This TED Talk features environmental justice advocate DeAndrea Salvador, recorded live at TED 2018.

So, as a child, I used to spend all of my time at my great-grandmother's house.

On hot, humid summer days, I would dash across the floor and stick my face in front of her.

Only air conditioner.

But I didn't realize that that simple experience, though brief, was a privileged one in our community.

Growing up, stories of next door neighbors having to set up fake energy accounts or having to steal

energy seem normal to me. During the winter, struggling to get

warm, my neighbors would have no choice but to bypass the meter after their heat was shut off,

just to keep their family comfortable for one more day. These kinds of dangerous incidents can take

root when people are faced with impossible choices.

In the U.S., the average American spends 3% of their income on energy.

In contrast, low-income in rural populations can spend 20, even 30% of their income on energy.

In 2015, this caused over 25 million people to skip meals

to provide power to their homes.

This is when energy becomes a burden.

But energy burdens are so much more than just a number.

They present impossible and perilous choices.

Do you take your child to get her flu medicine, or do you feed her?

Or do you keep her warm?

It's an impossible choice in nearly every month

seven million people choose between medicine and energy.

This exposes a much larger and systemic issue.

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