IHSI Diversity Committee Monthly Resources
Each month, the IHSI Diversity Committee shares resources and learning opportunities with the rest of IHSI staff. Curating and sharing these resources allow us to educate ourselves on various topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. As an institute devoted to promoting all forms of health, we want to share these resources more broadly with our campus and community stakeholders. We hope that you will find them as useful as we have.
No shade: The relationship between trees and health equity
It’s hot and sunny, and when we’re outside, we naturally look for shade. But not everyone has equal access to it.
This month, Fatima Ahmed, Assistant Research Biostatistician, shares resources in an area many of us may not consider very often – shade.
Racial and ethnically minoritized communities often have fewer trees and hotter temperatures than wealthier, mostly white neighborhoods. This gap in tree cover, known as urban forest inequity, stems from a history of redlining and discriminatory housing policies that still affect cities today. The gap in tree cover can lead to a variety of health issues.
In fact, IHSI affiliates William Sullivan, a professor of landscape architecture and director of the Director of the Smart, Healthy Communities Initiative, here at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Anuj Tiwari, a Senior Research Associate at the Discovery Partners Institute, are working on projects to assess and mitigate urban heat stress and other heat related health risks. IHSI Research Scientist Brandi Barnes has been collaborating with both investigators.
If you have 5 minutes, explore the tree equity score for your home, or anywhere else in the US.
If you have 15 minutes, read this paper published in Nature last year titled “Current inequality and future potential of US urban tree cover for reducing heat-related health impacts” which quantifies summertime heat related mortality, and offers an ambitious tree planting solution.
If you have 30 minutes, listen to this podcast about where to seek shade in an ever warming world.
If you have more time, read the book Shade: A forgotten natural resource by Sam Bloch. Regarding tree shade, Bloch writes, “It’s understandable that Americans have forgotten how sweet shade can be. As air-conditioning has become the default method of cooling down, the shade tree has disappeared from the lexicon…. There is still no technology known to man that cools the outdoors as effectively as a tree.”
Interested in learning more about the heat-related research that IHSI affiliates are doing? Read Illinois research team aims to inform green infrastructure policies for older adults in extreme heat and IHSI affiliate spotlight | Anuj Tiwari.