Currently, America's efforts to
satisfy its gluttonous appetite for energy lies in increased drilling
productions, when the answer does not lie on the slopes of Alaska but
on the assembly lines in Detroit." Bush's decision, in light of the
possible effects of global warming on human lives, is a "human rights
violation," the demonstrators agreed. "The fact that the U.S. has
rejected this global treaty signals that America is completely
insensitive to the consequences of our energy choices and how they
affect people and nations," Tidwell said. "Global warming will
disproportionately affect the world's poor people [and] it is a human
rights violation to knowingly contribute to global warming while doing
nothing to address [its] painful impact." And this is also an
environmental justice issue, since many fossil fuel plants are located
in minority and poor areas like Baltimore, which is 60 percent
Black."Baltimore is ringed by these coal-fired power plants, which
create local breathing hazards like asthma," said Gary Skulnik of the
Clean Energy Partnership. "They don't put the coal-burning power plants
in the affluent parts of the state." [more]
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