Le, Lauren. (January 15, 2022). Orange County’s Environmental Racism Issue. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from Orange County’s Environmental Racism Issue | New University | UC Irvine

 

Despite efforts made by the state of California to mitigate the climate crisis, there are still many environmental hazards that are specifically affecting marginalized communities. In Orange County, it was recorded that lower income areas populated primarily by people of color had significantly higher pollution levels than other neighborhoods in the general area. In fact, areas housing people of color tended to have more issues like lead contamination or poor water and air quality. These pollutants can have devastating health effects, causing brain cancer among other things. Marginalized communities in the area also had higher concentrations of lead in their soil.

 

While California is making strides in terms of mitigating the ongoing climate crisis, it is not doing as good a job at mitigating the effects on marginalized communities. Communities made up of black, Hispanic, indigenous, and other minority groups have faced a long history of environmental injustice. Some efforts have been made to change this but overall, these communities have been disproportionately affected by climate change. This is a key example of the lack of environmental justice in America. This article was really concerning to me. Minority communities are being hit incredibly hard by pollution and other issues, and yet few are coming to their aid. Considering many of the communities are in low income areas, they need support, and it is up to those who are able (and the federal/state government) to help them. We can’t say that we are successfully mitigating the climate crisis until we reduce/eliminate the devastating effects of climate change on marginalized communities.