One of my colleagues at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently met with a leader from a national African-American advocacy organization, and spoke about raising the profile of environmental challenges in minority communities. The response he got was that, though the group shared his concerns, they didn't think they could "sell" environmentalism to their members.
Cynical as that sounds, they were probably right. Over the years, environmentalism has largely been seen as an enclave of the privileged. The term "environmentalism" brings to mind pristine wilderness and wide-open landscapes. What doesn't come to mind is an apartment building, a city block, or an inner city kid who has trouble breathing on hot days. Even issues like climate change are distant concerns for poor and minority citizens (and their advocates) who are struggling daily for equality in education, health care and economic opportunity.
It's the environmental movement's own inconvenient truth, and it has tragic consequences. Blacks die from asthma twice as often as whites, and have higher cancer mortality rates than any other group. Nearly 30 million Latinos -- 72 percent of the US Latino population -- live in places that don't meet US air pollution standards. Native American homes lack clean water at almost 10 times the national rate.
As a chilling reminder, this week marks the fourth year since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, leaving behind it a path of destruction that decimated poor and minority neighborhoods. Many Americans bore witness to the sad truth that the people hit hardest in my hometown of New Orleans were from the city's poorest neighborhoods, and it remains a tragic example of how our most vulnerable populations often bear the burden of our worst environmental threats.
We must also understand the role environmental threats play in what some consider more immediate issues, like the daily struggles on education, health care and the economy.
We need better education to help children reach their full potential. But we can't build schools in the shadow of polluters that will make our kids sick, and cause them to miss days of class with asthma or other health problems.
In the debate on health care, we have to talk about how heavy pollution is linked to respiratory illness, cancer, and heart disease -- three of the top four deadliest threats in America today. We must also recognize that the poor -- who get sick more often because they live in polluted neighborhoods -- are the same people who often go to the emergency room for treatment, driving up health care costs for everyone.
Struggling communities need jobs and economic opportunities. But businesses aren't going to invest in a place where pollution runs rampant. Poison in the ground means poison in the economy, a weak environment means a weak consumer base, and unhealthy air means an unhealthy atmosphere for investments.
We must talk about crime as well. When businesses won't invest and economic possibilities are limited, crime, violence, and drug use often increase, and the vicious cycle continues. But what have we taught our young people to value, to aspire to, or take pride in when they see that their communities are unclean, unhealthy and unsafe, and that the people around them seem unconcerned?
We have a chance to expand the conversation on environmentalism, and welcome new voices and new ideas to the environmental movement. The inauguration of the first African American president, and my confirmation as the first African American Administrator of this Agency, has begun the process of changing the face of environmentalism in our country. People are seeing more and more that environmentalism doesn't come in one shape, size, color, or income bracket.
Those of us who identify as environmentalists today must make room in this movement for the environmentalists of tomorrow. If we don't meet people where they are -- if we can't "sell" environmentalism to poor and minority communities -- then the individuals and groups opposing action on climate change, clean energy and other critical issues will. To confront the urgent environmental challenges of the 21st century, we need to make sure that every community sees their stake in this movement.
Linda Buzzell: What's With the Climate Change Deniers?
Psychologically I'm curious: why are the climate change deniers so upset, so shrill, so fearful, loud and angry at those who agree with the international scientific consensus?
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Common sense, no? Unless getting rid of people is the endgame.
Shopping bags
Shops that give and shops that don’t
Those who give make us grieve
Those who don’t want us to note
We will grieve about a dying earth,
and take note of our earth dying.
See the plastic bags around
inter-mesh
The plastic cups like crops
growing on garbage heaps
Waiting for the recyclers teeth
that grinds the whole into bits.
I hear the heart beat of the earth fainting
I see the fog painting the skyline
and now my lungs are filled
With what-- I do not know
Our 'Rome' was killed in a day
and the aroma of death held its sway
Greece is mixed with water
and its land now begs the flood
Nigeria buried in waste
brought in from other stations,
looking the other way when
palms are greased you can
lease a whole city as your garbage heap.
We will grieve for leaders who lie,
and followers whose rights won’t rise
beyond the pages in which they are written
Take note and sound the alarm
( c ) Kole 3:50am Wednesday
I don't hide my enthusiast
http://www
It would be wonderful if we all knew what underpins the dramatic dependence
Regarding the environmen
http://www
We still have a long ways to go to provide all Americans equality of health and opportunit
Will Wilson
I don't think the author quite understand
The issue is a matter of scope and education.
I can't make a living selling environmen
The goal of zero waste has to be a personal one, a standard set by the biz owner... just like the corporatio
Its about new business philosophy
In addition, the City has rolled out the Chicago Climate Action Plan with the $800 challenge whereby residents commit to several green measures that will guarantee to cut their monthly expenses as well as greenhouse gas emissions. (Used to be the $700 challenge but was increased when new green measures were added.)
http://www
So far, this program has been particular
a true environmen
anyway..., i'm sure everyone will see the error of their ways when world
oil production ends up in terminal decline.
PEAK OIL changes everything
Obama is not really an environmen
he believes in increasing consumptio
he's a green cornucopia
CONSERVE
reduce, re-use, recycle, localize, light rail and reverse urban sprawl
not to mention, deal with over population
A point to consider: there are so many people living in Asia (admittedl
The fastest growing country in the world is probably India, with over 400,000,00
Here in the U.S., it's so easy to take little steps on an individual level: just switching off the lights whenever one leaves a room is one example. Taking a cloth sack to the grocery store is another.
Too often, economic issues are pitted against environmen
San Onofre were criticized by some folks who argued that a new freeway through the wildlife preserve would bring badly needed jobs. A lot of education and outreach will be needed to wean people away from that kind of short-term thinking!
And of course a root cause of global climate change is over population
We need alternativ
So why don't you do everything in your power to expedite the the permitting process for the Cape Wind project in Nantucket sound off of Cape Cod. This project can provide electricit
This project has been blocked wealthy and highly privileged residents of the Cape , Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket that don't want their precious ocean views defiled by gauche turbines. The most prominent opponent of this ecological