Governments Are Perpetuating Climate, Health, and Nature Inequalities Hispanic Communities Face in the U.S.
There are nearly 9 million children living in America, and in 2022, the majority (41%) were Hispanic children under the age of 18 living in poverty—environments often neglected, industrialized, and riddled with pollution (1). For many Hispanics and Latinos, this is a reality shaped by deep-rooted social, economic, and environmental inequities, resulting from a discriminatory system that confines marginalized groups to segregated, toxic spaces.
Fossil Fuels Come for The Greatest Snow on Earth
For more than sixty years, Utah’s “white gold” has been considered “the greatest snow on Earth”, with numerous ski areas and an Olympics to back up the claim(1). This snow, when it melts, supplies about 70% of the water to the Great Salt Lake(2). And the Great Salt Lake contributes ~$2.5 billion to Utah’s economy and supplies additional moisture to the mountains to make “the greatest snow on Earth”(3). In addition, the lake supports ~80% of Utah’s wetlands, provides for over 10 million migratory birds a year, and hosts 350 bird species(4).
Testimony at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Advocating for Best Available Climate Science to Protect Childrens’ Right
On April 23, 24, and 25, 2024, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Kalālapaikuanalu Winter, a 20-year-old Native Hawaiian and youth plaintiff in Navahine v. Hawai‘i Department of Transportation and attorney Kelly Matheson with Our Children’s Trust, along with the backing of 21 youth and 18 pediatric associations—testified before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) about the harrowing effects of climate change on children across the globe and what humanity must do to stop the crisis.
The Last Frontier Places First in the U.S. Warming Derby
Thoughts of Alaska bring to my mind massive glaciers (the largest glaciers outside of the continental ice sheets), endless frozen ground to the horizon (called permafrost), towering mountains (the highest relief of any mountain on the planet), so much snow and avalanches, dark spruce forests, never-ending days in the boreal summer sun and never-ending winter nights lit by the aurora borealis, lazy brown bears, mad moose cows with their quirky calves, clumsy caribou, cold streams choked with salmon, coastal waters teaming with food, huckleberries, and more lazy brown bears (haven’t seen a polar bear in Alaska, yet…). You know, the last frontier.