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 >
Environmental Justice: Self and Allyship
Yes and here's why.
The first problem is the self and what can I do in such situations of reducing my carbon footprint and how much I am contributing to the negative environmental and ecological changes happening in the world. The keyword is I. I, as someone who cares about this topic of global warming and such, will move to start improving my way of life so that I can reduce my footprint.
The second problem is how my choices are affecting lower-income communities that have a majority of POC residents. Hypothetically if I am of a higher class with more access to money I also have the means to buy an excess of what I need and what I want. These needs and wants need to be produced and a large percent of things being produced need factories and factories produce waste. These factors can and will be found near lower-income communities. But that is only half of it. That's just thinking about my choices and how my choices go into data that then creates more pollution as it's being produced at a higher demand.
But besides the choices, if I care enough about the world to change my habits so that I am not killing the earth I should also care about people and embark on allyship that helps people.