Sasha Stevens - Outside reading- 2/9/2023

 I read the article The Climate Legacy of Racist Housing Policies to better understand the impacts of environments. This article shows how redlining that happened during the 1930's still affects communities today. Redlining was how the government would rate certain areas for real estate investing with a grading scale. Racism caused areas of minority groups to be less funded and seen as dangerous based off of race. This article had appalling findings with the long term effects this caused. Redlining has caused these areas to be hotter, harder to live in, harder for people to get to places, and an increase in health risks for people. Richmond is a prime example used in this article. The asphalt from the roads absorbs heat and causes these areas to be 2.5 degrees hotter. This increases the amount of heat exhaustion emergency calls and decreases the livelihoods of these neighborhoods. Children are struggling to play outside too because of the lack of shade due to less greenery in these areas as well. The most impactful part of this article to me was the life expectancy in black neighborhoods being 20 years less than neighboring white areas. 20 years of people lives and they suffer more because of this redlining done almost a hundred years ago. This reality is shocking and sad and these areas deserve more funding to help mitigate and increase these people's livelihoods.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nature Walk

 I took a walk around the Noland trail last week to just be able to say I have done it before my time ends at CNU. This was always a bucket list thing to do and after the 6-mile walk, I wish I had done it a lot earlier. I felt at peace during the walk like I didn't have finals coming up or papers to write. The only thing that was going through my head was "Wow it's been an hour already". The walk calmed my nerves and prepared me for my finals week and everything to get crazy. I wish I did this freshman year so I could have made it a habit before my final semester.
Read more

Reflection of Discussion 4/18 - Trey Walton

 Dr. Redick spoke of a hole encountered on a hike in a trail.  I loved the thought that the hole was almost cleansing both literally and metaphorically.  It reminded me a lot of forest bathing and how nature has the ability to practically baptize you.  "even seeds and water bodies have souls" - Such an interesting quote.   "Needing to eat and drink as bondage.  I wanted to be free"  I loved the section where a vison was held about the body decomposing into the soil.  This really stuck with me as it was a reminder that even though we are humans and we are at the tippy top of the food chain and live in towering skyscrapers, we are made up of the same compounds as water, animals, and even the soil.  We will eventually go back to the food cycle when we are decomposed in the soil.  Broken down by fungi and tiny animals.  Fertilizing the soil and starting the whole cycle again.  It's truly fascinating to think about.  ...
Read more

14. Sharayah McDonald- Outside Reading 5

 For my last outside reading, I wanted to focus on Dr. Redick's paper he shared with the class entitled "Feet Forbidden Here". This article peaked my interest, for I had never before thought about my feet being a way to observe the earth. When we speak of the 5 senses of sight, taste, hearing, smelling, and touch, often touch is interpreted only as touch with the hands or fingers. I never even thought about experiencing the world through the sensations in feet, however, it is true that we as humans learn about our world through walking. As the article discusses, the huge highway systems disrupt the natural, indigenous way of reacting with our environment by walking through it. This statement makes me question if we as humans would be more compassionate and loving towards our environment if we could return to these simpler ways of interacting with it. If we slowed down from our busy, self-centered lives to actually process and appreciate the world we live in. Also, this di...
Read more