"Ah, today's sky is completely blue and there is zero fine dust~ Thanks to yesterday's heavy rain~" Hearing Yeongyo talking on the phone with a friend from the back seat, Ki-taek grips the steering wheel.

Ki-taek's expression hardened, perhaps because he was physically and mentally tired.

Thanks to the rain that Yeongyo said, Ki-taek's semi-basement house was flooded, and Ki-taek had no choice but to sleep in an emergency shelter.

Yeongyo, who was on the phone, covered her nose as she smelled a bad smell.

Yeon-kyo looks at Ki-taek in the driver's seat once and then lowers the window.

Perhaps the bad smell was due to the fact that Ki-taek was in the muddy water full of filth as the semi-basement house was flooded.

Gi-taek, who had taken a muddy shower, got into the wheel early in the morning without even having time to change into new clothes.

Gi-taek's face turns cold, perhaps feeling the gaze from the back seat.


What kind of novel is it all of a sudden?

I wrote a scene from the movie <Parasite>.

Why is it all of a sudden <Parasite>?

It is very closely related to the story Mabu News will cover today.

Hurricane Ida, which swept the United States in recent years, caused heavy rain, especially in New York, causing many casualties, most of whom were low-income people living in the basement.

It's not just the US.

Canada suffered an unprecedented heat wave, and Korea's disasters also left more scars on the socially disadvantaged.

So this is the story Mabu News will cover today.



"Natural disasters swallow the socially weak first"

"There is no flood damage in the west of Central Park"


Up here on Central Park West no flooding issues with the heavy rain continues On



the day the hurricane poured rain in New York, Fox News meteorologist Greg Diamond posted a tweet. It felt like, "It's raining on the west side of Central Park, but there's no flood damage," and this tweet was filled with concentrated fire from Twitterians. "Because rich people don't have drainage problems", "Thank you for sharing information in a classy neighborhood", "We all know that good infrastructure is only for the rich", etc... cynical comments were posted on Greg's tweet. ran full. Also, a screenshot of <Parasite> was uploaded along with it. This is a meme of the scene where Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho)'s expression, with Yeon-kyo (Cho Yeo-jeong) in the backseat, becomes tense.









The fourth hurricane in 2021, Aida, caused severe damage. The damage that has been recorded so far alone is 50 billion dollars (about 50 trillion Korean won), and it is the sixth largest hurricane in the history of the United States. It was the first heavy rain in 152 years since the New York City meteorological observations. For the first time in New York City's history, a flood warning has been issued. A curfew and a state of emergency were declared.



Human casualties were also great. As of September 8, the number of deaths recorded so far has been 77. The damage to the eastern United States was severe. New Jersey had the highest number of deaths at 27, and New York State had 18. Notable are the victims of New York City. There have been 13 deaths so far, of which 10 were low-income people living in illegally converted basements or underground apartments.



Many low-income and immigrants who can't afford New York's high rents live in illegally converted basements. City ordinances require basement ceilings to be at least 7 feet 6 inches and have windows, but few places adhere to that. Homeowners do not follow the ordinance and illegally renovate the basement and rent it at a relatively low price. If there are people who want to live, money becomes money. There's no way there's an emergency exit in such an illegal space. Those who did not receive the flood warning were swept away by the flood. Meanwhile, Greg tweeted that there was no damage west of Central Park.


Q. How many illegal extensions are there in New York?



Because it is an illegally remodeled building, there is no official counting.

Even foreign news articles estimate that there are tens of thousands of illegal basements.

According to data from New York's Pratt Center for Community Development, which provides community outreach and educational programs, as of 2008, more than 114,000 people lived in New York's illegal basements.

Of course, the experts said it would be much bigger than this.

Even the heat wave targets the weak first


Do you remember the extreme heat waves that swept the United States and Canada from the end of June to mid-July this year?

The temperature in Death Valley in California has risen to a whopping 54.4 degrees Celsius.

The situation in Canada was also dire.

In the town of Return, British Columbia, where Vancouver belongs, the temperature reached 49.6 degrees Celsius during this heatwave.

In the village of Return, 90% of the village was burned by wildfires due to the heat wave.

Scientists warn about the North American heatwave that climate change is 150 times more likely than before for extreme weather events like this summer.



Heatwaves, like Hurricane Ida, were the worst victims.

According to British Columbia's chief inspector, 719 people died suddenly in the first week of July alone during the heat wave, many of them elderly people living alone in poorly ventilated houses.



There is also a paper that numerically analyzes whether the heat wave really causes more suffering to the low-income class.

A study published by the University of San Diego at UC showed that the poorest neighborhoods in a county were 76% hotter than the richest neighborhoods.

Comparing education level, the regions with the lowest education levels were found to be 54% hotter than those with the highest levels of education.

Neighborhoods with higher proportions of black, Hispanic, and Asian populations were hotter than white and non-Hispanic neighborhoods.

In short, the poor, the less educated, and the minority groups represented by immigrants suffer more from the heat wave.



What was the difference between a well-to-do neighborhood and a poor neighborhood, a neighborhood with a high level of education and a neighborhood with poor education?

What was confirmed in common was population density and plant density.

In the case of vegetation, more and more will provide shade and act as a shield to prevent sunlight from burning the surface.

Besides, plant density also affects impervious area.

Impervious area refers to land that is paved like concrete or cement, that is, land that water cannot penetrate.

The paved land absorbs the scorching sunlight of the day and radiates it back at night, raising the city's temperature.

A high density of plants means that there is less land area that can absorb heat, so this also affects the damage from heat waves.


Protect the socially disadvantaged from disasters


Korea also experienced a huge heat wave in 2018. Seoul recorded the highest temperature ever recorded at 39.1℃, and Hongcheon, Gangwon-do, broke the nation's highest temperature with an absurd number of 41.0℃. At that time, the number of patients with heat-related diseases increased rapidly, and many people died from heat stroke. Again, the biggest victims of the heat wave were the socially underprivileged. The graph below visualizes the incidence of heat-related diseases by dividing the medical benefit recipients and the top quintile high-income group. In 2018, there were 21.2 cases of heat illness per 10,000 people in the low-income class, but only 7.4 in the high-income class. Looking at the average annual average from 2013 to 2018, the difference between the high and low income groups is 4.8 versus 13.8. It's almost three times the difference.



"When it's hot, turn on the fan and air conditioner, and when it's cold, turn on the boiler."



Naturally.

But it may not be for some.

There are certainly people who cannot afford to buy air conditioners or pay their own electricity bills.

These low-income people have to endure the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter.

Plus, you're more likely to live in an energy-efficient home that's hot and humid in the summer and cold and drafty in the winter.

There are so-called 'energy poor', and there is a customized welfare policy for them.

A representative example is the 'Energy Voucher' system, which supports the purchase of electricity, city gas, district heating, LPG, briquettes, etc.



However, every year the amount of unused energy vouchers is not small.

As of 2020, the amount of energy vouchers provided to the elderly living alone amounted to 18,188 billion won, of which about 14.1 billion were actually used.

Only 77.8% of the total was used.

There is a big blind spot for energy welfare.

This is the reason why some say that proper management is necessary to benefit the energy-poor people.

In addition, we have not yet been able to estimate the exact size of the energy-poor population in Korea.

Relevant statistics are not being properly compiled.


Efforts to prevent polarization


Various policies are needed to protect the socially disadvantaged from disasters.

Right now, to reduce the damage from water disasters such as typhoons and hurricanes, you will need to improve drainage facilities, and you can think of policies such as increasing the amount of green space to prevent heat waves.

These schemes are, in a sense, a large-scale approach to improving the living conditions in which actual victims live.

It costs a lot of money and takes a long time to improve.



A more urgent way to provide assistance is to directly provide assistance to those who have been affected.

The energy voucher mentioned above could be an example, and it could include disaster relief.

We will have to take long-term measures in one hand and emergency measures in the other hand to protect the socially underprivileged from disasters.

Because it is the original sin that caused climate change, the damage from heat waves and typhoons in the future will be worse, not less.



This is the letter prepared by Mabu News.

From Hurricane Ida to the heat wave that hit Korea in 2018... We looked at the impact of natural disasters on society.

I wonder what everyone's thoughts were when they saw the data that natural disasters caused by climate change have a greater impact on the socially disadvantaged.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

(*This article is an edited article from the Witchcraft Newsletter)



[Matthew trilogy to spit newsletter]


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