Because environmental racism!
Despite the conventional wisdom, not everybody drives all the time in Los Angeles. Those who don’t, it turns out, pay more of a price in terms of the air they breathe than major car commuters, according to a new study.
Researchers from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy concluded that residents of wealthier, whiter areas exported air pollution to the neighborhoods around their commutes.
“There’s this consistent injustice in air pollution exposure,” said Geoff Boeing, an assistant professor at the school and co-author of the study.
Past studies have established that “there’s a statistically significant difference in exposure levels, particularly in home locations, between white groups and nonwhite groups,” said Boeing, adding that those exposed most to harmful air are “usually Black and Hispanic groups.”
Essentially because wealthy, evil white people commute more, the pollution stays in Los Angeles affecting minority communities with their exhaust. But it gets better, ladies and gentlemen (emphasis mine) this from a column about the WSC study:
As a white guy who’s lived on L.A.’s Westside for most of my life, I’ve benefited from the region’s sordid history as well. Much as I try to do my part — taking the train a couple times a month, walking to local coffee shops and restaurants instead of driving across the city — there’s no question I contribute to the inequitable air pollution that Boeing’s study describes.
But you know the L.A. Times couldn’t publish this report without mentioning equity (i.e. destroy nice, middle class neighborhoods) at some point because of racist housing policies and road construction or something:
The researchers also called for government to allow more apartment construction in wealthier neighborhoods, to make it easier for low-income families to live closer to where they work — instead of in far-off enclaves burdened by freeway pollution.
Come to think of it, no wonder why California wants to pay reparations! Now it all makes sense!
PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay
Green Jihad 