NPR for North Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Commentary: A Global Effort

By Marisa Trevi?o, KERA 90.1 commentator

Dallas, TX –

At 5 a.m., two days past Valentine's Day this year, a flag was raised in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto to signal the start of the fight against global warming by countries who agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

As everyone knows, the United Nations Kyoto Protocol is a coalition of 141 countries that the United States chose not to be a part of. Our government's reasoning was that to abide by the agreement would have meant that the United States would have had to cut its own emissions by 30 percent, and that was said to be just too costly for American businesses. Yet, it doesn't matter to Washington how high the price low-income American families have to pay for living amid these same emissions. Several environmental studies released recently tell the same story: toxic emissions are not only aggravating global warming, but clearly endangering children.

The vast majority of these polluting facilities are located in or near urban areas, which also happen to be the primary sites for low-income neighborhoods.

That's why it is no surprise that Columbia University researchers, who tracked 60 pregnant women from New York City's Harlem and Bronx neighborhoods, found that babies born to these women had 50 percent more genetic abnormalities.

Along the Texas/Mexico border, where poverty-level families live under the constant toxic fallout from American-owned maquiladoras, there have been recorded higher than normal levels of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone.

Because of this, these families suffer more than their fair share of tuberculosis, hepatitis and gastroenteritis.

In an August 2004 report by Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment, it was reported asthma is at epidemic levels in low-income preschoolers.

According to Christine Rogers, co-author of the report, the urban poor "gets hit with a powerful one-two punch: exposure to the worst air quality problems and the additional allergen exposure arising from global warming. In addition, global warming is causing pollen seasons to arrive earlier in the spring."

In other words, there will be more trips to emergency rooms for breathing treatments for those children for whom springtime is literally breathtaking.

And the latest air quality report released by the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force says that diesel pollution is responsible for more deaths than drunk drivers and homicides.

The study says that nationwide, diesel pollution spewing from the tailpipes of school buses, garbage trucks, 18-wheelers and delivery vans, causes 21,000 premature deaths each year, along with, asthma attacks and heart attacks.

Other countries recognize that businesses who put cost over conscience are not motivated to do anything about the problem.

That's why the European Union is spearheading efforts to force businesses to make the necessary improvements to reduce their emissions. According to Jeffrey Burke, executive director of the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, the United States is about to make the most significant changes to our air quality in 15 years.

The 109th Congress is considering among three different pieces of legislation to address reductions of air emissions from power plants. Though each proposal differs in cost, type and a timeline for change, each relies on pollution prevention approaches to achieve the goals. It should be easy to decide with three choices available, but it's reported that Congress is deadlocked, with the real possibility that no legislation will be passed.

If this should happen, the United States won't have to worry about outside threats invading our homeland and compromising our well being. We'll be doing a good job of that for ourselves.

 

Tag: Marisa Trevino is a writer from Rowlett. If you have opinions or rebuttals about this commentary, call (214) 740-9338 or email us.