Greenbelts are becoming more common in urban and suburban community design. The human purpose of a greenbelt is to preserve (or construct) natural space within cities. A greenbelt improves air quality and allows city-dwellers access to places for escape from urban or suburban space.
Greenbelts are most common in middle to upper-class communities where space and funding are available for such projects. Often this means that individuals who do not meet these socio-economic class qualifications do not have easy access to constructed greenbelts. And so, a space intended to provide exposure to diverse environments is, unfortunately, of limited access to diverse populations.
I have unhappily noticed these same trends in the Environmental movement that is growing in force and popularity across our country. By focusing on consumption, highlighting luxury Eco products, advanced technology and premium-price organic food, we limit environmental action to the economically able.
It is imperative that we build a strong and inclusive environmental consciousness movement. We don’t need to buy a new wardrobe, new gadgets or a new car to be green. We need to educate and encourage one another in multiple ways to effect change, no matter our level of formal education, our economic class, our race, our gender or our religious affiliation. Environmentalism supersedes all those distinctions. I fear that as we have popularized environmentalism, we have encouraged one another to recycle our cans and bottles but have forgotten the importance of the first two links in the chain: reduce and reuse.
I want to know if it is possible to steer from eco-consumerism to conscious reduction or the proverbial pulling in the belt. Can we spend less and rethink what products we truly need, how long we leave our sink water running, our house lights on or our appliances plugged in? I want to explore the possibility of greenbelting.
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