Allegheny County isn’t as green as it used to be. In the last five years, 11,044 acres of trees were lost. The nonprofit Tree Pittsburgh is trying to figure out why.
"In places where there are high minority populations they bear, by far, the most burden of deaths from tropical cyclones."
Dr. Robbie Parks joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast for a bonus episode to discuss how hurricanes have become deadlier in recent years and how we can better protect vulnerable communities.
Parks, a senior Agents of Change fellow and assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, recently published a study with colleagues that looked at hurricanes over the last 30 years and found that hurricanes have become deadlier in recent years and are hitting people who are already socially vulnerable hardest. The study comes as communities in Florida are still cleaning up from Hurricane Idalia and other storm systems are brewing in the Atlantic.
The Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast is a biweekly podcast featuring the stories and big ideas from past and present fellows, as well as others in the field. You can see all of the past episodes here.
Listen below to our discussion with Parks, and subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or Spotify.
About 80% of the U.S. population live in urban settings, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Some of the country's most densely populated cities, like New York City, are already at the frontlines of global warming, according to experts.
Britain will delay a series of key climate targets, its beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday at a hastily organized press conference, in a move that angered businesses and political allies and intensified the government’s assault on green policies.
