Parks and Greenspace Must be Part of Any Climate Solution
Sourced from Smart Cities Dive
Most often, climate change reveals itself in extreme weather events. We open our newspapers or news apps to see its troubling face: raging wildfires in California, shriveling drought in the Southwest, deadly sub-zero temperatures and devastating flooding across the Midwest.
Caught up in these meteorological catastrophes are millions of suffering people, flooded from their homes and businesses or sweltering on city streets. With summer upon us, it is sobering to understand that, according to the Centers for Disease Control, extreme heat now causes more deaths in American cities than all other weather events.
Much of the conversation around climate change has focused on reducing carbon pollution. But in addition, we need to help people adapt to the severe weather that is already upon us, including in our cities. Otherwise, suffering will only increase.
One way we can do this is to dot our neighborhoods with parks and lace our cities with greenspace — especially in lower-income and minority communities, which are more often underserved by parks. It should come as no surprise that these communities are also most likely to swelter and flood. It simply is not fair that they should bear the brunt of the climate crisis.
