TORONTO -- Neighbourhoods with racialized and lower-income families suffer more from extreme heat in Canadian cities, climate scientists say, echoing new U.S. research.
Low-income neighborhoods and communities with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations experience significantly more urban heat than wealthier and predominantly white neighborhoods, from the University of California San Diego.
Disproportionate heat exposure is 鈥渄ue to more built-up neighborhoods, less vegetation, and 鈥� to a lesser extent 鈥� higher population density,鈥� Susanne Benz, the first author and postdoctoral fellow at UC San Diego鈥檚 School of Global Policy and Strategy, .
Her team used satellite-data and census data to figure out inequalities in a vast majority of populous U.S. counties.
In Canada, studies found populations more at risk for heat-related illness include Indigenous people, newcomers, and lower-income people. Extreme heat has been linked to a host of issues, such as: ; ; ; and, among children and the elderly.
鈥淚t's like a cascade kind of effect at this time this year,鈥� Altaf Arain, director of the McMaster Centre for Climate Change, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. He wasn鈥檛 involved in the study but said 鈥渢here are a lot of deaths for a lot of people who don鈥檛 have the ability to cool down.鈥�
鈥淚n a lot of North American cities, there are a lot of minority communities in the poorer neighborhoods, so they are exposed to more heat and 鈥� [they often] live in housing where there鈥檚 no air conditioning,鈥� said Arain, also a professor at McMaster University鈥檚 School of Earth, Environment and Society.
鈥淚t is very well established that dense urban areas are warmer as compared to the suburbs鈥� three to four degrees higher,鈥� he said, noting the Government of Canada even has and to help public health officials reduce these so-called 鈥渉eat islands,鈥� where temperatures are disproportionately higher.
Other studies in the U.S. note the effects of extreme heat in cities fall along racial lines, or . The latest U.S. findings are especially troubling given how half of the world's population now lives in urban areas, with facing the same trend of having hotter heat surface temperatures.
'WHO CAN DO RENOVATIONS FOR THEIR HOMES?'
Luna Khirfan, a professor at University of Waterloo鈥檚 School of Planning, said urban planners and architects could by focusing on passive design elements, such as window placement and roofs with garden, trees or other plant life.
鈥淭he presence of green spaces, green covers, water features鈥� [can mean] an almost 10-degrees-Celsius difference in temperature,鈥� said Khirfan, whose research touches on community climate change adaptation and the need for increased water spaces and green spaces.
Khirfan鈥檚 work is currently focused on racialized and lower-income communities in Toronto being disproportionately hit by flooding, and ways homeowners can mitigate climate-change effects.
鈥淏ut who can do renovations for their homes?鈥� Khirfan said, explaining that a person鈥檚 income directly impacts whether they鈥檙e able to guard against problems such as flooding or extreme heat.
EXTREME HEAT 'COMPOUNDING FACTOR OF INEQUALITY'
Montreal researcher Joanna Eyquem, who examines extreme heat, agrees. She said shoring up more green spaces could increase property values, and therefore plans must ensure they don鈥檛 inadvertently price out lower-income and racialized people.
鈥淚 really see extreme heat as a compounding factor of inequality,鈥� said Eyquem, managing director of climate-resilient infrastructure at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation in Waterloo.
She notes, while Canada鈥檚 racial makeup of Black, Indigenous and racialized people differs from the U.S., there is systemic racial inequality when it comes to , overrepresentation in jobs outside, and in cities such as Hamilton, Ont.
Eyquem also noted Canada First Nations, Métis and Inuit populations live in areas in northern Canada, where temperatures are rising as much as three times as much as the rest of the world.
The issue of mitigating extreme heat is so urgent her team is currently putting together a national guidance on practical actions that can be taken.
