Fires, Floods, and Droughts: Impacts of Climate Change in the U.S.

Introduction

Climate change is a global issue that has a varying degree of impact on different regions and populations of people. Rising temperatures as a result of increased production of greenhouse gasses is the central contributing factor to the impacts experienced on our earth.  Regions of the globe are impacted by climate change in different ways. My school is located in an urban area, and this unit will cover topics related to the impacts in our cities, with a specific focus on climate-associated increases in respiratory illnesses.

As stated in the Fourth National Climate Assessment, “While urban areas are hubs for economic growth, they continue to face several challenges that include social inequalities, aging and deteriorating infrastructure, and stressed ecosystems. These challenges affect exposure and susceptibility to climate change effects for urban populations.”¹ For instance, African Americans suffer from higher rates of asthma, asthma hospitalizations, and asthma associated deaths than the overall US population.²  In predominantly African American communities, such as the one where my school is located, there can be multiple explanations for this. Genetics, socioeconomic status, and access to quality medical care and education are topics that are being explored to further understand the disparity.³  Research also shows that there exist inequities resulting from historical redlining practices that situated poor and African American families in areas that were deemed undesirable and closer to environmental factors that are proven to exacerbate respiratory illnesses and asthma. To further compound this issue, vulnerable populations who suffer the most from the urban heat island effect, are not often included in urban heat management and mitigation efforts.⁴

This unit will immerse students in graphing data that is related to the rise in respiratory allergies or hay fever. This is especially important because individuals living in urban areas are much more likely to experience hay fever symptoms than individuals living in rural areas,⁵ and the forms of allergies and asthma that are triggered by allergens like pollen are on the rise. This rise is associated with climate change.⁶  In our country, allergies account for over 13 million doctor and medical facility visits in a year.⁷  To that end, allergy symptoms and asthma severity are major causes of disruptions to learning and school absenteeism.

A growing body of research has pointed to urban heat islands (UHI) and their impact on air pollution and the ragweed pollen season as two contributors to the rise in allergy and asthma symptoms. In this unit, students will track and represent weather data like the local daily temperature, pollen count, and the Air Quality Index (AQI) using tally charts, tables, pictographs, line plots, or bar graphs. Students will analyze, interpret, and compare some of the compiled data sets to historical records from 90 years ago to look for and explore trends.