Thinking Green

Author: Trista McGetrick

Global warming is more than just the concern of a few antisocial environmentalists. It is essentially a humanitarian concern. Environmental justice initiatives seek to address the social, political and economic aspects of climate change. In addition, they hope to remedy the fact that those with the least political and economic power are suffering the havoc that the consumptive habits of industrialized nations have wreaked on the environment.

Citizens of small Pacific islands are already becoming refugees from increasingly violent weather patterns and rising sea levels. At last fall's Clifford Symposium, citizens of Tuvalu, a nation 10 feet above sea level, bore witness to this fact. In addition to an increase in severe storms, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that within 50 to 100 years, melting ice caps could cause the complete disappearance of Tuvalu.

The people of colder climates also stand to lose. National Geographic reports that hunters in Greenland are already finding their traditional routes impassible due to thinning and breaking ice in areas once firmly frozen. Increasingly, they are faced with having to choose between giving up their livelihoods or risking injury and death on the now precarious hunting routes.

The social and economic effects of climate change are felt closer to home as well. Minorities living in the United States are much more likely to be uninsured and living in poverty. Because of the precarious living situations of the poor in many cities, minority citizens may be the most harshly affected by the hurricanes, droughts and other disasters scientists believe are the results of global warming. This was widely viewed as being the case with low-income New Orleans families following Hurricane Katrina.

Considering the direct impact that it is having on communities everywhere, global warming can no longer be dismissed or taken on only after other problems are solved. The lifestyles common in many western nations have very real consequences for people in other, poorer parts of the world. In the United States, the spread of suburbia, an increase in the number of personal vehicles, the lack of effective public transportation and the indifference of voters and policy-makers all contribute to the consequences felt by those elsewhere who make less of an impact on the global environment.

There is no denying that the

individual lifestyle decisions we make have a real impact on the world as a whole. Climate change is one of the ways in which this impact becomes apparent. By altering our personal habits- driving less, turning down the heat and hanging up laundry to name a few - and by discussing these issues rather than ignoring them, each of us can address environmental injustice at its roots.