Authors: Regan Galinato, Eric Green, Hazen O’Malley, Parmida Behmardi1 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 1 A total of eight students contributed to this case study, some of whom chose to be anonymous. TABLE OF CONTENTS What is the setting of this case? [Collective Response] 3 How does climate change produce environmental vulnerabilities and harms in this setting? [Regan Galinato] 6 What factors -- social, cultural, political, technological, ecological -- contribute to environmental health vulnerability and injustice in this setting? [Collective Response] 10 Who are the stakeholders, what are their characteristics, and what are their perceptions of the problems? [Collective Response] 15 What have different stakeholder groups done (or not done) in response to the problems in this case? 17 How have big media outlets and environmental organizations covered environmental problems related to worse case scenarios in this setting? 19 What local actions would reduce environmental vulnerability and injustice related to fast disaster in this setting? [Parmida Behmardi] 21 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? [Hazen O’Malley] 25 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? 29 What, in your view, is ethically wrong or unjust in this case? [Eric Green] 31 BIBLIOGRAPHY (GENERATE WITH ZOTERO) 34 FIGURES 38 APPENDIX 40 1. What is the setting of this case? [Collective Response] Fig 1. Selected area for the County of Riverside. EPA EJ Screen Report, County ​ of Riverside, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2019. Screenshot taken by author. ​ Fig 2: Demographic indicators for Riverside County. EPA EJ Screen Report, County ​ ​ ​ of Riverside, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2019. Screenshot taken by author. ​ Fig. 3: High scoring census tracts in Riverside County, CalEnviro Screen 3.0, 2019. ​ Retrieved November 23, 2019. Screenshot taken by author. The setting of this case is Riverside, CA. Riverside has geographical features such as rivers, mountain peaks, deserts and fertile valleys” (County of Riverside 2019). Riverside is a city of over 320,000 residents, and many of these residents struggle financially, as the City's poverty rate of 16.6% is significantly higher than California's poverty rate of 13.3%. The median household income is $66,928 per year, and the median property value is $368,600. The racial makeup of Riverside is characterized by a very large presence of Hispanic or Latino individuals. In 2017 there were almost twice as many Hispanic or Latino residents than any other race or ethnicity. The most common employment sectors for the residents of Riverside include: Retail, Health care, and manufacturing. 91.4% of Riverside residents do have health insurance plans, the majority of those are employee plans, followed by medicaid. According to Figure 2, the EJSCREEN of the city of Riverside, they are in the 99th percentile for both PM and Ozone pollution, and according to Figure 3, the CalEnviroScreen, they are in the 98th percentile for pollution burden. Because their air pollution is very significant, they are in an area called the “smog belt”, which is due to the fact that the pollution from the LA area gets blown by the wind inland towards the Riverside area, as seen in Figure 1. They are in the 83rd percentile for RMP proximity, and 93rd for wastewater discharge. The political system of Riverside is a council-manager system, where the residents elect a city manager, mayor, city council, and council committees. 2. How does climate change produce environmental vulnerabilities and harms in this setting? [Regan Galinato] Fig 4: Average annual temperature projections in Riverside up to year 2100. Taken from https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=8b910d9c7b9744 ea94e07d82f5420782 Fig 5: Average temperature projections per month in 2050. Taken from https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=8b910d9c7b9744 ea94e07d82f5420782 Fig 6: Riverside’s agriculture industry profits in 2017. Taken from https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=4902f82d598b4b8182b 87a3c0a5867aa Fig 7: State of drought in California from 2000 to 2019. Taken from https://www.drought.gov/drought/states/california?places=Riverside%2C%20CA%2 C%20USA%20%28Riverside%20County%29 Climate change is rapidly increasing the rate at which natural disasters are happening, and in Riverside’s case it is wildfires. California is known to have wildfires, and recently they have been becoming stronger and more frequent. They are caused by a large amount of dry vegetation that may catch fire when exposed to fast, dry winds. Climate change has significantly warmed summer temperatures in California by 3.5 Fahrenheit since the 1800s, and “The area burned across California during the summertime is about eight times higher today than it was only in the 1970s.” (Borunda 2019). As the temperature gets warmer, the dryer the vegetation will be, and the stronger the wildfires. According to a study done by Janin Guzman-Morales, who is a researcher at the University of California, San Diego, winds that may cause wildfires may become less frequent during the usual wildfire season in fall, and instead shift into winter “with longer and more intense fires later in the year” (Fountain 2019). In 2017, Santa Ana experienced winter wildfires, where in December of that year the dry winds picked up and started the Thomas fire, which burned for more than a month, which may be a sign that this can happen across California. As temperatures rise, the climate of California will change as well. The average precipitation is expected to stay relatively constant as time goes on, but the years will vary from extremely dry to extremely wet. As seen in figure 7, there was a very serious drought in California from 2014 to 2017, and in 2018 the drought was resolved by a large amount of precipitation. This trend will continue, and get more extreme as temperatures get higher. In the years of drought there will be problems with water shortages which can affect irrigation for agriculture, and in the years of more rain there will be problems with flooding. In addition, “Such sudden swings between severe drought and intense storms will increase the threat to aging dams and flood-control networks, accentuate the wildfire threat and make management of the state’s complex waterworks even more daunting” (Boxall 2018). Climate change will also have an impact on public health and economy in the region. Agriculture will become harder to sustain and less profitable as temperatures go up. Some of the crops that are grown in the Riverside area, such as broccoli, thrive in more temperate or cooler temperatures. As seen in figure 5, the lowest average temperature barely hits 60 degrees fahrenheit in January on the lower end of the spectrum by 2050, and this means that it may be too warm in California all year round to grow certain winter crops such as broccoli. Looking at figure 6, large parts of the profit are from certain vegetables and citrus fruits, and because certain varieties of vegetables and citrus fruits thrive in lower temperatures, it may lower profits from agriculture and weaken the economy. Temperature changes can also affect Riverside’s already high levels of ozone. Ground level ozone is caused by nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds reacting with heat. Looking at figure 4, temperatures are projected to increase by approximately 3 Fahrenheit in 2050, which may cause ozone levels to increase. Ozone is a pollutant that aggravates the lungs, and “ Long-term exposures to higher concentrations of ozone may also be linked to permanent lung damage, such as abnormal lung development in children” (EPA 2019). This has the potential to cause more hospital visits for people who are susceptible to lung damage from ozone pollution, particularly children and people with lung diseases such as asthma. 3. What factors -- social, cultural, political, technological, ecological -- contribute to environmental health vulnerability and injustice in this setting? [Collective Response] Fig. 8: Average wind speed patterns in Riverside, California. Wind is a huge opponent of fire containment, as it spreads embers in the air to other drier locations starting more fires. Graph courtesy from Weather Sparks. Fig. 9: Location of the recent Hill fire in Riverside, California which shows the area in gray as the area that was burned and forced nearby houses to evacuate from. screen shot graph from The San Francisco Chronicle. Fig. 10: General map of Riverside, California showing disadvantaged communities within the county. This disadvantage only hurts the residents dealing with fires, and the threat of anymore fires puts these communities at even greater disadvantages. Screenshot taken from California Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment. Fig. 11: This shows the frequency of fires in the year of 2019 alone. Riverside has a long history of fires, in which residents have to respond to and find ways to protect their homes through homeowners