Environment

Christian Science Monitor - Researchers have found less tree canopy on average in communities mostly inhabited by racial and ethnic minorities in the 1930s, when financial services were withheld due to the discriminatory housing policy known as redlining. A 2021 study in NPJ Urban Sustainability of 37 U.S. cities found nearly twice as much tree canopy in predominantly white communities in the 1930s.

The ranking system used to assess loan risk mirrors tree cover today, lead author Dexter Locke said in an interview. “The lethality of urban heat may increase with a changing climate,” Mr. Locke said. “The people who are least able to cope with it can’t afford air conditioning. So there’s a real double environmental injustice there.”