PHOENIX — Students at a largely Hispanic elementary school in Phoenix have long lined up for morning classes on a dusty patch of dirt under a broiling sun. So when Tony Mada learned of plans to plant 75 young trees at Borman Elementary School, the 30-year-old and his daughter Lilyth, 10, joined scores of volunteers to increase shade on campus.Desert willows, oaks and mesquites just a few feet tall were among trees planted at the event organized by the local nonprofit Trees Matter and the environmental organization The Nature Conservancy, which is expanding its focus beyond the wildlands to urban areas impacted by climate-fueled heat. “I’ll do anything to cool things down for my kids in this hot neighborhood,” Mada said one Saturday this spring as he and Lilyth, a student at the school, freed an acacia tree from the wooden box holding its roots.After experiencing global warming’s firsthand effects, U.S. Latinos are leading the way in activism around climate change, often drawing on traditions from their ancestral homelands.“There has been a real national uprising in Latino activism in environmentalism in recent years,” said Juan Roberto Madrid, an environmental science and public health specialist based in Colorado for the national nonprofit GreenLatinos. “Climate change may be impacting everyone, but it is impacting Latinos more.” U.S. Latinos often live in ignored, lower income neighborhoods that are degrees hotter than nearby areas because they have a higher population density and limit …
Latino activism leads in grassroot efforts on climate change – ABC News
