Climate disasters last year set records.
Not only was it the most expensive year in environmental emergencies, racking up $92.9 billion in damages, but also projected the highest number of likely heat-related deaths since 1987.
As climate disasters become more frequent, disparities in where these disasters are striking and who is most impacted underscore the relationship between current community concerns and the historical relationship between production, marginalized people and the environment.
A 2023 Gallup poll surveyed 12,684 U.S. adults over the age of 18 regarding their concerns about environmental contamination in their community and how pollution has impacted their livelihood. Across categories, Black Americans were more likely to be concerned about four types of environmental contamination than any other demographic.
39% of Black adults responded being “very” or “fairly concerned” about exposure to toxic building materials, nearly double the national average.
The numbers only increased for water, soil, and air pollution—the latter in which 53% of Black adults expressed increased concern, compared to 35% of White adults.
These heightened levels of concern correlate directly with likelihood of exposure—34% of Black adults experienced acute environmental crises including water boil advisories, chemical spills, and radiation leaks within the year of being surveyed, compared to 28% of White and Hispanic adults.
The study also found that 14% of Black adults reported either temporary or permanent relocations due to harmful pollution in their local area. The national average was 9%.
The modern analysis of heightened community concerns regarding the environment could be explained by the history of localities disproportionately susceptible to environmental crises and contamination. These areas, often populated by marginalized people, are known as sacrifice zones.
A combination of concentrated industrial production and popularized redlining brewed a perfect storm for racialized sacrifice zones. According to ProPublica, cancer risk from industrial air pollution in “majority-Black census tracts is more than double that of majority-white tracts.”
One of the most infamous sacrifice zones, known as Cancer Alley, is an 85-mile stretch in Louisiana brimming with petrochemical production facilities. Some communities along this industrial corridor, composed of 81% Black Americans, have a risk for cancer 50 times the national average, according to The Guardian.
These sacrifice zones exist all around the country—communities in places like Institute, West Virginia have a cancer risk 36 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) level of acceptable risk. In Institute, Black community members have warned about carcinogens produced by the nearby Union Carbide manufacturing plant for years. As of 2023, it is one of just two majority-Black communities in the state of West Virginia.
Key agencies and environmental protection organizations have outright acknowledged the increased exposure to polluted communities Black Americans face. Research from the EPA found that people of color increase higher air pollution exposure regardless of region or income; the American Lung Association acknowledged housing and land bias as a source of this major health disparity.
Black adults’ exhibited concern for pollution exposure may not regard the risk of contamination as a distant hypothetical but as a very real and probable threat that has plagued communities for generations.
