Are white people bad for the environment?

The Grist ^ | June 17, 2021 | Eve Andrews

[Stravinsky]

But I cannot emphasize this enough: The existence of wealthy non-white people is not a counterpoint to the fact that the climate crisis was strongly perpetuated by white, Western European ideas about dominance. (Nor is the existence of poor, white people who suffer because of our climate-destroying economic system.) Across social classes, the Western European ideal of “success” is based very much on extractive economies, materialism, and individualism — each a pillar of the climate crisis. When you consider this foundation, it is not a coincidence that almost all of those mega-billionaires are white.

…

There is no shortage of examples: the Industrial Revolution(its associated emissions are widely considered the original sin of climate change); colonization, an invention of white Western Europeans, which in addition to taking many Indigenous lives undid much of tribes’ stewardship of vital ecosystems; the American promise of “freedom” that was, in fact, built on the backs of enslaved people.

…

You can see that same system play out today in the way that communities of color continue to suffer the environmental consequences of the American consumerist lifestyle, often without enjoying its benefits. A recent study, for example, found that Asian, Black, and Hispanic Americans breathe more polluted air than white people do — which is by design. Highly polluted shipping warehouses, industrial facilities, and highways have all been systematically installed in non-white communities. And it is no secret that white-controlled governments have worked very hard to suppress votes from people of color to keep them from reshaping this system.

The heart of your question, JUSTICE, is not whether every white person is bad for the planet. It’s about whether it’s possible to separate white people as individuals from the legacy that white-favoring systems have wrought on the world. And that is a very complicated prospect!

[dfwgator]

Build damns, develop irrigation, drain swamps, plant forests.

Ok, but apart from that, what have the white people EVER done for us?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The existence of wealthy non-white people is not a counterpoint to the fact that the climate crisis was strongly perpetuated by white, Western European ideas about dominance.

No.