Climate change has disproportionately impacted these vulnerable US communities, experts say [Video]

ABC News is taking a look at solutions for issues related to climate change and the environment with the series, “The Power of Us: People, The Climate, and Our Future.”

Researchers have been warning for years that the world’s most vulnerable populations will suffer the most dire consequences of climate change.

But the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the poorest communities – the members of which contribute the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions – are already affecting pockets of the U.S. as extreme weather events are exacerbated by warming global temperatures, events in recent years have shown.

In the U.S., immigrant communities are often on the frontline of increasingly more severe extreme weather events, including wildfire smoke, extreme heat, and flooding, Ahmed Gaya, senior strategist for climate and social justice for the Climate Justice Collaborative, a nonprofit that focuses on providing support to climate-displaced people, told ABC News.

A 2021 reportby the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found …