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Abstract
Patterns of climate risk, social vulnerability, and climate adaptation in the Southeast echo centuries of human history. The region consists of highly diverse communities and landscapes, including one of the most biodiverse areas in the continental United States. The Southeast’s ecosystems, stewarded for generations by Indigenous Peoples, are now in a precarious state. Centuries of political and land-use decisions have threatened the landscape and the people, with a few prospering at the expense of many. These decisions, shaped by a long history of systemic and structural racial discrimination and aggression, continue to have lasting harmful effects on the preparedness of Southeast communities for mounting climate change threats. The institutions of slavery and intergenerational ownership of individuals as property, Jim Crow segregation, and housing discrimination have resulted in many BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities living in neighborhoods that are disproportionately exposed to environmental risks and with fewer resources to address them when compared to majority White communities. Furthermore, these frontline communities—those with higher exposures, greater vulnerability, and less adaptive capacity to climate change impacts—continue to face forms of discrimination that increase their vulnerability to climate risks and reduce their options for resilience. These inequities are further complicated by the Southeast’s population changes, economic investments, and rising tax revenues in urban and suburban areas. Wealthier communities are able to seek out external resources needed to implement innovative climate resilience and adaptation projects. Meanwhile, smaller and more rural communities often lack the capacity to receive and spend funding, train leadership, and advocate for climate adaptation planning.
Keywords
Southeast,
Alabama,
Arkansas,
Florida,
Georgia,
Kentucky,
Louisiana,
Mississippi,
North Carolina,
South Carolina,
Tennessee,
Virginia,
climate change,
population
Citation
Hoffman, J.S., S.G. McNulty, C. Brown, K.D. Dello, P.N. Knox, A. Lascurain, C. Mickalonis, G.T. Mitchum, L. Rivers III, M. Schaefer, G.P. Smith, J.S. Camp, and K.M. Wood,. 2023. Ch. 22. Southeast. In: Fifth National Climate Assessment. Crimmins, A.R., C.W. Avery, D.R. Easterling, K.E. Kunkel, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock, Eds. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA
