Environmental Justice Symposium

Did you know that 1 in 9 people of color used to live in toxic neighborhoods? Now the ratio has changed to 1 in 4 people of color in live in toxic neighborhoods. This ratio is not only appalling but shows the lack of concern for the environment and mother earth herself. I went to a symposium on environmental justice, before this symposium I didn’t really know about environmental justice and what it stood for. It’s basically policy, and big businesses use policies to attack peoples land and build factories that hurt the land and the ecosystem. Here in America our social life is on a high past system, we require fast production of things we use daily, for example fast food, clothing, and even electricity. Meat production is responsible for 51% of greenhouse gas production. If didn’t have a demand for meat this percentage could be lower. By painting the roofs or even the streets white, there could be a 20% reduction on AC cost. We have such a high demand for produce and energy that we are the ones keeping these factories that hurt the environment running. However, not only are we hurting the environment, but we are hurting ourselves. Due to the high demand for fast food, most of the things we consume are toxic and grown with steroids and just think about it, if we could learn to eat organic, natural foods, how much that could change the ecosystems. As Michelle Roberts said, “there needs to be a conscious awareness of the way we live”. I completely agree with that statement. In order to save the planet we need to make adjustments in how we live. But how many people are really willing to do that?