Take climate change: think about Hurricane Katrina. Was overwhelmingly black people who were killed; those who did survive were displaced.
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It was rich white folks driving those VW cars through freeways that cut through black and latinx neighborhoods. Our lungs paid the price.
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Go to San Bernardino. The county consistently ranks the worst air quality in the US in first, second, third, fourth, and fifth place.
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Who lives in San Bernardino? Black and latinx people—many of whom were displaced by white people moving to LA. Environmental gentrification.
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So many places in San Bernardino accommodate customers with... enough room for oxygen tanks. Because everyone has asthma.
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I'd make a bet that you could land me in any city or town in the US and where poor and poc people live is where the pollution is. Always.
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Some cities segregated people into places like Mexicantown, which happened to be where the landfill was. Name changed, but landfill didn't.
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When we talk about unequal effects on the environment (the local one for the sake of these tweets), we use the term environmental justice.
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When we talk about the unequal local environmental effects on people of color, we use the term environmental racism.
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Environmental justice and environmental racism already assumes that local pollution in the air/water/soil, is not being doled out equally.
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As someone who thinks about environmental racism constantly and everything else on this thread generally, I've been watching the election.
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Because there's a lot of talk about climate change, Flint, carbon emissions, and more... But it sometimes lacks proper context.
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I'm about to go out on a limb here; almost scared to do so. There's this thing called "carbon tax," which a lot of environmentalists like.
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The carbon tax basically puts a price on carbon emissions, with the idea that poor people get a kickback on the tax money. I'm not a fan.
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If we know that people of color, regardless of income, breathe worse air, why kickback carbon tax money to poor people? Doesn't make sense.
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Even if we *were* to kick carbon tax money to people directly affected by local industries, what's that gonna do? Buy extra asthma inhalers?
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As a person of color who lives pretty damn close to two freeways and the oil extraction industry, I don't want money. I want clean air.
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Ultimately, I doubt monetary incentives are going to "clean up" the oil industry. It's a dirty, rotten industry that kills people.
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The oil industry is the reason we have a climate crisis to begin with. And it's devastated local environments for poor people and poc.
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I'm not a fan of the carbon tax because, for me, it's not about creating a new market. It's about regulation, and making big oil disappear.
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Like, real talk, I'm fine breathing carbon. Lol I'll snort it. It's the particulate matter, the ozone, the NOx that get me.
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But you won't hear experts talking about particulate matter, taxing ozone, taxing NOx, and taxing the things that are killing us.
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Make sense, tho: It's not secret that people who look like me and my neighbors don't get to create climate and environmental policy.
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So, I think we need to move away from oil. And I don't care about the carbon tax.... How do we move forward? Especially in an election year?
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I got the chance to write about what i think we need to be talking about when it comes to environmental justice:http://grist.org/election-2016/justice-bogado/ …
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The brilliant
@LASmogGuy helped me out think about why we need to get real about the zero-emissions vehicle mandate (Cali actually has one). -
And @dinesituation really stressed how important it is to plan for blue-collar in green-collar jobs.
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Wasn't able to quote anyone on carbon tax—it's the sacred cow of climate wonks and no one wants to go against the grain. Except for me lol.
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My mentions and DMs are blowing up rn. Apologies in advance if I don't get back to you right away :)
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Oh! And there are three of us anywhere that cover environmental justice. Please follow
@brentinmock and@yessfun if you want to read more. - 3 more replies
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