Environmental Justice

Heat waves are increasing in frequency, intensity, magnitude, and duration, causing a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities exposed to urban heat islands. Newly emerging spaceborne thermal sensing instruments, such as ECOSTRESS and Hydrosat, now have the capabilities to measure urban surface temperatures accurately at the block level (<100 m) and with enough frequency to capture transient heat waves (daily to subweekly). Such data are critical for monitoring and informing policy and mitigation efforts, such as resurfacing, green space, cooling stations, and medical mobilization. These serve to advance environmental justice and reduce health risks—and deaths—among the most vulnerable: minority, low-income, elderly, those with physical- and mental-health preconditions, unhoused, children, and outdoor workers. While scientists have increasingly used satellite data to quantify urban heat islands and risks to communities, there remains a significant gap in action resulting from such analyses—a figurative and literal “valley of death.” Reviewing over 500 scientific publications, we identify a critical lack of engagement with the communities being analyzed (10.9%; n = 58); yet, community engagement is key to bridging such analysis with subsequent action. Here, we demonstrate how participatory community engagement directly with data and analysis leads to increased policy changes and mitigation efforts. Our framework has immediate implications for how scientists may augment their work and thought processes to achieve objectives and impact from urban heat research, needed now in the face of accelerating climate change.

Safe drinking water is a fundamental human right, yet socioeconomic vulnerability creates water insecurity even in high-income nations. Rural Native American nations in the United States experience notable gaps in reliable, safe water. This study investigated how structural disadvantage shapes disparities in regulatory compliance of community water systems, relating findings to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 (universal access to clean water and sanitation). Regulatory violation records (2011–2021) for community water systems serving Native American populations in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico. Systems were classified by size and socioeconomic context. Multiparametric and nonparametric analyses examined violation frequencies and types, emphasizing health-based infractions. Median household income and poverty rate served as covariates. Smaller, rural systems showed significantly higher overall violation rates than larger, affluent counterparts (p < 0.01). Health-based violations comprised most breaches. Violation frequency correlated negatively with median income (r = −0.62) and positively with poverty rates (r = 0.58). The disparity persisted throughout the decade, indicating a chronic regulatory gap affecting Native American communities. These findings expose systemic inequities in water governance that perpetuate insecurity among underserved U.S. populations. Health-related violations in small, disadvantaged systems highlight shortcomings in regulatory oversight and resource distribution, demonstrating how domestic drinking-water inequities reflect broader challenges articulated in sustainable development goal (SDG) 6, particularly targets 6.1 (universal access to safe drinking water) and 6.b (community participation in water governance). Structural disadvantage drives disproportionate regulatory noncompliance in Native American community water systems, hindering progress toward SDG 6. Policymakers should prioritize targeted infrastructure investment, expand technical assistance for small systems, and embed equity-focused metrics within regulatory frameworks to close the safety gap and promote environmental justice.

The climate crisis is an existential threat that has disparate adverse health impacts on low-income and communities of color. Effective solutions require innovative tools to promote interdisciplinary training for future health leaders, yet these topics are often omitted from traditional medical school curricula. The New York State Children’s Environmental Health Centers (NYSCHECK), a network of seven medical centers, community partners, and stakeholders, is the first statewide model to address this critical need. Since 2021, we have offered a free, virtual summer program for high school, college, medical/graduate, and postgraduate students. This innovative teaching tool, the NYSCHECK Summer Academy (NSA), is a novel collaborative training program that prioritizes student-led environmental health (EH) and climate justice advocacy. We provide learners at multiple stages of training with tools to better understand the impact of climate change (CC) on community health and strategies to advocate for change. Over the past 4 years, with feedback from students and partners, we refined the NSA curriculum to incorporate principles of public health and EJ that promote effective strategies and solutions for addressing climate-related health threats such as asthma, extreme heat, and insect-borne disease. Following completion of our program, trainees report a significantly greater sense of empowerment and self-efficacy and increased knowledge of key EH and EJ principles. This training program is a replicable tool that can be adapted for diverse audiences to develop foundational skills and advocacy tools necessary to tackle EH and CC impacts on EJ communities statewide and beyond.

Although attention to the health implications of climate change is growing, little work explores either local risks or the health effects of long-term exposure to multiple, overlapping events. Understanding the health impacts of cumulative exposure to climate extremes at the subnational level is crucial to effective climate adaptation and public health interventions. This study examined county-level exposure patterns to extreme climate events, using an innovative cumulative index of extreme heat, drought, and storms and the association with county-level all-cause, age-adjusted premature mortality in the United States. Results demonstrate that counties with higher non-Hispanic Black populations, lower educational attainment, and higher poverty levels were associated with multiple, overlapping climate extremes. Our findings also indicate that exposure to climate extremes significantly increased the risk of premature mortality, even when controlling for socioeconomic vulnerability. Counties exposed to above-average levels of extreme heat, drought, and storms had 25 additional premature deaths per 100,000 residents compared with those experiencing none. These results demonstrate that although counties with vulnerable populations are more likely to be exposed to multiple climate change events, repeated and overlapping climate events serve as an additional potential form of cumulative disadvantage, contributing to preventable mortality beyond other known social and economic determinants. This research underscores the urgent need for locally targeted public health interventions and climate adaptation strategies, particularly in socially and environmentally vulnerable communities. Our index offers one such tool for decision-makers to identify at-risk counties and tailor responses to mitigate their health challenges.

This study examines spatial inequities in the siting of utility-scale solar facilities in North Carolina from 2012 to 2023. Median housing value, distances to transmission lines, distance to roads, and solar irradiance are incorporated to generate scores and conduct matching for controlling siting suitability considerations. Logistic regression analyses indicate that the facilities are more likely to be located in Census Tracts with lower educational attainment and higher disability rates. This result may imply that the associations between socio-economic factors and utility-scale solar facilities siting remain statistically significant even after accounting for siting suitability considerations. This study offers an evidence-based planning perspective to improve solar energy deployment planning and evaluation.

This article examines the barriers and opportunities associated with the adoption of digital soil monitoring technologies in the Ecuadorian Andean region, focusing on their implications for environmental justice and agricultural sustainability. Based on fieldwork carried out between November and December 2024, this study draws on interviews with 83 smallholder farmers and 22 agricultural experts in Cotopaxi. The findings show important barriers, including high upfront costs, limited tailored technical training, and restricted connectivity in rural areas. These factors reinforce structural inequalities and limit smallholders’ ability to benefit from these innovations. Even with these difficulties, farmers who have partially incorporated digital soil monitoring tools reported productivity gains of 20%–30% in crops such as corn and potatoes. Public policies should prioritize targeted subsidies, culturally adapted training programs, and investments in technological infrastructure to reduce existing gaps. It is also necessary to create regulatory frameworks that protect farmers’ rights over the data generated on their farms. This research highlights the need for an inclusive approach to agricultural digitalization, showing that these technologies can improve the agricultural sector in Ecuador when the current inequalities are addressed.

In the heart of Delhi, the capital of India, the severely polluted Yamuna River saw its water level rise to the highest in 45 years in July 2023, displacing over 27,000 people. Despite flood control measures and river rejuvenation plans, which include creating biodiversity parks, these efforts overlook the displacement and erasure of small-scale farmers, highlighting critical issues of intersectional power dynamics and socioecological impacts. Water shapes societies, and its control reflects broader sociopolitical power dynamics, influencing democracy, citizenship, and development. An environmental justice focus addresses the relationality and context of socioecological dimensions, highlighting how power and inequality intersect with environmental issues, emphasizing the need for nuanced, inclusive policies. In Delhi’s Yamuna floodplains, intersecting identities among farmers reveal complex issues of vulnerability and power. This is analyzed through qualitative interviews, secondary data, and ethnographic field notes. The study has two major findings. 1.

Belonging, citizenship, and state–society relations are shaped by intersectional differences, challenging the assumption that dispossession affects communities uniformly.

Water insecurities on Delhi’s Yamuna floodplains highlight how intersecting social categories of power shape unequal experiences, making environmental justice and social inequality deeply intertwined. Addressing these issues requires an intersectional approach to water management that incorporates the voices of marginalized farmers and tackles the sociopolitical dimensions of water insecurity.

Wind energy has expanded rapidly in Brazil in recent years, accounting for 15.2% of national electricity generation in 2023. This growth, however, has been accompanied by socioenvironmental conflicts in communities located near wind farms, including livelihood disruptions, forced displacement, and health impacts. Using national census data and georeferenced information on existing and planned wind farms, we examined the racial composition of census tracts hosting these facilities across six states in Brazil’s Northeast Region, which concentrates 91% of the country’s wind power capacity. Our analysis shows that between 56% and 73% of these census tracts, depending on the state, have proportions of racialized groups (Black, Brown, and Indigenous populations) above their respective municipal averages. These findings underscore the need to improve public participation and community consultation processes for wind energy projects in Brazil in order to mitigate the reproduction of structural racism in the sector.