For Latinos, the Climate Crisis Flames Burn Hotter

The warnings from Pachamama, our Mother Earth, about our abusing the only habitable planet we know are growing in intensity.

The US Northwest and Canada’s Southwest have suffered the worst heatwaves in their history, registering astounding temperature records. Quillayute, WA, for instance, hit 110 degrees, 45 more than its average and 11 more than the previous record. Some 600 people have died in this tragedy. The science tells us without the climate crisis, this extreme heat would have been “virtually impossible.” At the same time, drought conditions are currently impacting an unprecedented 93 percent of the US West.

The conditions for a new record season of heatwaves and wildfires keep piling up, and we Latinos must take special precautions to confront the upcoming weeks and months. According to studies, we are three times as likely to die of excessive heat than the rest of the population. Millions of Latinos work in farming and construction, outdoor activities that make them much more vulnerable to heat and its health consequences. Moreover, inequity and economic abuse, the lack of health insurance and the undocumented migratory status of millions accentuate this vulnerability.

Millions of Latinos work in farming and construction, outdoor activities that make them much more vulnerable to heat and its health consequences.

A new report confirms once again that the climate crisis impacts us disproportionately in all its facets, including wildfires. The firm risQ, which analyzes climate risks by using data from the Census, the insurance industry and the toll of these disasters, concluded that we Latinos are the most at risk to wildfires. The report indicates that we are twice as likely to live in the areas most exposed to wildfires as the rest of the population. On the other hand, for white residents, their risk of being impacted by wildfires has decreased in the last decade.

A combination of factors—such as scarcity of housing and lack of economic resources—forces our families to live in the most fire-prone areas. risQ’s report reveals that between 2010 and 2019, the number of Latinos who have moved to those areas increased by a whopping 223 percent, whereas the white population in those same zones has decreased by 32 percent in the same period.

In the meantime, the true perpetrators of the planetary emergency we all live in continue to deceive us and hamper the climate action we all urgently need. Two Greenpeace activists, posing as corporate recruiters, managed to interview two Exxon executives, who, on camera, described how the corporation cons the rest of the world. Keith McCoy, a senior Exxon lobbyist in Washington, DC, called President Biden’s plans to reduce greenhouse emissions “insane” and confessed that Exxon has used “shadow groups” for decades to attack climate science. He even admitted that the corporation’s overt support for a carbon tax is a lie that will never happen.

Ever since the 1970’s, Exxon and the rest of the world’s climate polluters have known the catastrophic effects of their products and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in mudding the public debate and denying the science.

Enough! Communities like mine demand that Congress pass a big, bold infrastructure plan that addresses the climate crisis on the size and scale required and invests in the clean energy economy to reduce climate pollution to make way for the clean energy revolution to protect our families and their future.

Because for us Latinos, the climate crisis flames burn hotter.

by Javier Sierra

Javier Sierra is a Columnist with the Sierra Club. @javier_SC

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