Everyday climate adaptation inequality: Weatherization, racial segregation, and health risks in a changing climate

This article extends debates at the intersection of infrastructure, adaptation, and vulnerability by exploring everyday practices of climate adaptation through people’s attempts to weatherize their houses during climate-related emergencies. Access to infrastructure plays a significant role in shaping our ability to adapt to a changing climate. It also underpins the uneven distribution of climate vulnerability.

Referring to the adjustments people make to their homes to lessen the effects of such events, I frame weatherization as a socio-technical process. This framing matters because it underscores that one’s capability to undertake everyday climate adaptation, and the consequences associated with not being able to do so, is contingent on wider political urban planning processes and decisions that dictate and manage infrastructural provision. The article subsequently elaborates on three types of distinct health risks associated with diminished weatherization capabilities, showing specifically how it can: exacerbate pre-existing health issues, heighten the possibility of “maladaptation” risks, and set pathways for wholly new kinds of health risks to emerge. The article substantiates its argument through research into lived experiences of heat waves in U.S. cities.