It has been over a year since I've written in this blog. Mostly because there are so many blogs in cyberspace about the environment, but this one is different. Grass vs. Glass is really about helping city folk realize that our urban environments can help us or hurt us. That hurt can come from man made products like vehicles causing air pollution, or from plants like ragweed that also cause air pollution. Pollen pollution while seasonal can have extremely harmful consequences on the young, and elderly. While pollen is responsible for making new plants such as beautiful flowers and even apple trees, pollen also can cause allergic reactions. With May being Invasive Species Awareness Month, I thought this was a perfect time to start the discussion on the direct relationship between city plants, and the health of city people. Primarily I want to make sure, my community recognizes the importance of being aware, making decisions and supporting a healthier environment that directly benefits us.
First there are some basics we have to cover so that everyone is on the same page.
What is an invasive plant?
It is a plant that grows very fast and very aggressive. These plants spread quickly and rapidly and while they can survive here are not supposed to be here because they cause problems for the plants that are native.
What kind of problems do they cause for other plants?
You can think about invasive plants like thieves. They steal sunlight, water and space from the plants that are native to an area. What happens is that the invasive plants take over completely leaving no space, or nutrients for the other plants.
Why should I care?
Overall everyone should care about our environment, but for Black people urban air quality creates health issues causing hospital visits and in rare cases death. We should care about all the sources that lessens our air quality because it affects our wellbeing.
Air quality and asthma
The below figure also tells a striking story, that by in large when looking at children under the age of 18 income and ethnicity matter, this is especially true for being a Black child in the city. Essentially, income matters less than your race/ethnicity, and if you are a Black child it is more likely that you will develop asthma when compared to children in the same income level but of different races/ethnicities. While genetics plays a role in it, your environment and the quality of your air plays a significant role in the development of asthma. But we know this right we know that our communities have high rates of asthma especially here in Chicago. Some of it is from transportation and exhaust or from factories and some.....well some is from the very thing that gives us oxygen to breathe, plants.
Plants are amazing and wonderful, but sometimes can cause problems. Depending on the species of plant the pollen can make people very sick affecting the respiratory system. Ragweed pollen is infamous for causing such problems. This plant makes large amounts of pollen that is blown by the wind into the air that we breathe. Most often this weed grows along roadsides with other weedy plants. Invasive Species Awareness Month is to help the public understand the significant impact of invasive plants on society and the environment.
If you care about the health of the people you MUST care about the health of the environment. Similar to the diseases found in our bodies you can consider invasive plants as the cancer equivalent in nature. For Blacks in the city, we are already exposed to higher rates of poorer air quality because of, industrialization, and where we can afford to live. While there are some air quality issues that may take longer to resolve, such as transportation and factories, pollen from invasive species can be addressed immediately.
In order for a healthy environment to be our reality we must first care. Not only should we care because we may be suffering but we should also care because nature helps us in many ways. It is important for everyone to contribute to the solution of invasive species by first being educate, and second by their actions. This months' blogs will be dedicated to making the public aware of invasive species in Chicago and the state of Illinois and learning what is being done, how thy affect us and what our communities can do to support our air quality through the removal of invasive plants.
If you are looking for ways to get involved this month check out the events in the Illinois Invasive Species calendar. This month we will dig into invasive plants, urban air quality, poverty and race. It is sure to be a wealth of information and hopefully will help us understand why Blacks should care about invasive species.
http://www.epa.gov/epahome/sciencenb/asthma/HD_AA_Asthma.pdf
http://www.acponline.org/patients_families/pdfs/subspec/asthma.pdf
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pollution-poverty-people-color-asthma-inner-city/
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