Co-authored by Manuel Pastor. Cross-posted from The Huffington Post.
No doubt you’ve heard the warnings — the melting ice caps and rising sea levels, the extinct polar bears and extreme weather conditions. From pop culture movies like The Day After Tomorrow, to the tireless work of advocates like Al Gore, the discussion around climate change has often focused on environmental catastrophe and what the future may hold if humans don’t change their carbon-emitting ways.
These are, of course, serious concerns and we need to address them to secure our planet’s future. But what’s been missing from the conversation is how climate change is affecting us here at the local level, in our communities, and that climate change policy — done right — could result in cleaner air for many American families today.
Last year, we released research about the “climate gap” — the fact that people of color and the poor in the United States may suffer more from the economic and health consequences of climate change than other Americans. Our newest study, Minding the Climate Gap: What’s at Stake if California’s Cl... Read more
