Natural Disasters Are Prejudiced Against Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Populations: The Lack of Publicly Available Health‐Related Data Hinders Research at the Cusp of the Global Climate Crisis

Abstract

Abstract Natural disasters often affect the most vulnerable countries/communities around the world. However, within the same countries/communities, the impact of natural disasters is far greater on disadvantaged populations. We investigate how wildfires affect asthma prevalence in different populations across California. Our results indicate that although there is no discernible relationship between wildfires and asthma prevalence for California's population as a whole, wildfires and asthma prevalence in Black and senior populations have a strong relationship. We believe there is an urgent need to make high‐resolution health‐related data publicly available for in‐depth analyses of climate change impacts on society and disadvantage communities

Keywords

• climate change
• health
• natural disasters
• climate impacts
• social impacts