I wasn’t really aware that it did, not from polling. Though, there aren’t really many new polls that determine what matters to Latinos. Heck, The Atlantic says there really isn’t a Latino voting block. And Latinos have soured on Lets Go Brandon’s agenda, which includes ‘climate change’ idiocy
Why climate change matters to Latinos
Even after 24 years, Onys Sierra’s voice still breaks when she recalls the night Hurricane Mitch began devastating her home country of Honduras. “I remember thinking, ‘I have to sleep next to my daughter, because if we die, we will be together,’” she said.*
Once the storm finally cleared, homes, workplaces and lives had been destroyed. “Erased from the map,” Sierra said of her country. “Whole families dead, bodies of people floating, children.”
Mitch had nothing to do with anthropogenic climate change.
In the aftermath of the storm, Sierra and many others made the difficult decision to immigrate to the United States.
“There was no work. My place of work no longer existed — it existed, the place, but it was no longer functioning. It was full of mud and trees,” Sierra said. “It was difficult because I had to leave my daughter. That is leaving one’s life — to leave one’s child, that’s leaving one’s life.”
Galveston was annihilated back in 1900, when CO2 was well below the “safe threshold” of 350ppm
Sierra’s story is just one of many diverse, complex stories of Latinos living in the United States amid climate change. And though climate change affects everyone, it doesn’t affect everyone equally. From North Carolina to New Jersey to California to Puerto Rico, both the causes and effects of climate change disproportionately threaten Latinos all over the United States.
And it’s so wonderful that the uber white Samantha Harrington of Yale can white night for Latinos
A major cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil, and natural gas — that release heat-trapping gases. Burning fossil fuels also produces other pollutants that harm communities in the United States. Fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, gets into people’s lungs and causes short term health concerns, like coughing, shortness of breath, and irritation in the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Long-term exposure may cause increased rates of chronic bronchitis, reduced lung function, and increased risk of death from lung cancer and heart disease.
The Ironbound neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, is home to many immigrants from Latin America. Maria Lopez-Nuñez, the deputy director of organizing and advocacy for the Ironbound Community Corporation, described the neighborhood as “four square miles surrounded by industry.”
How many are illegally present in the U.S.? That they live in those neighborhoods is entirely their own fault.
Latinos in the United States believe in, worry about, and are willing to act on climate change at a much higher rate than the general U.S. public.** Méndez says this difference is likely a result of many Latinos’ lived experience with climate change.
And Latino leaders are demanding climate solutions from the workplace to statehouses and beyond. Méndez said that migrant rights groups in California were forced to engage with climate change as workers began to experience more wildfires and extreme heat.
They do not have to voluntarily come to the U.S., legally or illegally, you know. Don’t like it here? Bye. Regardless, it is super fantastic that Elite whites are trying to tell Latinos that they Should Care about ‘climate change’, eh?
Read: Say, Why Does The Climate Crisis (scam) Matter So Much To Latinos? »