Abstract

Cities in the global south face dire climate impacts. It is in socioeconomically marginalized urban communities of the global south that the effects of climate change are felt most deeply. Santiago de Chile, a major mid-latitude Andean city of 7.7 million inhabitants, is already undergoing the so-called “climate penalty” as rising temperatures worsen the effects of endemic ground-level ozone pollution. As many cities in the global south, Santiago is highly segregated along socioeconomic lines, which offers an opportunity for studying the effects of concurrent heatwaves and ozone episodes on distinct zones of affluence and deprivation. Here, we combine existing datasets of social indicators and climate-sensitive health risks with weather and air quality observations to study the response to compound heat-ozone extremes of different socioeconomic strata. Attributable to spatial variations in the ground-level ozone burden (heavier for wealthy communities), we found that the mortality response to extreme heat (and the associated further ozone pollution) is stronger in affluent dwellers, regardless of comorbidities and lack of access to health care affecting disadvantaged population. These unexpected findings underline the need of a site-specific hazard assessment and a community-based risk management.

Details

Title
Compound climate-pollution extremes in Santiago de Chile
Author
Feron, Sarah 1 ; Cordero, Raúl R. 2 ; Damiani, Alessandro 3 ; Oyola, Pedro 4 ; Ansari, Tabish 5 ; Pedemonte, Juan C. 6 ; Wang, Chenghao 7 ; Ouyang, Zutao 8 ; Gallo, Valentina 9 

 Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile (GRID:grid.412179.8) (ISNI:0000 0001 2191 5013); University of Groningen, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands (GRID:grid.4830.f) (ISNI:0000 0004 0407 1981) 
 Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile (GRID:grid.412179.8) (ISNI:0000 0001 2191 5013) 
 Chiba University, Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba, Japan (GRID:grid.136304.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 0370 1101) 
 Centro Mario Molina, Santiago, Chile (GRID:grid.136304.3) 
 Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS), Potsdam, Germany (GRID:grid.136304.3) 
 Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, School of Medicine, Santiago, Chile (GRID:grid.7870.8) (ISNI:0000 0001 2157 0406) 
 University of Oklahoma, School of Meteorology & Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, Norman, USA (GRID:grid.266900.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 0447 0018); University of Oklahoma, Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, Norman, USA (GRID:grid.266900.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 0447 0018) 
 Stanford University, Department of Earth System Science, Stanford, USA (GRID:grid.168010.e) (ISNI:0000000419368956) 
 University of Groningen, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands (GRID:grid.4830.f) (ISNI:0000 0004 0407 1981) 
Pages
6726
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2805772105
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.