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Authors: ​Lucas Steven Moore, Cooper Lee Bennett, Elizabeth

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Authors: Lucas Steven Moore, Cooper Lee Bennett, Elizabeth Robyn Nubla ​ Ogan, Kota Cody Enokida, Yi Man, Fernando Kevin Gonzalez, Christopher Carpio, Heather Michaela Gee ANTHRO 25A: Environmental Injustice Instructor: Prof. Dr. Kim Fortun Department of Cultural Anthropology Graduate Teaching Associates: Kaitlyn Rabach Tim Schütz Undergraduate Teaching Associates Nina Parshekofteh Lafayette Pierre White University of California Irvine, Fall 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS What is the setting of this case? [KOTA CODY ENOKIDA] 3 How does climate change produce environmental vulnerabilities and harms in this setting? [Lucas Moore] 6 What factors -- social, cultural, political, technological, ecological -- contribute to environmental health vulnerability and injustice in this setting? [ELIZABETH ROBYN NUBLA OGAN] 11 Who are the stakeholders, what are their characteristics, and what are their perceptions of the problems? [FERNANDO KEVIN GONZALEZ] 15 What have different stakeholder groups done (or not done) in response to the problems in this case? [Christopher Carpio] 18 How have big media outlets and environmental organizations covered environmental problems related to worse case scenarios in this setting? [COOPER LEE BENNETT] 20 What local actions would reduce environmental vulnerability and injustice related to fast disaster in this setting? [YI MAN] 23 What extra-local actions (at state, national or international levels) would reduce environmental vulnerability and injustice related to fast disaster in this setting and similar settings? [GROUP] 27 What kinds of data and research would be useful in efforts to characterize and address environmental threats (related to fast disaster, pollution and climate change) in this setting and similar settings? [HEATHER MICHAELA GEE] 32 What, in your view, is ethically wrong or unjust in this case? [GROUP] 35 BIBLIOGRAPHY 36 APPENDIX 45 Cover Image: Location in Sonoma County and the state of California.Wikipedia, licensed ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ under CC BY 3.0. Retrieved November 22, 2019, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sonoma_County_California_Incorporated_a nd_Unincorporated_areas_Santa_Rosa_Highlighted.svg#/media/File:Sonoma_County_ California_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Santa_Rosa_Highlighted.svg 1. What is the setting of this case? [KOTA CODY ENOKIDA] Santa Rosa is a city located roughly 55 miles north of San Francisco, CA. Santa Rosa can be categorized as both coastal and mountainous, due to its proximity near coastal regions and mountain ranges surrounding it. Santa Rosa is part of the Sonoma County, as it sits at the foot of the Sonoma Mountains (Britannica 2016). Santa Rosa has a population of approximately 174,244 people, spreading over the area of 41.5 mi². The ​ ​ population in Santa Rosa has a majority white population, with 55.3% of the population being Caucasian, 31.8% Hispanic, and 5.34% Asian. Within the Santa Rosa community, the city employs about 85.8k citizens. Jobs that are popular amongst the community are occupations such as Health Care and Social Assistance, retail trade, and manufacturing. The average household income in Santa Rosa is $67,144, compared to the state average of $71,805 (Data 2019). Nearly 53.1% of the population of Santa Rosa owns a home, with the average property value being $458,500. The community of Santa Rosa is moderately liberal (BestPlaces 2018). Around 68.8% voted Democrat, 22.0% voted Republican, and 9.2% voted independent in the Sonoma County region. People living within this community are mostly covered with healthcare, as 90.6% of Santa Rosa residents are covered by healthcare. Overall the city of Santa Rosa is safe and well-kept community, filled with much to explore and indulge in. According to the CalEnviroScreen 3.0 results, the highest census tract 6097153002 has ​ a score of 79%. A majority of the score comes from diesel pollution that is prominent there. Most importantly, hazardous waste, solid waste, and groundwater threats all have scores that are higher than 85, which is an indication of poor health that can lead to combo disaster in this community. Fig. 1: Selected area for the City of Santa Rosa. EJ Screen Report. City of Santa Rosa, Retrieved 23 November 2019. Screenshot taken by Kota Cody Enokida Fig 2: Demographic Indicators for Santa Rosa, California. EJ Screen Report, City of Santa Rosa. Retrieved 23 November 2019. Screenshot taken by Kota Cody Enokida Fig 3: Census tracts of Santa Rosa, California from CalEnviroScreen 3.0. Retrieved 22 November 2019. Screenshot taken by Kota Cody Enokida 2. How does climate change produce environmental vulnerabilities and harms in this setting? [Lucas Moore] Higher rainfall is a notable source of environmental threat in and around Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. Figure 4 shows two models of potential effects of climate change on rainfall in the San Francisco Bay Area (Sonoma County is in the top left corner) from the San Francisco Bay Area Climate Change Assessment report. The RCP8.5 model suggests a 25-35% increase in rainfall on wettest days in Sonoma County by the late 21st century (Ackerly et. al. 2018). “Precipitation in the Bay Area will continue to exhibit high year-to-year variability - ‘booms and busts’ - with very wet and very dry years” (Ackerly et. al. 2018). This unpredictability is a huge threat for residents of Sonoma County. Flooding is a major impact of this threat. There is little civic data on flooding in Sonoma County, but this may change after this year. In February, massive floods in the Russian River valley caused $155 million in property damages with 1,900 homes and 578 businesses affected (CBS SF 2019). Figure 6 shows flooding in Guerneville, Sonoma County, CA. At its worst, the river reached a crest of 45.4 feet (CBS SF 2019). Although climate change is not the immediate cause of this specific floods, the “booms and busts” of precipitation will make events like this more likely and more severe in the future. Another source of threat in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County is rising temperatures. Figure 5 shows the change in average highs and lows in the North Bay between the beginning and end of the 20th century. Despite some small areas that have cooled, the overall pictures are clearly orange (increasing temperature). These high temperatures exacerbate dry summers and make disaster all the more likely. Perhaps the most well known impact of environmental vulnerability in Santa Rosa/Sonoma County is the 2017 Tubbs Fire, at the time the most destructive wildfire in state history (CalFire 2019). The effects of this were massive: 36,807 acres were burned, over 5,000 structures were destroyed, and 22 people died (CalFire 2019). The effect is best seen in Figure 7; each red dot represents a damaged or burned structure. Similar to the effects of the rainfall unpredictability, climate change has made fires in California more frequent (Baron and Gajanan 2018). The fires of 2017 and 2018 were preceded by some of the hottest average temperatures on record in California (Baron and Gajanan 2018). Fig. 4: Top row: Average wettest day of the year in the historical (1976-2005) period and in the late-21st century (2070-2100) under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, two models for future effects of climate change. Unit is inches. Bottom row: Change (late-21st century minus historical) in the wettest day of the year under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. Unit is percent. All data are derived from LOCA. Figure 5: Recent Climate Trends of the North Bay Figure 6: Effects of flooding in Guerneville, Sonoma County, CA. Fig 7: Damage done by the Tubbs Fire. Its extent is in blue, and each red dot represents property damaged by the fire. 3. What factors -- social, cultural, political, technological, ecological -- contribute to environmental health vulnerability and injustice in this setting? [ELIZABETH ROBYN NUBLA OGAN] According to the CalEnviroScreen 3.0, census tracts 6097153200, 6097153104, and 6097153002 all tie for the highest scores in Santa Rosa and each place within the 81st to 90th percentile of its rankings (CalEnviroScreen 2018). By looking at the screenshot of the CalEnviroScreen 3.0, it is apparent that Santa Rosa as a whole is not at a very high risk for poor environmental health. However, it can be seen that in comparison to the rest of Santa Rosa, central Santa Rosa residents are increasingly more vulnerable to poor environmental health that any other region in the city. Social determinants of health that may have resulted in this reading include poverty, education, and crime rates, as well as racial status. These social determinants of health basically determine the extent to which a community experiences environmental health vulnerability and injustice. Upon interacting with each other, these social determinants of health compound and ultimately result in making the overall environmental health of Santa Rosa worse. Figure 8 shows the racial breakdown of Santa Rosa. Although Santa Rosa is around 50% white, the other half of the city is made up of mainly minorities, in which a large portion (32.5%) is Hispanic (Citydata.com 2019). The racial breakdown of Santa Rosa indicates that racial injustice contributes largely to environmental vulnerability in in this community. In communities that are primarily white, the government and its residents may not care as much about their pollution contribution and about complaints being made by minorities and their living conditions. Issues such as these will be labelled as low concern topics. Figure 9 shows crime rates in Santa Rosa. Since 2012, crime rates have slowly been growing steadily and in the past year (2018), they have exceeded the U.S. average (Citydata.com 2019). Thus, the attention and resources that should be given to issues such as reduction of environmental vulnerability, is taken away and placed on matters believed by the government to be of higher importance (i.e. violent crime). Figure 10 shows the school dropout rates in Santa Rosa. A dropout rate average of 20% was reached in the past year, and it is steadily increasing.
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