The Air We Breathe
Building Community
The kayaks sat on top of our car. Tents, sleeping bags, cooking gear, food and everything else one needs for four days in the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness were packed inside. The weather forecast was perfect, sunny days with temperatures in the mid 70’s. We anticipated fishing, exploring the lakes with our kayaks, summer evenings around a campfire and in general enjoying the beautiful outdoors. Unfortunately the morning our permit gave us permission to enter, we turned around and headed back to St. Paul. The entire BWCAW was experiencing the same extreme air quality alert that folks were experiencing throughout Minnesota, including St. Paul. The reading registered at 170 or in the color coded alert system, purple, which means very unhealthy for everyone, not just the elderly or folks with health issues.
It is understandable that many folks ignore these alerts. Aside from a haze in the sky, the harmful particles we breathe are largely invisible, making these otherwise gorgeous summer days very alluring. We get through the long winter months in part by anticipating the joy of being outside, unencumbered by sweaters, jackets, long pants, all the clothing items that become necessary as the days shorten and the air cools. It is beyond frustrating to be told the choice we face is go outside and enjoy these longed for days, thereby risking your health, or stay inside with the windows closed. I have friends who chose the outside and hopefully they will not suffer as a result. But, the long-term consequences of breathing and absorbing the particles of this smoke-filled air are significant and include cardiovascular problems, asthma and there are some studies suggesting an increased risk of dementia. There is, of course, a solution to this growing problem: address climate change, which is the central cause of today’s proliferating wildfires and resulting smoke filled air.
Unfortunately, the same administration that is now actively engaged in denying our nation’s history around race is the same administration actively engaged in dismantling efforts to combat climate change. The common denominator for both forms of denial is white supremacy, which is based on a system of domination and hierarchy. It can’t be said often enough that white supremacy is an ideology, a belief system of white racial superiority and not an indictment of white people. The hierarchy of white supremacy is the reason this administration has fired a number of highly qualified People of Color and replaced them with white people whose main qualification is some connection with FOX news. White supremacy is the driving force behind renaming military bases after Confederate generals, purging national parks from references to race, attacking the Smithsonian for truth telling about slavery or treatment of Indigenous people. These overt acts of white supremacy are the haze, which we see. But, the reality of white supremacy is more like the dangerous particles of unhealthy air we cannot see. The ideology of white supremacy is often hidden in corporate and government policies, the way history is told, subtle preferences in hiring or housing, disparities in health care and the judicial system.
White supremacy is in the air we breathe and because white supremacy is based on domination, the earth is treated as a mere resource to exploit and climate change, like racial history, is an inconvenience to be denied. We are in a long term struggle to create healthy communities, with healthy air, with relationships of equality. We can ignore the bad air, but we do so at risk to ourselves and our children. The good news is that resistance to white supremacy, like the steps needed to combat climate change, can be taken at a local level, by people who care about their neighborhoods and the future we leave our children. Resisting the ideology of white supremacy can be as simple as planting a tree or welcoming someone new into our community. All of us have an influence on the air we breathe.
