I have grown up in Birmingham, and all my life I have been exposed to illegally high levels of air pollution. This has had a huge impact on my health, the health of some of my friends, and the health of so many young people across the city. The air we breathe is toxic, and it is killing us. Why is no-one listening?
When we learnt about climate change in school, it seemed like it was this dark shadow looming over our futures. When having conversations about the climate crisis, we talk about our children and our grandchildren who will have to deal with the consequences when they grow up. We occasionally hear stories on the news about hunger, storms and wildfires and we might make the connection to climate change in our heads, but we never imagine that it could happen to us. But all over the world, people are dying because of the impacts of climate change, including right here in the UK. The climate crisis is killing people now. So why is no-one doing anything?
I have grown up in Birmingham, and all my life I have been exposed to illegally high levels of air pollution. This has had a huge impact on my health, the health of some of my friends, and the health of so many young people across the city. The air we breathe is toxic, and it is killing us. In Birmingham, 936 people die every year because of health problems linked to air pollution. That’s 18 people every single week. Yet no-one seems to care enough to do anything about it. When I wrote to my MP about the climate crisis, I eventually got a response 3 months later saying that “climate change will undoubtedly be the biggest challenge facing our country in the future”. Given that I know people who have lost their lives to air pollution, I’m sure you can imagine this was pretty hard for me to take. This brief communication clearly showed me that there was no real urgency here. When I realised my own MP doesn’t even see what air pollution is doing to his constituents and doesn’t think of climate change as an urgent issue, I found it hard to maintain hope.
It is well known that air pollution impacts marginalised and deprived communities the most. Working class people are often forced to live in areas that are heavily polluted, and with no money it’s impossible to move anywhere safer. Black and brown communities are disproportionately affected by air pollution because of institutional and environmental racism, and it’s because of powerful campaigns such as Choked Up that the message is starting to be heard. A few years ago, Ella Kissi-Debrah died from an asthma attack, and this was the first time that air pollution was officially recognised as a cause of death. How many more people have to die before our politicians start taking this seriously?
We need our government to take radical action, and we need it to happen now. The people are dying and we are crying out for help. I'm scared. I'm scared for my life and I'm scared for the lives of my friends and family. This has to end. To the politicians, the policymakers and the leaders of this country: where are you? Why aren't you listening? Why are people still losing their lives?