Black Neighborhoods Are Hotter On Average — Here’s What Experts Say Can Cool Them Down

So far, 2023 was the hottest year on record.

The trend of record-breaking average temperatures is not a shock in the 21st century — the 10 warmest years in the nearly 200-year record of average temperature tracking were between 2014 and 2023.

While the projected impacts of an increase in average global temperatures are catastrophic , the ongoing threat of extreme heat and heat wave regularity are having current impact on (verifiable) heat-related illnesses and death. Between 2021 and 2023, heat-related deaths in the US increased nearly 70%, according to the Department of Health and Human Services .

These changes in average temperatures also point toward the vastly disproportionate impact of heat on community health. Between 2005 to 2015, emergency department visits for heat-related causes for communities of color skyrocketed — by 67% for Black Americans, 63% for Latino Americans, and 53% for Asian Americans. In the same time frame, visits by white Americans increased by 27%.

A 2021 study found that across 1,056 US counties, the poorest and least educated communities within a county were significantly hotter than the richest and more educated neighborhoods for 76% of the studied population. Additionally, the study found that communities with higher Black, Hispanic, and Asian population areas are, on average, hotter than the more white, non-Hispanic areas of each county.

Dr. Jennifer Burney, Professor of Global Climate Policy and Research at UC-San Diego and co-author of the study, said one of her biggest takeaways from the research was how connected the trend of higher heat exposure was to race and ethnicity.

“Income explained about only 17% of the effect,” Burney told Blavity. “So the vast majority was still on the race or ethnicity gradient.”

Experts often point to surface urban heat islands (SUHI) to explain the vast disparities in heat exposure to different communities. These heat islands occur from the dense development of impervious material (concrete, asphalt, etc.) that store heat rather than reflect it. Heat from vehicles, reduced airflow around tall buildings, and limited rainfall penetration all contribute to heat islands .

Conversely, areas are naturally cooled by evapotranspiration from vegetation and green spaces .

According to the Trust for Public Land , communities of color “have access to an average of 44 percent less park acreage than predominantly white neighborhoods,” severely reducing the opportunity for natural cooling within more built-up heat islands.

“If you are not non-Hispanic white, you more likely live in an area that is hotter than your non-Hispanic white neighbors,” said Susanne Benz, Principal Researcher at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and co-author of the 2021 study.

Decades of divestment and targeted loan refusal, known as redlining, is a quick answer to how these trends developed, but is not a comprehensive explanation of the standardization of urban policy.

“Even in newer cities, especially across the Midwest, newer and smaller cities that would have never even been redlined, this pattern exists,” Burney said.  “Redlining exists as an explicit version of that systemic bias or racism, but then there’s a comprehensive, systemic policy failure where, even when there’s not an explicitly racist policy on the books, you nevertheless see the sum total of urban policy.”

Future of green development

In the face of more intense and longer-lasting heat waves across the US, urban planners and localities are putting potential remedies into place.

One of the most popular of these solutions is increasing urban canopy: planting trees and building green spaces promote evapotranspiration and, thus, offset the increased temperatures that result from heat island absorption.

A case study in Dallas found that greening strategies, or planting trees, can provide as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit in cooling and was 3.5 times more effective in lowering temperatures compared to cool material strategies alone.

Other experts are pushing for a shift in other considerations in heat mitigation, especially when it comes to reducing heat in residencies.

“While trees are really, really relevant, they cannot solve all problems,” said Benz.

Shading, blue-green infrastructure, flowing water pathways, reflective building materials, and promoting windflow are essential in the future of green development, according to Burney and Benz.

“We want people to have access to green space—they’re cooler during the day,” Burney said. It’s really important, but there is a lot of conversation that has made it concrete to consider where people live and where they lay their head.”