Heat, pollution highlight economic disparities

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As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans often suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Centralized air, once a luxury, is now more a matter of survival.

Especially in cities like Denver, Portland and Seattle, which are accustomed to cooler summers, the barrage of heat has highlighted that low-income households, renters and people of color are far more likely to face grueling temperatures without central cooling. Many have window units that can offer respite, but running them nonstop balloons energy bills.

While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump, which offers heating and cooling, can easily reach $25,000.

As temperatures rise, so too does the cost of cooling. In Denver’s Globeville neighborhood, most residents are low-income and people of color living in stretches of concrete and asphalt that hold heat like a cast iron skillet. They can face much hotter surface temperatures than those living in Denver’s wealthy neighborhoods such as a place called Country Club, where mansions pocket a sea of vegetation that shades and cools the area, according to an analysis by American Forests, a group that partly advocates for tree equity in cities.

About 10% of the U.S. population have neither central air conditioning nor a window unit, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit’s white households don’t have air conditioning, for example, while that’s 15% for Black households.

In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems like heat pumps — some of those are yet to be available. The Inflation Reduction Act will also offer rebates — point of sale discounts — to install systems like a heat pump, which are more energy efficient and can both heat and cool a home.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

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[Lucy Molina at her home]

Lucy Molina (interview): “I call this the sacrifice zone of the state of Colorado because we are home to the only oil refinery in the state of Colorado at a walking distance. We have no drinking water, and we have the worst air quality in our state. So we are the most polluted zip code in the nation.”

[The Suncor refinery near Molina’s home]

Lucy Molina (interview): “All these VOCs, all these toxins and some of these chemicals that are being emitted from next door to us is, it makes the community air hotter.”

[The Suncor refinery near Molina’s home]

[Healthy Air & Water Colorado logo]

Sabrina Pacha (interview): “Everything from drought to air pollution to extreme heat is having significant impacts on health. And this is an issue of equity because we also know that the folks who are most impacted by climate change are communities of color, rural communities and communities who are lower income.”

[Pacha working in her office]

Sabrina Pacha (interview): “Here in Denver, we have a neighborhood that is 88% residents of color, and just 3% of their neighborhood has tree cover. In comparison to another part of the city, where just 15% of residents are of color and they have upwards of 17% of tree cover.”

[Drone footage comparing tree canopy in poor and rich neighborhoods in Denver]

[Traffic in Denver’s Globeville neighborhood]

[Amanda Morian comforting her infant at her Globeville home]

Amanda Morian (interview): “It’s definitely hard for me because I can’t swaddle him at night because it’s just too much having too many layers on him and he gets sweaty and I don’t want to do that to him. But oftentimes we’ll do skin-to-skin because even though it’s sweaty and hot, I can help him regulate his body temperature that way.”

[Amanda Morian holding her infant at her Globeville home]

Amanda Morian (interview): “A lot of promises have been made through the years to the residents in these neighborhoods that haven’t really been followed through on with regards to city entities saying they’re going to provide services or amenities, and it just never happens.”

[Molina looking at her garden outside of her Commerce City home]

Lucy Molina (interview): “I know maybe I was not worth it when I was growing up, but it’s not fair. That I don’t want to believe that this government and these leaders think that my kids are not worth it. And your kids are not worth it. Our children are worth it, and we’re worth it to bring a better future. You know what I mean?”

[Molina praying in her home]

Lucy Molina (interview): “It is apocalyptic urgencies. If you, if you don’t see this heat wave as an apocalyptic urgency, then I don’t know what planet you’re living on, but it’s not Earth. Because this is on fire.”

[Flaring at the Suncor refinery]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.

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