The city of Brotherly Love is the birthplace of the United States. Known for its contributions to the arts, rich education, and diverse culture, it is rapidly succumbing to neglect and mistreatment. Climate change and pollution are causing Philadelphia to become a toxic, unlivable environment, especially for the poor and underprivileged.

Global temperatures continue to rise. But local rise in temperature is caused by Urban Heat Islands throughout the city, causing excessive energy consumption and increased air pollutants, in turn causing an elevation in health issues such as asthma, particularly damaging to inner-city Philadelphia residents.  Increased temperatures harm aquatic life and toxins make water sources unsafe to use. Tied in with the rise in sea levels, those issues reveal Philadelphia’s sewage problems.

Many low-income residents suffer from food insecurity, and food deserts make finding fresh quality food extremely difficult. An increase in properly cared for green spaces, parks, community gardens and clean riverfronts, can help relieve green concerns, but Philadelphia lacks the infrastructure to make changes.

Art Sphere Inc (ASI) has contributed to reviving these natural spaces. Peace Park, Lemon Street Park, and Saint Paul Park are some of the places where ASI has cleaned up trash, replaced graffiti with mural paintings, and given purpose to potential waste by recycling. An example of this is ASI’s usage of tires as flowering pots around the parks. It is through projects like these that we encourage tackling challenges with clever and resourceful solutions.  

Our past accomplishments are only the beginning. We want to encourage neighborhood organizing, government involvement, and partner engagement. It is our goal to provide resources that inspire immediate action to address these green concerns and move towards healing the City of Philadelphia.