Biden Promises To Grapple With Environmental Racism

Short Wave

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

People of color experience more air and water pollution than white people and suffer the health impacts. The federal government helped create the problem, and has largely failed to fix it. NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher talks about the history of environmental racism in the United States, and what Biden's administration can do to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Read Rebecca's reporting on how Biden hopes to address the environmental impacts of systemic racism.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Last week, President Biden signed some executive orders.
0:09.0	Good afternoon, everybody.
0:10.0	Maybe you've heard about some of them.
0:12.0	There was one about making it okay for transgender people to serve in the military, a couple
0:16.4	about making it easier to sign up for health insurance through Obamacare, and a bunch about
0:21.1	climate change.
0:22.1	Let me get to it.
0:23.1	Today is climate day at the White House.
0:25.6	Becky, this may be a good place for you to say who you are.
0:28.1	Oh, yeah.
0:29.1	I'm Rebecca Hershert, Climate Reporter here at NPR.
0:32.1	And I'm Emily Quang.
0:33.6	So what was the deal with all these presidential orders about climate change?
0:38.2	Well, it was a mixed bag.
0:39.9	There was some stuff about making it harder to drill for oil and gas on public land, suggesting
0:44.8	more money for solar and wind energy, helping people work in those industries, which is
0:50.2	all really important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
0:52.9	But the presidential order that really caught my attention was one about racism.
0:57.2	The environmental effects of racism.
0:59.9	With this executive order, environmental justice will be at the center of all we do
1:05.2	addressing the disproportionate health and environmental and economic impacts on communities
	...

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