> Do you know why inner cities are hot? Because they have fewer trees. Do you know why they have fewer trees? Racism. So says Christopher Schell, Assistant Professor at the University Of Washington, Tacoma, whose specialty is urban ecology. > Schell (and seven co-authors) published a paper that looked at the correlation between rising temperatures and inner-city minority neighborhoods. “Where the buildings are, where the impervious surfaces were essentially that hardcover, right, the concrete, where the trees are, that’s all influenced by the policies that say where stuff is going to be and those policies themselves are racist,” Schell said.