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Paul S. Chinowsky

October 12, 2020

Climate change is a scientific process. It is a slow, methodical process that encompasses every community and geographic region. It destroys some areas while potentially benefiting others. It destroys livelihoods and requires populations to relocate after generations of living in a single location. Climate change itself does not discriminate about what neighborhoods, communities, or countries it affects. Climate change is an equal opportunity natural event that leads to both small-scale and large-scale devastation.

However, while climate change is unbiased in its effects on populations, it has exposed the dire infrastructure inequalities that exist in the United States. These inequities are historic and spread across every geographic location and every type of infrastructure. Graphic examples include the that led directly to housing inequities that remain evident today. Similarly, the location of wastewater plants in the lowest parts of cities turned into the center of lower socioeconomic households, putting their water safety at risk. Equally egregious has been the lack of road maintenance in areas that depend the most on public transportation. This results in ever-increasing bus fares as transit districts pass along increasing bus maintenance costs due to travel across under-maintained surfaces.

These examples can go on for an embarrassingly long time. The inconceivable lack of Internet connectivity in poor communities. The number of poor communities located in flood-prone areas. Or the exposure of lower socio-economic communities to hurricanes and the associated storm surge. Indigenous communities are also deeply affected as many live in vulnerable coastal areas or rely on native plants and animals that are disappearing due to changing ecosystems. And of course, the unequal impact of rising temperatures on communities of color and lower socioeconomic standing as the resources for air conditioning, cooling centers, and green areas are simply not there.

Unfortunately, this story could have been written in the 1950s as easily as it is written today. However, today we are faced with the added threat of climate change. And this threat, while blind in its onslaught, is not blind in terms of its impact. While we are busy talking about climate migration for people who can relocate, and the construction of elaborate walls to protect high-income communities, we forget the much larger populations who have no defense against climate change. 

Through inaction, we are slowly watching enhanced hurricanes devastate low-income communities in Texas and Louisiana. We are watching roads that are already in poor condition further deteriorate in the increasing heat of Arizona and New Mexico. And we are watching as vulnerable populations die in the heat waves that roll across the midwest and the northeast. We watch, we talk, we write newspaper stories, we hold conferences, and we fail to take action.

< id="docs-internal-guid-4dab7930-7fff-f658-a3e6-a63a6d0f7ff6">We must change these circumstances. But how? Here are five specific steps we can take now.

1. We need to acknowledge the issue by bringing diversity to the discussion of climate change and addressing the reality of the limited resources available to communities with lower socioeconomic resources.

2. We need to address the reality that individuals living in vulnerable communities do not have the ability to just relocate. As we learned after Hurricane Katrina, migration is not a realistic option for many parts of the population.

3. We need to recognize that environmental justice is not a political issue. Environmental justice is a human issue, and very soon, millions of people will be impacted who do not currently have a voice in decision making.

4. We need to recognize that the communities being hit the hardest cannot financially address this on their own. This is a national issue and a national crisis; we need to treat it that way.

5. We need the press, political leaders, and pundits to become advocates for all of the communities being impacted by climate change, not just the ones with loud voices. We cannot forget communities just because they don’t have the resources to be heard.

The time is long overdue that we address infrastructure inequalities in communities before climate change exposes these inequalities with potentially disastrous results. Communities across the country including in Texas, Louisiana, California, Florida, and many others cannot afford to pay the costs to be resilient on their own.  We need to break from our tradition of inequality and make sure all populations can achieve the resiliency for which they are entitled.