A Clean Energy Economy is Crucial for Frontline Communities By: Mustafa Santiago Ali
The rippling effects of climate change will impact every community, region and country on this planet. A new study found that 85 percent of the world's population has already been impacted by the worsening climate crisis. For Black and Brown communities in the United States, this will come as no surprise. The same diseases that are sickening our planet - the impacts of fossil fuel - are sickening frontline communities, resulting in alarming statistics. Building an economy rooted in clean energy is a cure for these converging crises - the climate crisis, the public health impacts of fossil fuels, and the economic impacts of the pandemic. of environmental racism on Black and Brown communities has been The unequal impact documented for decades. Black Americans are 75 percent more likely than white Americans to live near areas that produce emissions, pollution and traffic and 40 percent more likely to live in places where extreme heat will
result in higher mortality. Indigenous communities that rely on robust and healthy wildlife and ecosystems are in danger of losing crucial sources of economic stability and food. Infrastructure investments laid out in the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that Congress just passed and Build Back Better plan still in negotiation may be our last, best chance to rectify these staggering statistics. The investments would make it easier to build facilities that prevent the release of carbon dioxide or capture existing carbon from the air we breathe. They would invest in manufacturing projects supporting renewable technologies, particularly in low- income and frontline communities, resulting in more jobs and economic opportunities. And these investments would harness the power of nature as an ally, not just in solar and wind energy, but in making coasts and shorelines more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
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