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 you help?
The environment needs your help. There is mass amounts of pollution, greenhouse gases, fires, trash, and it's making a big impact on climate change and global warming. You can help the environment little by little by shopping sustainably, monitoring your use of electricity, picking up trash, composting, volunteering for cleanups in your community, riding bikes or walking to get around instead of a car, reduce, reuse and recycle, use nontoxic chemicals, and conserve water. Some examples of these are buying long lasting light bulbs, buying a reusable water bottle/ containers, reusable bags, buying sustainable clothing stores, using less gas, buying local fresh produce from farmer’s markets, reducing your meat and paper use. All in all monitoring your use of air conditioning, water, electricity, gas, food and basically everything you do daily can help and decrease your carbon footprint. Researching what you can do to help is also a good way of personalizing your roles in trying to help the environment. There are so many more ways to help the environment but be vocal about saving our planet in your community. You don't have to do something big but just do something that can make a difference in your daily life and encourage others to do the same.
The passage above is very helpful because it identifies things that raise our carbon footprint, but it also gives us ways that we can lower our carbon footprint. I will try to help the environment in daily life by composting and recycling more than I use trash. I agree with the effort of buying foods from sustainable sellers because it is a way that my family is trying to lower our carbon footprint. When food is shipped over long distances and grown in unsustainable factories, it releases massive amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Agriculture and Livestock are one of the main producers of greenhouse gasses. I will try to improve my use of fossil fuels because traveling in cars is the main contributor to my carbon footprint. I learned that line drying clothes is a good way to lower carbon footprint. Overall I learned many ways to lower my carbon footprint, which require me to change my daily lifestyle.