Recent weather events demonstrate a very different narrative to what we’re told: lower-income communities will face dire weather conditions, flooding, and extreme events as climate change unfolds over the next half of the century. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that lower-income communities disproportionately experience and have difficulty rebounding from heat waves, poor air quality, and flooding. The statistics are there, but the narrative that only those of a lower tax bracket experience climate change is off base. Believing in this rhetoric will prompt a rude awakening for the rich. Mother Nature doesn’t discriminate. Sure, money can buy microgrids, sturdy buildings, and electricity. In reality, ice storms, cyclones off the Pacific, and atmospheric rivers are brutally hitting some of the most sought-after real estate in the United States. As such, the effects of climate change are manifesting far sooner than anyone could have predicted, and in areas that, regardless of income, will face incredible structural and economic damage.

The psychology of being immune to climate change in proportion to income is misguided. The San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle metro areas, two of the most sought-after places to live in the United States, continue to face ice storms and extreme rain events which lead to flooding, mudslides, and power outages. These weather events have the potential of taking away many of the parks, buildings, and popular sites that make these areas well-known. An indirect relationship between income and climate change may temporarily exist, but the further we ignore our contributions to severe weather conditions and extreme weather events, the harsher the recovery from these catastrophes will be.

While climate change is known to be strictly scientific in nature, social side effects propel a conversation surrounding environmental justice. What is environmental justice, you might ask? It is the mission to include people of all walks of life in the enforcement of environmentally-conscious laws and regulations. 

Redlining Climate Change

In Oakland, California, the East Bay Community Foundation supports such causes and has publicized current crises that have disproportionately affected the citizens of Richmond and West Oakland, a predominantly Black community. The Washington Post exposed the harsh reality of air pollution and subsequent health defects based on redlining, a racist and discriminatory housing policy utilized in many large US cities. Richmond, California, known to its Marinite neighbors as the wrong side of the Bay, hosts the Chevron Refinery. According to the East Bay Community Foundation, more than 80% of its residents are Black, Indigenous People of Color. In the Richmond community, the average household income is less than the county-wide average. Drumroll please… these citizens experience asthma double the rate of their Contra Costa County neighbors.

Outside of California, residents of Seattle, Washington experience a similar effect. The International District of Seattle is known to be racially and ethnically diverse, hosting 73.5-81.1% of non-white Seattleites compared to the city’s 29.9% of non-white community members. Additionally, in the International District, nearly half of the population lives below the poverty line. The same story persists: the geographical closeness to the freeway promotes an unhealthy environment for pedestrians and inhabitants of the local apartments and homes. Gas, carbon dioxide emissions, and fumes pollute the air and residents’ livelihoods.

The evidence of racist housing policy aligned with modern environmental catastrophes is no secret. What this has done is create a narrative that only those in redlined neighborhoods, BIPOC community members, experience the harshest consequences of climate change. Think of it like HIV/AIDS, penned (as) the LGBQTIA+ endemic virus. After the unpacking of media-produced stereotypes there is a deeper reality: a lack of accessible healthcare in marginalized communities has created higher diagnoses of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. However, anyone can get HIV/AIDS. My point with this analogy? Just because of the poor housing policy and strategic construction of environmentally destructive infrastructure and companies that surround low-income BIPOC communities do not make affluent, white community members “immune” to climate change.

NIMBYism

This narrative is closely related to NIMBYism, AKA “Not In My Backyard.” I am no stranger to NIMBYism having grown up in Marin County, California. Marin is the poster child for NIMBY followers. Essentially, NIMBYs, most often affluent constituents, are concerned with affordable housing policy as it compromises the reputation of a “good neighborhood” by promoting lower quality schools, crime, property value and general community enjoyment. Simply think of it like racism wrapped in a bow that is labeled, “We want good neighborhoods.” Because of the affluence in NIMBY areas, it is very often the case that its residents believe in immunity to crime, health crises, and general infrastructure issues.

“That Will Never Happen Here”

So, it came as no surprise that residents of Marin County were traumatized by the structural damages of the most recent storms in late December, early January. During the most recent “Bomb Cyclone” that took place across the state, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Sarah Jones, the acting director of the Marin County Community Development Agency stated that the consequences of the storm aren’t a “someday kind of thing.”Climate change isn’t a someday kind of thing, it’s not a numerical measurement of time before the world ends. Consequences will not begin after 2030 or 2050. It starts now.

The Time is Now

West coast affluence cannot push climate change into a bucket and wait 30 years for it to reappear when there is adequate preparation for its damages. It is also not something you can pay off forever. Climate change didn’t sign an NDA, it’ll be transparent with its intentions before you have a PR stunt to silence its voice. 

Edited by Thu Nguyen