Fire Alert

Recently, the University of California, LA, developed a tool that shows how the effects of climate change such as extreme heat and air pollution disproportionately affect Latino communities in 23 California counties where 90 percent of Latinos live.

A digital resource called the Latino Climate and Health Dashboard, presented by UCLA, offers comparative local data showing greater harm in Latino neighborhoods compared to other non-Latino white majority counties. That is, more days of extreme heat, poor air quality, higher rates of diseases such as asthma, designed to create more equitable public policy and community action.

Shows inequality

Eduardo Eduardo Garcia, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Advisor, Latino Policy Institute at the University of California Los Angeles-UCLA, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, discusses how it is affecting Latinos and what motivated the creation of this data table.

Edurdo Garcia, explains why it is relevant to have this measurement since we are talking about 23 counties in California.

Eduardo Garcia, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Advisor, Latino Policy Institute at the University of California Los Angeles-UCLA, says that they consolidate and gather all the information from Latino neighborhoods in order to apply public policies more focused on our communities.

The UCLA expert reveals that there are families in the Central Valley that are very affected and even go to the hospital because of the extreme heat, for example.

He points out that Central California is more affected by pollution compared to predominantly white communities.

Eduardo Garcia talks about the importance of making this information available to the community, so that they can also demand climate justice through our political representatives.

This report is funded in part by the American Red Cross.