blog 7

blog 7

I enjoyed reading this chapter a lot I feel like it addressed a lot of issues that have not really been touched on. One of these is the gap in the sustainability movement between whites and people of color.  As MacBride points out, our waste has a large effect on many of them because often landfills are near low-income neighborhoods. Even though many of these areas are lower income, a lot of people still consume as if they have an upper class budget in order to fit in with social standards.  This means buying brand new cars and wearing name-brand clothing.  This means that they have to skimp on something else in their budget.  Often time this is food.  Many low-income families are not able to afford organic foods and buy cheap foods which are often high in artificial sweeteners and chemicals.  This often contributes to the obesity problem in the US.

Something here needs to change, and it begins by just getting rid of landfills so that they are not put in these low-income areas where they are a health concern.  However, the chances of that happening are slim.  Landfills are not placed in high income areas because the people there can afford to pay and so the landfills get moved.