She describes how the conservation movement in the United States began in the middle of the nineteenth century by white American elites with Eurocentric ideologies that mirrored Manifest Destiny.
The conservation movement has involvement in racism, sterilization, and eugenics, and ultimately resulted in the exclusivity of nature for white male recreation.
This includes deforestation, intensive agriculture, fossil fuel mining, and the dumping of electronic waste, all of which occur among poor communities globally.
High-priced organic foods and luxurious and energy-efficient infrastructure generates uneven development in cities, causing low-income families to concentrate in devalued regions.
[4] Historically, policy makers and city planners quarantined low-income and devalued centers from newly developed urban spaces.
In turn, workers resort to living in dangerous spaces like flood plains and must to drive up to one-hundred miles to reach their place of employment.
[4] Author Justin Farrell in Billionaire Wilderness (2020) argues that there are powerful connections between nature and wealthy Americans, and that preservation of the environment is a tool utilized by affluent U.S. citizens to increase their earnings and establish exclusive pockets of the United States for themselves, often masking their influence as philanthropy.
[14] In Aspen, Colorado, American elites indulge in the picturesque scenery of surrounding nature and satiate themselves in luxurious amenities provided by migrant employees working in the tourist industry.
Billionaire Wilderness explores how the ultra-rich are buying up land and utilizing one of the world's most pristine ecosystems to climb even further up the socioeconomic ladder, weaving captivating storytelling with thought-provoking analysis.
In Teton County, Wyoming, the well-off are tormented by stigmas, shame, and concern about their social standing, and who appropriate nature and rural people to create more virtuous and deserving versions of themselves.