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[Music]

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what do you think of when you hear the

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words climate change chances are you

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might think of sad nature somewhere far

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away but climate change also affects

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humans in every corner of the world

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including the corner where you live and

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where I live it impacts the people in

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places we see every day and it will

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impact some of us more than others the

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2017 Atlantic hurricane season was one

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of the most active seasons in history

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with 17 named storms and ten hurricanes

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six of those hurricanes had winds more

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than 110 miles per hour and while it's

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hard to know if any single weather event

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is due to climate change we do know that

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it will make conditions more extreme

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we're seeing what that future could look

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like in Cape Town South Africa there a

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drought has stressed local reservoirs

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leading to water rationing as the city

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prepares for the day when the taps run

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dry and when you take a community that's

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already facing these disparities and add

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in extreme weather caused by climate

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change it can make it even harder for

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those communities to recover not every

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community experiences these climate

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changes in the same way some communities

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have more resources better

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infrastructure or more political capital

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than other communities there's a concept

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to deal with these inequalities it's

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called environmental justice and the

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idea is pretty simple communities

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shouldn't be forced to suffer

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disproportionate environmental effects

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or deal with more pollution than others

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because they belong to a certain race

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national origin or income bracket people

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in wealthy communities often think these

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concerns are far away but even in a

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place like the US where we tend to think

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we're ahead of the curve on protecting

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all people the execution has been spotty

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we can still find lots of environmental

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disparities right in our backyard as

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Miami cleaned up after Hurricane Maria

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officials dumped debris next to a

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community with lots of low-income

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residents and people of color definitely

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close enough to see and smell it and in

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Houston residents who couldn't afford or

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work

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physically able to evacuate before

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hurricane Harvey had no choice but to

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stay behind as the city flooded Porto

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Rico has faced budget shortages and a

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lack of infrastructure for decades and

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after a spate of hurricanes residents

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there had trouble finding clean drinking

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water and large portions of the island

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remained without electricity for months

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it's more than extreme individual events

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in many places days that were already

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hot are getting even hotter and there

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are more of them this heat can be

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especially deadly in homes without

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air-conditioning for example the heat

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index inside public housing in Harlem

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stays dangerously elevated overnight

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even when it cools off outside and as

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climate change brings the average

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temperature up systemic inequalities

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like this will become more obvious it's

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not that the United States hasn't tried

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to fix these problems before the fight

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for environmental justice in the u.s.

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traces its roots to 1982 in Warren

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County North Carolina when residents

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mounted mass demonstrations against a

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plan to put contaminated soil in a

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nearby landfill the US Environmental

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Protection Agency or EPA found that

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similar landfills in southern states

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were all located in black or low-income

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neighborhoods several years later a

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report found this was a pattern around

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the country hazardous waste facilities

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were more likely to be located in

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minority communities the proof was

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undeniable so in 1992 President George

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HW Bush found at the office of

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environmental justice inside the EPA two

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years later Bill Clinton signed an

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executive order that told federal

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agencies to consider environmental

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justice in all policies and effectively

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included environmental protections under

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civil rights law sounds like things were

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going pretty well right well

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environmental justice policies stalled

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when George W Bush shifted the focus of

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the office of environmental justice from

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protecting low-income and minority

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communities to protecting all people

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that sounds good but in practice it

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meant those efforts no longer focused on

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protecting the people who needed it most

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at the same time many environmental

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civil rights claims were delayed for

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years or downright rejected after Barack

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Obama's election

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his administration recommitted to

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environmental justice Democrats

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controlled the House the Senate and

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White House for two years but guess how

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many bills they file to strengthen

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environmental justice protections zero

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today EPA funding itself is under threat

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so these vulnerable communities remain

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at risk it's easy to assume that climate

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change will affect us all equally

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but the truth is that communities all

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around us including the one you're in

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may be forced to bear an unequal brunt

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of our changing world if we want to

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change this we have to recognize those

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disparities and engage with those

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communities that way as we find

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solutions everyone has a seat at the

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table thanks for watching hot mess if

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