{"id":12471,"date":"2020-12-03T18:13:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T18:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12471"},"modified":"2020-12-03T18:13:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T18:13:41","slug":"poll-white-americans-unaware-of-pollution-impacts-in-disadvantaged-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12471","title":{"rendered":"Poll: White Americans unaware of pollution impacts in disadvantaged areas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A lack of zoning in places such as Houston often means the most vulnerable people are in the path of harmful pollution.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Photo: EDAF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By ROZ BROWN
<\/strong>Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 When high pollution levels occur in a neighborhood, residents are likely to be Black or Latino families, and a new survey<\/a> finds many white Americans are unaware of the disparity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elise Nelson Leary, manager of campaigns and partnerships for the Environmental Defense Fund<\/a> said the national poll conducted for the group found fewer than four in 10 white adults know minority neighborhoods often aren\u2019t like their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She noted pollution and contaminants are far more likely to be detected in Black, Latino and low-income neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLow-income communities and communities of color have endured disproportionate harm from climate change,\u201d Nelson Leary contended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added 60% of U.S. respondents to the poll who identified as Black said they were very concerned about air-pollution exposure in their community versus 32% of white adult respondents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juan Parras, executive director for Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services<\/a> said unless you live in a neighborhood with high levels of pollution, you\u2019re unlikely to know the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added people often lack understanding even if they recognize the privileges afforded by culture and circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then some that do, they don\u2019t blame it on the environment,\u201d Parras observed. \u201cThey blame it on the people themselves, thinking, \u2018Well, why don\u2019t they move out?\u2019 \u2018Why don\u2019t they move out to a better community?\u2019 It\u2019s all a matter, I think, of education and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nelson Leary said the poll found 51% of Black respondents and 48% of Latino respondents believe environmental injustice is a major problem in the U.S., while only 33% of white adult respondents agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to use this poll to get a pulse of how people were seeing these issues,\u201d Nelson Leary explained. \u201cAnd so this poll really again was to collect that data and to really understand how we can better talk about environmental justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey also shows concern about climate change and its impact on the economy is more prevalent among Black and Latino respondents than white respondents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ROZ BROWNTexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 When high pollution levels occur in a neighborhood, residents are likely to be Black or Latino families, and a new survey finds many white Americans are unaware of the disparity. Elise Nelson Leary, manager of campaigns and partnerships for the Environmental Defense Fund said the national poll conducted for the group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12474,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12471\/revisions\/12474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}