The Cost of Climate Devastation
Can't beat the California heat
Who pays for climate injustice?
The first half of September, 2022 saw a record heat wave scorch much of the U.S. west coast. This is not unexpected. If it seems like the summers get a little bit hotter each year it is because they are. The 2022 heat wave, however, in unlike anything we have experienced before. Unrelenting heat, ongoing fire warnings, perilous droughts: this is the California we have reaped from decades of inaction amidst warnings of climate change.
And while the heat may have been uncomfortable for millions, it disproportionately affects the health and labor conditions of undocumented families. From the well-above 100 degree heat that farmworkers worked in to the threats of power outages and food spoilage, climate devastation is here and it is taking its toll, daily, on us.
There has been muted outcry about these climate changes and long term impacts on individuals in recent years.
We want to recognize that the liberal hand-wringing about climate change is about more than a “threat.” The climate disaster is a present cost for members of our communities labeled as undocumented. An unstable power grid, potential school closures, increased health risks — the interlinked impacts of climate are more than just a bit of discomfort in the heat.
Heated Labor
As freeways snarled with traffic and airports were slammed on September 5th, let us remember whose work we celebrated on Labor Day. Much of California was sweltering in temperatures above 90 and 100 degrees. Whose labor is applauded and whose labor is assumed?
“California is taking aggressive action to combat the climate crisis and build resilience in our most vulnerable communities,” said California Governor Newsom as he signed in vague legislation to address extreme heat in the state.
But the advanced warning signs do little for individuals that need to work day-to-day in this country. And the suggestions to go to public spaces like malls are difficult to accept when these spaces can feel unwelcoming at best and threatening at worst depending on the cultural climate and attitudes toward immigrant communities.
So how much?
As one of the first expenses we are introducing via La Cuenta, the cost of climate devastation is a useful exemplar of how these expenses extend beyond the boundaries of financial imagination. What price do you place on physical comfort? On the sense of security that your food won’t spoil during a power outage? How much time—to work, to rest, to spend with loved ones—is lost or diminished from heat fatigue?
Sure, there are monetary losses, from slowed productivity in the heat and long term diminished hours as agriculture will adapt to wilting in hotter fields. However, this kind of math distances us from the lives of human beings. We name some of the expenses that climate burdens undocumented members of our community and encourage you to add more below or via email:
Heat exhaustion, dehydration, and related medical care
Ongoing fatigue
Job insecurity as agricultural industries shift in future years
Child care due to potential school closures
Ongoing effects of poor air quality
Poor sleep
Food spoilage during blackouts and brown outs
Our list can never be comprehensive. The cost of climate devastation—like the costs of many aspects of undocumented living we’ll explore in La Cuenta—does not live in dollars and cents. Economics lulls the public into a false sense of security that there are financial solutions to damning moral harm.
Propina
The climate already done changed. Your efforts at recycling might be moot at this point.
Have you asked your local grocery stores how their agriculture is procured? Do you know? Have you contacted your state assembly representative to inquire about what kinds of protections are being offered to agricultural laborers?
Collective change takes time. Have you talked with your friends, co-workers, neighbors, and children about the human effects of climate devastation?
We would love to hear from you (below and in an email) about how you are addressing the costs of climate devastation on the undocumented community.