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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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you like what you see please head over
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