Can we solve the climate crisis without confronting global inequities?
A recent study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA found that white residents in the USA produce more climate pollution than black or hispanic residents, but black and hispanic people are exposed to more air pollution.
And that is just the USA! Think about the global inequities in the "haves" and the "have nots".
And how are we going to lift people out of poverty without making the climate crisis even worse?
If you are a resident in a wealthy country, is it your responsibility to address both problems at once? And what would that look like in terms of national and international policy?
Environmental Justice >
How can we help?
I believe that in order to change our environment for the better, we must actually want to make a change. We must use reusable items, use less plastics, not utilize our acs very often, spend less money, etc. People are ruining our earth and taking it for granted, if we maintain this mindset we will no longer have an earth and then we'll start regretting it. So, in order to prevent this from happening we must start working together to make our earth healthier.
I think this is a good idea in theory, but I'm sure many people have wanted to make a change and still humanity has a huge environmental footprint. If you look at the statistics, only 100 companies have been responsible for an entire 71% of global emissions since 1988 (a report from 1970). Regardless of how much an individual wants to counteract climate change, individual action in personal life will not be able to turn climate change on it's heel. You also have to take into account that many environmentally-damaging products are also cheaper, and aimed at poorer individuals who have no choice but to rely on those products. It's not simply the general population choosing to ruin our earth, but larger corporations taking advantage.
wait not from 1970 i meant to say 2017 oops
This is a great idea I agree with you we do need to start reusing items that are reusable instead of just littering them you make a good point our Earth is not healthy because everyone takes it for granted and pretty soon we might not have an Earth.
I agree with your statement and why you say that in order to want to make a change there must be a change. A lot of times we say we want to recycle more, but end up just throwing everything out the same way.