Last year, a poll conducted by Latino Decisions found that three out of every four Latinos in the United States believed that the United States should set national standards to address global warming and climate change. Ninety percent of Latinos also believed that the government should enforce the provisions of the Clean Water Act to ensure that water supplies remain safe.
The poll’s results were an important corrective to the narrative that Latinos’ concerns are limited to immigration. Latino families throughout the United States are deeply concerned about the air they breathe, the water they drink and the conservation of green-spaces.
On April 29th, Hispanic Federation led a meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) administrator, Gina McCarthy, to discuss Latino concerns and the ways the EPA might work with Latino communities to promote environmental justice and conservation. Among the participants in the meeting were representatives from GreenLatinos, HACU, Farmworker Justice, LULAC, and NHMA.
“Environmental issues are critically important to Latino communities,” said HF Director of National Advocacy Laura Esquivel. “We know that our people lack equal access to clean water supplies, confront disproportionately high levels of lead poisoning, and often live in communities where air pollution rates are dangerously high. We wanted to share our concerns with Administrator McCarthy and were very pleased with how receptive she was to our issues.” For more information on our environmental advocacy work, please contact Laura.
