Climate Change Will Affect Non-White Americans Disproportionately
Trees and Streets in West Cambridge, Boston Metro Area, Massachusetts Google Earth image from Per Square Mile The effect holds true across the nation, according to a new study. Feel the heat? Sure you do, but not everyone in the U.S. suffers equally. During many heat waves, more non-white Americans die than white Americans. That surely has to do with the links between race and poverty-and thus not having air conditioning-in the U.S., but one team of public health researchers had another idea. What if some people in the U.S. live in areas that are hotter than the neighbors just across town? The researchers, all from the University of California, Berkeley, decided they wanted to check if access to trees and other green cover, which keeps neighborhoods cool, is correlated with race. Having more trees and less asphalt in an area keeps reduces air conditioning bills and air pollution. The researchers...