The Privilege of Sustainability
By Harshi Gadudasu (@harshigadudasu), Wisteria Magazine
Written as a school research paper
The 2019 Oscar-award-winning film, Parasite, offers a complex and symbolic commentary on the differences between poor people and rich people and their relationships with the environment. One scene showed the Kim family, who lived in a half-basement, struggling to find shelter after a torrential downpour flooded their home. The next day, when they had no choice but to work with the wealthy Park family, they overheard the mother saying that the rain "washed away the grime of the city" and was "really such a blessing." The devastation caused by the sudden shift in weather left the poor Kims destitute for a long time because they could not afford to live in Seoul's better quality areas. People who live in nonfiction impoverished communities are often subject to the same fate as the Kim family in the film: destroyed homes and belongings, exhaustion, and uncertainty. Meanwhile, families such as the Parks are not harmed and even benefit from it. Sustainable practices and safety from climate change are expensive privileges that poor people and minorities are unable to access; therefore, the impoverished and minorities need protection from the damaging effects of climate change.
Systemic oppression against non-white citizens is an unsolved problem on a socioeconomic level. Black and Hispanic people live in impoverished communities in rural and urban parts of states, demonstrating a race and class divide between the wealthier white population with factors like gentrification (the movement of affluence into impoverished places). Although Black and Hispanic poverty rates are declining, high percentages of their respective people make up the overall population in poverty in the United States. Climate change and global warming are also imminent dangers that the world faces today. The cheapness of non-eco-friendly services like meat-based products and gas cars cater to people with less income. Anthropogenic (human-caused) actions such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fossil fuel usage, and pollution increase, causes the global temperature to quickly approach an unmanageable rate. These atmospheric changes cause natural disasters such as tropical cyclones and droughts: anomalies that not all communities are fit to resist.
Poor people cannot afford diets and lifestyles that consist of healthy plant-based foods. Agricultural practices around the world are contributors to global warming. Much of the land used to facilitate the care of animal-based agriculture allows for increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, some wealthier climate activists turn towards vegan and plant-based diets that do not require a land-use level. However, the problem with this is how unavailable--and therefore expensive--such a diet is. Poor people must consume cheaper forms of food high in meat content, such as fast food, which heavily contributes to climate change. The targeted building of fast-food restaurants in impoverished communities compared to expensive grocery stores in wealthier neighborhoods is evidence of this. Expensive grocery stores that sell plant-based foods, such as Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's, are heavily linked to gentrification. Fast food and red meat-based options like McDonald's and Wendy's exist in lower-class areas. One study examined how close predominantly Black communities were to fast-food restaurants across America. According to a study done in 2014, "In models simultaneously adjusted for percent poverty and percent Black, the relationship between CBG (census block group) percent Black and fast-food access grew stronger such that average distance to fast food was more than three miles closer in neighborhoods with the highest versus lowest concentration of Black residents.” Poor people are unable to afford to partake in sustainable diets like plant-based or veganism. This targeted implementation leads to more consumption of red meat and animal-based food products, which boosts the demand for meat production in an agricultural setting, contributing to GHG emissions and global warming.
Poor people living in places with weaker infrastructure are less likely to be protected from natural disasters caused by climate change. The IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) reports that the rise in hurricanes and floods over the past few decades is mainly due to human-caused climate change. The intensity of hurricanes increases with anthropogenic climate change. The increasing power of storms leads to more damage on cities and people and more immense on the minorities who inhabit the impoverished portions. Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, causing widespread flooding and 1,833 deaths. There is a noticeable difference in impoverished communities' impairments (which have higher Black populations) than in more affluent neighborhoods—specifically the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The Ward itself exists in a portion of the city below sea level stuck between two slopes in a "dip," making it more prone to flooding. The Lower 9th Ward is an example of an impoverished community of minorities set apart from the wealthier white people who migrated to elevated city areas. The race and class divide carried on throughout desegregation and even in the present. When Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, these slopes allowed water to flow directly into the city's most impoverished part: the Lower 9th Ward. As Juliette Landphair, in her article about the social inequalities of New Orleans, states, "City inspectors deemed the majority of Lower Ninth Ward properties' unsafe to enter or in imminent danger of collapse,' their condition a reflection of the floodwaters' impact and the unsteady foundations of shotgun homes that had lined block after block. Preliminary reports indicated that the Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly, the city's most ravaged areas, experienced the highest number of deaths by drowning." The Lower 9th Ward shared such a brutal and devastating loss while affluent inhabitants could evacuate safely and without much trouble. As climate change continues to grow, tropical storms that damage impoverished communities will increase in parallel. Climate change is a driving factor in the intensity of hurricanes and tropical storms that ravage disadvantaged communities and leave them in a state of peril for months.
Poor people are unable to afford necessities during natural disasters caused by climate change. Disasters such as droughts and hurricanes leave a lasting impact on communities by taking away access to necessities like food, water, electricity, and gas. For example, the 2012-2017 drought in California set a record for warmth in the state. The increase in aridity and warmer temperatures were due in no small part to anthropogenic causes. One study documented Mexican households' food security in Fresno County, located in California's prime agricultural land, the Central Valley. The Central Valley has a high population of Mexican-American migrant farmers. Because of the drought, the farmers who lived there could not tend to their crops and profit, inhibiting their ability to buy more food. Many Mexican people reported being over 100 percent under the federal poverty level. The rate at which the drought-affected minorities in the region is alarming. The California drought caused widespread food insecurity, especially in areas that depended on water and irrigation to maintain a stable income.
Similarly, a place like Compton in southern Los Angeles, which, at the time, had a large Black population, was unable to provide for themselves. As stated by Chad Blais, Deputy Director of Public Works in Compton, "We have heard countless stories from our customers begging for assistance, extensions, and payment plans to pay lesser amounts that will allow them to keep water services on and use their remaining money to buy medication, food or pay rent. If you drive through the City of Compton most of the front yards are brown." Still, the Public Works department of California tried to extract money from these already disadvantaged communities. The impoverished, minority-dominated locations such as Fresno County and Compton suffered greatly from the drought, while more affluent neighborhoods used water liberally for their swimming pools and car washes. People in poverty could not make a solid income, pay their bills, and buy necessities for their homes and families during the hard times of natural disasters. As climate change continues to inflict harm on poverty-stricken communities, dwellers will have less chance of survival because they cannot afford the necessities.
Some may argue that poor people and minorities should still be doing their part to be sustainable despite the socioeconomic boundaries. While conservation (renewable energy, veganism, etc.) may be inaccessible to poor people, there are still ways to reduce one's carbon footprint. However, there is a significant difference in the world's poorest people's footprints than the wealthiest. A Washington Post article released in 2020, the richest 1 percent account for “more than double of those of the poorest 50%.” The poorest people on Earth do not contribute to climate change on the same scale as the population's wealthiest percent. Factors such as carbon emissions from private jets, unsustainable land usage, and wasting water play an even more prominent role in climate change. It is not the sole responsibility of poor people and minorities to address their contributions to climate change when they do not make up a large percentage of GHG and carbon emissions.
Poor people and minorities do not have access to the same privileges that wealthy people do regarding sustainability and safety. Eco-friendly practices have proven to be less accessible to impoverished communities than affluent ones because of targeted architecture and establishments like fast food. Natural disasters like hurricanes hit harder on minority communities who cannot revitalize and receive aid at the same level as the wealthy. After natural disasters hit, minorities in poverty are left in states of food insecurity and cannot afford necessities for survival such as water and electricity. Although the wealthy expect the poor to contribute to sustainable practices, the poor have a smaller carbon footprint than the wealthy.
The fight against climate change is not only a battle for our planet's safety. It is a battle for human rights. Climate change and global warming are due in large part to anthropogenic practices. As corporations continue to extract oil from the ground, pump GHGs into our atmosphere, and spill toxic waste into our oceans, it is not the affluent who will suffer from insecurity. Those living in urban slums and rural areas will suffer. The external battles that impoverished communities already fight, such as poor infrastructure and lack of education, will lead them to their doom. They will be the last to know about climate destruction. They will be the last to know how to escape. In turn, they will be the last to recover and rebuild. The privileged individual must remain educated and up to date on climate change's human effects to understand the long-term impact of climate change on our local communities and provide them with the help they deserve.
