As a young child growing up in Huntington Park, I naively believed that environmental injustices were absent in my community. However, as I’ve grown older, I'm now pursuing a major in environmental science and policy. I have come to realize that these injustices exist in subtly yet pervasive ways, often going unnoticed. In the picture to the left, it is located in Downtown Los Angeles, where I live 15 minutes away. This displays only a fraction of this big city and its rapid urbanization. You can determine its major city characteristics through its towering skyscrapers, absence of green spaces, and the cautionary signs that go on to show its human-made infrastructure and maintenance. The city tries to maintain Downtown LA as a clean area, therefore…show more content… It is disheartening when I see the lack of action or accountability to address these issues within my small city. TO me, the most shocking realization is that these challenges persist without any effective solutions being implemented. Therefore, Michael Mendez’s argument on how communities and climate change looking to participate in global discussions must change their way of thinking from local conversations, “In order to participate in decisions about climate change that will inevitably affect marginalized communities, environmental justice activists must adapt their perspectives and strategies from the local scale to the global.” (Mendez, p.1). Requiring community representation and government intervention is crucial in trying to combat these injustices since only residents living within these communities will truly understand and make known of their needs, while governmental intervention would simply be to implement and fund these necessities that the community is currently lacking. The picture to the right-hand side might seem familiar; it is the image of Aldrich Park in Irvine, California, which I believe stands in stark…show more content… It was a real comfort to come out of class and be enveloped in the park’s beautiful scenery. Spending time in green spaces like Aldrich Park holds profound significance for
