New EPA report confirms what south Phoenix’s residents of color know: Climate change discriminates
Rashaad Thomas and his family moved out of Scottsdale about seven years ago. Thomas, a well-known local writer and poet, had covered police brutality for years. When his wife, Nancy, became pregnant for the first time, they decided to move to an area that felt “communal” — an area they hoped would be safer from violent policing.
Thomas and his family moved from predominantly white Scottsdale to Black and Latino south Phoenix. But there, he says, they encountered a pernicious new form of racism.
He first noticed it driving by the city of Phoenix’s transfer station, which was within three miles of his new home. The transfer station temporarily holds the county’s trash until it’s transferred to a landfill in Buckeye — the only landfill in the county still accepting trash. The transfer station near Thomas’ home is one of two in the county.
Thomas wondered, why would the city put such a facility so close to where people live?
Thomas knew that pollution affected low-income communities more than others, but living near the city’s recycling plant, transfer station, composting center and several factories made him think about environmental racism more. Then, his wife had a miscarriage.
The couple was told by some family members and friends that miscarriages were common — in the past five years, three family members and one friend who live in south Phoenix all miscarried.
Thomas wondered, did living in an area with high levels of pollution cause Nancy’s miscarriage? He can't be sure.
Studies have shown a connection between miscarriages and increased air pollution. In a 2017 study, the National Institutes of Health found that exposure to common air pollutants, like ozone and particulate matter, could increase the risk of early pregnancy loss. In 2020, metro Phoenix had 103 days of elevated ozone and 62 days of elevated particulate matter. South and west Phoenix have poorer air quality.
Thomas said he reached out to the city and asked if they had any studies on miscarriages in the Phoenix areawhile he was writing a column on environmental racism, but they never responded.
He started to dig deeper, reading scientific studies about the disparate effects of pollution and climate change on communities of color. His once casual interest had turned into something more.
A new Environmental Protection Agency report provides some sobering statistics Thomas can add to his arsenal of studies. The report, which is peer-reviewed, found that people of color, like Thomas and his family (he is Black, and his wife is Mexican), face disproportionate harm from climate change, with Black, Native and Latino populations more than 40% more likely to suffer from some hazards than their peers.
Previous studies have looked at climate change impacts on “socially vulnerable” populations, or populations that are already vulnerable because of social, economic, political and historic factors. These groups may be less able to prepare for climate change impacts, cope with them, and recover from them after the fact.
This EPA report tries to add to the existing literature by providing statistics for the disproportionate risk socially vulnerable groups face across several different climate change impacts, such as childhood asthma rates, deaths due to extreme temperatures and property damage or loss from inland flooding. It also compares the impacts on socially vulnerable groups at both 2 degrees and 4 degrees of warming.
After the miscarriage, the Thomases had a second child, a daughter named Naimah. By that time, they had been living in south Phoenix for about three years. Naimah was born with a heart murmur. Her older sister, Jade, who was born in Scottsdale, had no health issues.
“I'm not surprised at the numbers,” Thomas said about the report’s findings. “We're vulnerable to America, in every aspect.”
People of color at disproportionate risk
Climate change’s impact on people depends on their vulnerability and level of exposure to climate hazards, according to the report.
For example, a group of people can be vulnerable, but if they aren’t exposed to climate hazards, they aren’t at risk. A group of people can be exposed to climate hazards, but if they’re not vulnerable, their risk is far less than people who are vulnerable.
The report looked at four socially vulnerable groups: people of color, people who have low incomes, people without a high school degree and people over age 65. It found that of the four socially vulnerable groups, people of color are most disproportionately at risk, in particular Black, Native and Latino communities.
At 2 degrees of warming, Black people are 40% more likely to live in areas with the highest projected deaths from extreme temperatures. Black people are also 34% more likely to live in areas with the highest projected increases in childhood asthma. Latinx people are 43% more likely to live in areas with the highest projected labor hour losses in work exposed to the weather. Native American people are 48% more likely to live in areas where the highest percentage of land is projected to be inundated by sea level rise.
People with low income and no high school diploma are about 25% more likely to live in areas with the highest projected labor hours losses and 15% more likely to live in areas with the highest projected increases in childhood asthma at 2 degrees of warming. People over the age of 65, in general, are not more likely than younger people to live in areas with the highest projected impacts of climate change.
The report determined six of the most salient impacts of climate change. Then, it calculated where these climate impacts are most likely to occur. Finally, the EPA measured how likely socially vulnerable groups are to live in those areas, using Census data.
Changing demographic patterns could alter the forecasts of the report, which measured the climate change impacts based on current demographic data and didn’t model for future migration.
“As the country is generally expected to become more diverse and aged this century, the potential for disproportionate effects could increase,” Robert Daguillard, an EPA spokesperson, wrote to The Republic over email. “Climate-driven migration could further exacerbate these trends, or do the opposite. Further research is necessary to explore these important effects.”
Several activists who spoke with The Republic said they have seen several reports outlining disproportionate climate impacts and yet no action. But the EPA said this report will provide technical information that could help ensure marginalized communities are prioritized for climate and clean energy investments.
“Sometimes we do think, 'Oh, we all know this,'” said Sandy Bahr, director of Arizona’s Sierra Club chapter. “But I think it's significant considering where EPA was a year ago right now. They were an agency that was rolling back environmental protections, weakening public health protections … They were not talking about addressing climate change. They certainly weren't talking about vulnerable communities or social vulnerability associated with the climate crisis.”
‘They’re aware about it in their bodies’
These disparities are a legacy of racism in city planning, according to Joe Larios, a south Phoenix community organizer.
He said to take the Río Salado restoration area and public park, in south Phoenix, for example. The government and private foundations have invested millions of dollars to clean up the river, which previously was filled with trash, but the site is still surrounded by a city transfer station, recycling center, composting center and several factories.
"Ever since Phoenix was created, this area around the Salt River has always been the area that you put stuff that you don't want to live next to,” Larios said. “First it was railroads ... some agriculture. But then as we continued into industrialization, this became a designated industrial zone.”
Columba Sainz moved into a majority Black and Latino neighborhood, which she said has slowly been gentrifying, in central Phoenix near a park and a day care center. She wanted her kids to grow up playing outside instead of watching TV and could imagine raising her family there.
“I moved to a community where I thought it was perfect,” she said.
But the neighborhood was also five minutes away from the airport and near two bus parking lots — one for school buses and another for city buses.
After two months, her 2-year-old daughter, Columba, named after four generations of Columbas, started wheezing.
Sainz said she connected the dots and became the coordinator for Arizona’s chapter of Moms' Clean Air Force (Ecomadres), a Latina environmental justice group. After working for Ecomadres, she started to see how social vulnerability has affected the Latino community’s ability to deal with climate hazards.
Several moms she spoke with in Tucson, as part of her position with Ecomadres, said their families haven’t had air conditioning for months in the summer, when temperatures are regularly above 100 degrees. One mom with a newborn she spoke with in July hasn’t had A/C since November, she said.
“It's through these stories I have learned that we have to keep talking to our moms, talking to families and just let them know about how environmental issues are directed to Latinos,” Sainz said. “Because we really need to know what's going on. And sometimes, we don't know.”
It’s in Latino culture to take care of the environment, according to Sainz. Moms tell their children not to leave the lights on, to recycle and not to litter. But what’s missing, Sainz said, is the conversation on how everyday issues Latinx people face are connected to the environment.
“We move for the price on the rent, how much it’s going to cost us,” she said. “But we don’t think about how it’s going to hurt us or our families.”
Larios said south Phoenix residents — whether they are aware of how greatly pollution and climate change affects them or not — he points out that he was never taught about why the air was dirtier in his part of town in south Phoenix schools — but residents are aware of the effects “in their bodies.”
“They're aware about it in their bodies,” Larios said. “Those health disparities are lived and experience in people’s bodies … It's unfortunate because I think people in these kinds of communities find their ways to that conversation in very traumatic ways.”
Sainz, Bahr and other groups of environmental activists showed up at Arizona Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema’s offices on Oct. 7 to convince them to vote for the Build Back Better Act. The act would include funding for a number of environment-related issues, such as clean energy investments in the transportation sector, increasing funding to fight forest fires and climate resilience programs.
Sinema is a key vote holding back Democrats from passing the package. She has publicly said the $3.5 trillion price tag on the package is too large. Privately, she told colleagues she wouldn’t accept any increases to corporate or income tax rates, the New York Times reported.
Climate change will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, activists said in speeches outside Sinema’s office’s building, as they urged her to vote for the legislation.
“Would you stay in an apartment, at a mobile house, at a 90-degree temperature with your family? How long would you stay there? … How about our Latino workers, who work day-to-day, in temperatures of 117 degrees, trying to build our cities, our communities, on the roof?” Sainz said in a speech outside Sinema’s office building. “Can we feel their pain? Can we feel how they're suffering?"
Thomas wants to see transparency from the city of Phoenix and more studies on how pollution affects health outcomes differently for south Phoenix residents. He said he reached out to the city and asked if they had any studies on miscarriages in the Phoenix areawhile he was writing a column on environmental racism, but they never responded.
Thomas said the community is "only provided enough information in order to be comfortable" but he thinks the city and academia know more. This information, he said, should be provided to communities impacted by pollution so they can better make decisions on where to live.
Zayna Syed is an environmental reporter for The Arizona Republic/azcentral. Follow her reporting on Twitter at @zaynasyed_ and send tips or other information about stories to email@example.com.
Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.