Communities of color are extremely effected by the burning of fossil fuel. it is reported that People of color breathe “in 40% more polluted air than white communities across the US. ” Fossil fuels are viewed as the main cause of this. The effects of the extreme amount of Carbon Dioxide emissions are extreme. Some of the effects include high blood pressure, coma, asphyxia, convulsions, etc. In fact in the US POC’s are 38% more likely to be exposed to asthma. Something that surprised me while researching for this blog post is that, even though Black people make up 13% of the US population 68% live within 30 miles of coal plants compared to 56% of white people. Coal plants are places where coal is burned in order to make electricity, bought throughout his process they are releasing. a large amount of fossil fuels into the atmosphere. Now don’t get me wrong these are both huge numbers and we really should be asking ourselves why are their so many coal plants to begin with, but we should also be asking ourselves why is it that people of color are significantly more effected by this than white people? and why are POC communities specifically where they want to be building coal plants, what makes that environment the best fit? In 2020 alone the US has emitted 4.58 billions metric tons of carbon dioxide now let’s imagine how the POC community was effected by this. Fossil fuels come from everywhere 29% is burned through transportation, 25% through electricity, 23% through industry, etc. These are things that we we use/interact with in our daily lives. We need to be able to be made aware of because the rise of CO2 emissions effect the environment we live in, in different ways. Although Carbon Dioxide is the fourth most abundant gas in our atmosphere it is still something that we need to watch the levels for!

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