Climate questions: Who is most vulnerable?
While climate change is a global issue, it doesn't affect everyone equally. Some communities have seen a slight rise in temperature here and there, but others have had their entire communities wiped out. As the rise of global temperatures and sea-level continues to affect the world with increasing frequency and intensity, who are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change? The answer is clear, according to climate scientists, climate and environmental justice experts and international research efforts on the question. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found in a 2022 report that vulnerability to climate change is "exacerbated by inequity and marginalization linked to gender, ethnicity, low income or combinations thereof." "Those communities who are the poorest, those communities who are Black, indigenous, communities of color are often hit the most harshly around the climate crisis," said Bineshi Albert, co-executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance. These populations are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of racism and classism, she said. Some wealthier communities have been able to afford expensive adaptation tools. The city of Rikuzentakata in Japan built a massive sea wall after a tsunami destroyed the city in 2011. But not everyone can afford to overhaul infrastructure. And activists caution that adaptation alone isn't enough. "When I think about front line communities and their solution to climate change, the first thing that they will always say is 'stop fossil fuel production,'" Albert said.
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A screening tool the federal government is using to decide which neighborhoods have a disproportionate amount of pollution and risk of damage from climate change could worsen air pollution exposure disparities along racial lines, according to a new analysis.
