Climate change is accelerating, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, making life more difficult for humanity in general.
Global warming is already a reality and the common citizen has to learn to live with it while the titanic struggle to stop it is waged. Because, as one of the experts cited in this work said, “heat kills”.
But, does this phenomenon have any particular impact on the Latino community?
In their article “The Effects of Climate Change on Hispanic and Latino Communities,” academics Héctor A. Colón-Rivera and Giselle Plata state: “Ultimately, the climate change crisis underlies a mental health crisis that is already increasing, and Hispanic / Latino heterogeneity shapes different patterns of environmental injustice ”.
In what particular way are we inserted into this problem?
“Heat kills”
Most of Oregon, Idaho and Washington came under excessive heat warnings and advisories on Friday, June 25, according to the NBC television network. Extreme temperatures threatened some 22 million people in the region.
Dr. Kristie L. Ebi, a professor at the Center for Global Health and Environment at the University of Washington, is the co-author of a new report on the impact of increased heat on mortality, stating: “High temperatures can kill. In Europe in 2003, there were 70 thousand deaths from heat. All of this is avoidable ”.
Experts warn that death from heat is the greatest climatic cause of death, and they believe that there is an under-record in this regard.
An analysis cited by Ebi suggests that 5,500 Americans die from heat each year. “If temperatures continue to rise, mortality will also increase during the summer,” the expert fears.
High temperatures pose a dangerous risk of heat-related illnesses, according to The Washington Post. Forest fires are bigger, heat waves more frequent, seas warmer.
Our bodies function within a temperature range that is not that great.
“When it increases, our heart and other organs have to work harder. Adults over 65 or with chronic diseases are at higher risk; as well as pregnant women. Its conditions affect sweat and that increases the risk. Finally, a cardiac arrest due to heat occurs ”, explains Dr. Ebi.
Latinos and a new climate reality
More than 11 million immigrants live in California and half of them are Latino, according to the Public Policy Institute of California (last march). This state is affected by a very wide drought, which also affects Mexico, Utah and Colorado, among other territories.
So says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He adds that “It is very severe in intensity and it is not normal. It will exceed the level of 2013, which was the worst in the state’s history. It goes from extreme to exceptional ”.
The also author of the blog Weather West, states that “The impact will increase in recent months, because we are just beginning the dry season, which lasts until September, and even November.” And he adds that “There is a public health impact that is not being recognized.”
He details that this scenario increases water evaporation and there is less liquid available when it is most needed. “The atmosphere stops having the humidity that would serve as a mattress in hot conditions. Soil moisture goes down too, ”he says.
To make matters worse, forests are more flammable, fires are more intense and difficult to control, they threaten people and ecosystems. “This is moving towards the northwest of the country,” he warns.
Beyond human emissions, scientists are looking for other causes. But the only explanation, according to Swain, is that we are emitting these greenhouse gases, which accumulate for years in the atmosphere and are not dissipated. “It’s not that it doesn’t rain; is that with the heat, the rainwater evaporates ”, he adds.
And he continues: “We are burning things that have coal, gasoline, oil, even some ways of generating electricity, they release greenhouse gases.”
He concludes by saying that, even if we took it seriously and lowered emissions from today, we would have increased heat waves for decades. “We must adapt to this new climate reality.”
What to do to protect ourselves?
“We have to educate people on how to lower their core body temperature. Wet the skin, stay hydrated, wear the right clothes, use a fan, what activities can be developed to save people, “according to Dr. Ebi.
We must also make sure that our neighbors are hydrated, that they have an environment with good air circulation. The expert recommends having “green roofs”, which consist of building roofs that are partially or totally covered with vegetation, with a waterproof membrane and appropriate drains.
Another piece of information provided by the doctor is that “People believe that by living in a hot environment, they adapt. This is not like this. The place with the most deaths from heat in the US is Arizona ”, a state, by the way, with 31% Latino population, according to the Pew Research Center.
The spokeswoman warns that the concentration of carbon dioxide is a fact and there has been a large increase. In the last 15 to 20 years the heat is greater than we expected and in more places.
She says that a third of heat wave deaths are attributed to climate change. “Most of the data comes from first world countries, therefore, there is no more information on middle -or low- income countries, which are the ones with the highest risk.” These include, of course, all of Latin America.
Caring for the most vulnerable
Aradhna E. Tripati, from the UCLA Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, notes that “Any injustice that exists is going to interact with other inequities and this is going to be devastating for low-income communities”. Among these communities, Latino immigrants are a group greater than 17.2% of the total, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau (United States Census Bureau, 2019).
Tripati reflects: “We have heard of electric cars, but most people cannot buy them. Solar energy is where people have money ”.
According to her, “We have to give information, make decisions and create solutions.” But she advises: “If we want affected communities to participate, it must be done in multiple languages”, which includes the Latino American population.
On the other hand, she Tripati believes that the current administration and Congress would support all of this. But “You have to get involved with those who make decisions, take collective action, issue mandates for the offices of local representatives,” concludes the academic.