Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness

Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness

Ken Webster is a talk radio personality and producer from Houston, TX. He started his career in Chicago on the Mancow show and has since worked at...Full Bio

 

Pollution Isn't "Racist" & Anyone Who Tells You Otherwise Is A Moron

I give up. I can’t fight it anymore. It’s time to address what I am doing to cause climate change.

My very existence is causing blacks and Hispanics to suffer disproportionately from climate change. Yep. It’s true!

A study that appears in the peer-reviewed journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that white people create the most pollution, and that blacks and Latinos suffer more because of it. 

Breathlessly reporting on this study, USA Today writes “Blacks and Hispanics disproportionately breathe air that’s been polluted by non-Hispanic whites, according to a study….This new research quantifies for the first time the racial gap between who causes air pollution – and who breathes it.”

Wow! Talk about some white privilege!

"Pollution is disproportionately caused by whites, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic minorities," the study said.

Poor air quality remains the largest environmental health risk in the United States, the study warns. In fact, with 100,000 deaths per year, more Americans die from air pollution than car crashes and murders combined.

“Even though minorities are contributing less to the overall problem of air pollution, they are affected by it more,” said study co-author Jason Hill, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota, who is white. “Is it fair (that) I create more pollution and somebody else is disproportionately affected by it?”

Hill said that while the air in the U.S. has gotten cleaner in the past decade, pollution inequity has remained stubbornly high.

The study found that black and Hispanic Americans bear a "pollution burden:" Blacks are exposed to about 56 percent more pollution than is caused by their consumption. For Hispanics, it is slightly higher – 63 percent.

However, non-Hispanic whites experience a "pollution advantage," meaning they breathe about 17 percent less air pollution than whites cause.

White people apparently pay for more pollution intensive goods and services than blacks and Latinos do. And it’s because white people are richer than everyone else.

Pollution inequality?! We can’t have that!

So, what shall I, as a white woman, do? I cannot continue to disproportionally pollute my black and Latino neighbors. That’s simply wrong.

Shall I stop running my AC or driving my car? I suppose I could do that.

Shall I stop buying stuff on Amazon? I suppose I could do that.

I don’t have kids, so I’m not ruining their futures. What shall I do?

Shall I give up all my goods and chattels unto the State. Oh, tell me elected representative, how can I purge this privilege from my soul?

All white people should be asking themselves these questions, and I’m afraid we will arrive at the inevitable conclusion—white people are bad, and should be outlawed and/or eliminated.

The earth cannot afford their pollution privilege any longer.

Sandra Peterson

Follow me on Twitter @janevonmises

GRAND ARMY PLAZA, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/02/26: More than one hundred New Yorkers affiliated with Sunrise Movement gathered in Brooklyn on February 26, 2019 to put the pressure on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to join Senator Gillibrand in co-sponsoring the Green New Deal Resolution and uniting the Democrats against Mitch McConnells divisive tactics. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)


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