Creation Care – Climate Change and Disadvantaged Communities

Disadvantaged communities are on the frontlines of climate change. As the planet continues to warm, projections show that they will feel an outsized impact of climate change and increasingly dirty air and water.

These communities are often within a few miles of petrochemical refining plants, compromising the air they breathe. An example is “Cancer Alley” in LA. Those living in these types of areas are vulnerable to extreme weather. Exposing them to extreme heat, hurricanes, flooding and displacement.

Racial minorities in the United States will bear a disproportionate burden of the negative health and environmental impacts from a warming planet, the Environmental Protection Agency has said, including more deaths from extreme heat and property loss from flooding in the wake of sea-level rise. If action is taken now, there are opportunities to create more prosperous futures for all Americans. These actions include:

● Healthier communities: With the right policies in place, a cleaner future will mean both avoiding the worst impacts of a changing climate such as stronger storms, heatwaves, and drought, and also cleaner air in local communities, increasing the overall health and quality of life.

● A stronger American economy: The U.S. economy can save $930 billion by 2100 just through the lives saved from climate mitigation, according to an EPA report. The report also found the economy would save tens of billions of additional dollars annually by 2100 with climate action, in power savings, avoided labor losses and damages and other avoided impacts.