Green apartheid

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Commentary: Green apartheid`Green economy' can be a luxury, and the gap between the haves and have-notsis widening
by Kent Paterson
Albuquerque TribuneApril 19, 2007

http://abqtrib.com/news/2007/apr/19/commentary-green-apartheid/

In the age of global climate change, green solutions are the in-thing. NewUrbanism-style living, sexy bicycles, nifty electric cars and fluorescentlight bulbs are rolled out as answers to the ecological crisis that is sinking Planet Earth.Visionaries who would've been dismissed as eccentric cranks or just plain ignored a decade ago are gaining a prominent place in the public discourse.Their solutions are interesting, innovative and futuristic.Yet, many proponents of the new green economy possess an upper-middle class bias that will only further pulverize hard-pressed working-class people if their ideas are put into practice without any fundamental changes in the political economy.

In New Mexico, examples of the new eco-classism are everywhere.The redevelopment of downtown Albuquerque provides a neat lifestyle for the yuppies who live in trendy lofts, charge their morning espresso and bagels on credit cards and cherish walking or biking to work. But an emerging eco-apartheid exists for workers who commute in jalopies from affordable sections of town, shop for cheap food at Wal-Mart and resort to payday loans to survive.

Street cars are cute additions to the New Urbanist landscape but do absolutely nothing for the many New Mexicans who live where basic bus service is either non-existent or an annoying joke.

A salient example of eco-elitism in action is in the battle over a town-home development planned for Northeast Albuquerque. Press coverage frames the fight in terms of low density vs. high density and New Urbanism vs. suburban conflicts. But the hoopla is meaningless to many - if not most - Duke City residents who can't afford either the pricey town homes or the existing single-family dwellings.

Familiar class and color lines are already etched in the changing natural -not economic - climate. While thousands of expensive new homes are sprouting up like desert wildflowers outside Las Cruces - carbon emissions reductions,anyone? - environmental refugees from last summer's Hatch flooding, the vast majority of whom are working-class Latinos, get a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer park off Interstate 25 in Rincon.

On April 14, a new movement was launched in the United States. Called "Step it Up 2007," the coalition staged more than 1,400 actions in support of demands to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. Step it Up promises more actions in the months ahead, including star-studded concerts in the mold of Live Aid. Movement spokesman and eco-guru Bill McKibben said that Step it Up aims to unite the citizenry across economic and racial boundaries.

"This is a global crisis that will affect all of us and requires immediate and bold action," McKibben affirmed. Noticeably absent from the April 14 actions was a clear message in solidarity with the still-displaced, low-income African-American refugees from Hurricane Katrina, who are among the first victims of environmentally excused ethnic and class cleansing. Prancing around in polar bear suits is a clever protest tactic, but organizing a national movement to ensure that all citizens have access to affordable, environmentally-efficient homes is another matter altogether.

At a public forum sponsored by KUNM-FM radio earlier this year, former NewMexico Environment Secretary Judith Espinosa was the only panel participant to cast the climate crisis in down-to-earth, class terms.

"Not everyone can afford to buy PNM's green wind power or green energy," Espinosa said. "Not everyone can afford a $26,000 Camry that is a hybrid vehicle." She raised the provocative question of why the budding green economy is so expensive when the ultimate price of our current, fossil fuel-based one is incalculable. Espinosa, who has a long history of community activism and service in working-class Chicano communities, is one of the few leaders with a green vision and an economic-justice outlook. More voices like Espinosa's are needed in the emerging climate change movement. Otherwise, it will be dominated by a well-intentioned, but well-off, white-hued green gentry.

Paterson is a writer and journalist based in Albuquerque who specializes incovering Mexico.