Long overdue, the environmental movement grapples with climate justice
The fight against systemic racism rages on…
It’s been almost two months since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, but the fight against systemic racism in the United States rages on.
That fight is playing out in different ways across the country. Statues honoring slave traders and other racist figures are falling. Brands (and sports teams) are revamping their images and names. And police reforms have been announced in cities across the U.S.
As protests for social justice and reform continue around the world, another movement is grappling with its history. The environmental movement — which has largely been a white, middle class movement — is working through its exclusive past.
Environmental issues are social issues, and climate justice is social justice, as many activists have quickly pointed out. Communities of color and low-income neighborhoods bear the brunt of climate change and other environmental impacts. And because those in power are typically upper class and white, these communities are also voiceless when it comes to driving change.
Studies confirm that low-income communities of color are disproportionately exposed to pollution of all kinds, despite not causing it. To make matters worse, a recent study solidified the link between air pollution and an increase in COVID-19 death rates.
And then there are natural disasters, which are more frequent and intense in a warming world. Floods and hurricanes don’t discriminate, sure, but the lasting impacts fall on low-income communities of color. New data released last month suggests we’ve greatly underestimated flood risk in America, and floods particularly affect low-lying, urban areas, which are home to many low-income neighborhoods.
A study published earlier this year also found some communities are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat, an inequity that stems from the historic practice of redlining — a policy that promoted segregation by refusing to insure mortgages in and near Black neighborhoods.
For a long time, governments and agencies ignored these trends, and even encouraged them. This created cities where parks are inaccessible to 100 million Americans. Industrial plants have long sent air pollutants into neighborhoods of color.
Needless to say, intersectional environmentalism is long overdue. And environmental organizations play an important role in making sure the movement represents the diverse populations affected by climate change.
“Environmental regulations in this country, they’re not colorblind,” said University of Maryland environmental health scientist Sacoby Wilson in an interview with Yale Environment 360. “We have a lot of communities that are basically sacrifice zones because they are dumping grounds for polluting facilities. If the laws and regulations were enforced fairly across all racial ethnic groups, we wouldn’t have environmental injustice.”
During President Trump’s administration, federal regulations that could protect vulnerable communities have been stalled or rolled back. Just this week he finished dismantling the National Environmental Policy Act, a law that poor and minority communities have used for decades to stop or delay projects that threaten to pollute their neighborhoods.
But things are looking up: presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released an ambitious $2 trillion climate plan on Tuesday, with clear ties to environmental justice. And the environmental movement is starting to recognize its responsibility to include diverse voices in the fight for our future.
“To the white people who care about maintaining a habitable planet, I need you to be actively anti-racist,” Ayana Johnson, founder of the Ocean Collectiv, said in a video message posted on Twitter. “I need you to understand that our inequality crisis is intertwined with the climate crisis. If we don’t work on both, we will succeed at neither.”
We can’t wait four more years for environmental justice or climate action. A healthy, safe, more just world is a right for everyone.