Environmental justice globally will be fought for with local movements

Nature in the Metropolis says, “competing economic values have led developers to develop unwisely even when they knew the risks that ignoring the environment could have,” (McHarg, p. 132). Despite the best efforts of many wealthy people, 63% of Americans still accept the science of climate change. It’s always good to feel like you’re doing something about a grand issue. In the field where “greenness” is a marketable quality, the importance of low-flow showers, grass-fed organic meat, and electric cars are more apparent than the shipping distance of the food and meat production’s inherent dominance of water usage and methane production. The institutional narrative offers premium products as a solution to climate guilt, an approach that’s classist and greatly limited in actually solving the issue. A resident of Washington DC or New York City has just over a quarter the impact of the average American, and 1/26th the impact of a resident of Wyoming, the lowest density state (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2015). A low impact lifestyle is absolutely possible, it just means living closer to others. Higher density means each person requires shorter travel distances and is “responsible” for fewer building materials, climate controlled space, roads, pipes, and all other things that take energy to produce and maintain.  The Ecology of Place describes, “while the operation and management of cities create environmental stresses, they also hold a significant piece of the solution to environmental and ecological sustainability” (Beatley, p.86). Infrastructure and developments are designed systematically for the consumer base. Reaching an understanding that living smaller and closer together is absolutely necessary. To do that, the public needs clear information about what that means: an institutional message absent of sales biases. Unlike most other developed nations, the United States is still growing. We’ll gain 100 million residents by 2060, and they’ll need to live somewhere (Colby, 2015). The national identity on climate change is currently divided between two ineffective places: solutions that put “green-washed” exploitable profit over the true environmental improvement, and thinking of action as a threat to the economy. If that’s changed, accommodating the increase in population can be done so to consciously to reduce per capita emissions. The Seattle area has created an example by beginning to build affordable, high density housing at all new subway stations, knowing the population is growing. The policy is lead by the constant conversation of housing and cost of living in the city that its residents engage in. The Earth Charter states, “We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more,” (Earth Charter, p. 1). There are global externalities to the environmental footprint most Americans have. Climate change has and will continue to most greatly harm those in the underdeveloped world that have almost no part in it; there needs to be a universal responsibility and respect for the disenfranchised. There’s nothing to suggest our federal-level institutions will change to create that anytime soon. However, organizing at the local level can have that affect; creating that rare corporate-free spread of information. Groups from all across the country have organized on the No Dakota Access Pipeline movement, supporting the voices of native people on the environment. To support the global community, we must engage locally. Outside Sources: Colby, Sandra L. “Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060”. 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Web. 27 Jan. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/14/funding-climate-change-denial-thinktanks-network>. U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions at the State Level, 2000-2013”. October 2015. <http://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/state/analysis/pdf/stateanalysis.pdf> Vigo, Julian. “Biopower and Security.” Www.counterpunch.org. Counterpunch, 20 May 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2016. <http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/20/biopower-and-security-2/>. World Bank. “Turn down the heat: why a 4°C warmer world must be avoided”. 2012. <http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/11/17097815/turn-down-heat-4°c-warmer-world-must-avoided>]]>