We cannot look at the environmental crisis without considering the institutional rules and regulations that have caused it and the government and corporate decisions that decide who it impacts first. Our institutional systems made the effects of climate change, polluted air and water, and hazardous living conditions a distant issue in the minds of many, particularly white wealthy people. This is an issue that is affecting the polar bears, or some poor third-world countries; not my community, so why should I care about it? This is the privileged mindset that countless people CAN have when it isn’t affecting their community directly.
Yes, this is a privileged and ignorant mindset, but it is a common one. When communities of color and low-income areas are the ones being exposed to unsafe environmental conditions, it isn’t talked about. You might find people who want to “save the turtles” or pictures of beautiful travel destinations posted on earth day to bring awareness to climate change. But there are environmental injustices happening right down the road, and nobody seems to care. There are people in Flint, MI who still don’t have clean drinking water, and families right here in Buffalo, NY that are being exposed to unsafe levels of lead in their homes every single day.
When we live in a system where political, social, and economic power is in the hands of the wealthy and the white, of course environmental power will belong to them as well. Marginalized communities facing daily oppression are the same communities whose lands are targets for undesirable zoning, receptacles for pollutants in urban areas, and victims of institutional neglect. Climate change affects everyone, and will begin to affect everyone more and more if we don’t start to make some changes. But it is important to look at the communities that are being environmentally impacted right now.
In the discussions surrounding environmentalism, the focus is often on forests, melting icebergs, and how this all will eventually start impacting humans. Well, news flash, these environmental forces are already hurting humans, just not the ones we tend to care about. In a world where opportunity and worth are often separated by race and money, the environment is one thing we all have in common. We see racism, segregation, and classism in all aspects of life- educationally, financially, and socially. But we all share the environment, whether or not we want to believe it. The Earth is our home, and we can only push our unsafe conditions and polluted waters onto marginalized communities for so long. And yes, it is important to address the broad issues of global warming on a large scale. Yes, we need to help protect arctic climates and polar bears. Yes, I want to save the turtles. However, the discussion about environmentalism needs to start looking closer to home. Environmental racism is happening and something needs to be done because we should want to “save the people” too.