neighborhoods in selected cities are more likely than low-income neighborhoods to have high tree canopy cover [39].

In California, the Los Angeles City Council voted to require “cool roofs” through a “Cool Roofs Building Code” that will reflect sunlight and reduce the amount of heat that is absorbed which could reduce UHI effect [40]. The cool roof mandate will not cost homeowners additional money because of expanded incentives. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and New York City worked with horticulture students to undertake a borough-wide tree planting program called Greening the Bronx. These efforts can help reduce heat but must be done so in the context of equity for historically neglected communities.

Building new green spaces and planting trees in lower-income neighborhoods of color can potentially accelerate gentrification, displacing longtime residents. Efforts need to be done in a manner that aren’t simply to attract future residents but to benefit current ones as well. If the equity dimensions of sustainability are put into practice, Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) goals can help to redress environmental injustices. IT is important to note that tree planting schemes are not a panacea for environmental justice [41]. If institutional inequities surrounding housing, health and food injustice are not Acknowledged, Amended, and Atoned for then there would have been no justice for the millions of Americans who have sacrificed their health and well-being for the comfort of others and millions more will perish as climate change worsens the threat of extreme heat across American landscapes.

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