The killing of George Floyd back in May sparked a racial reckoning all over the world. Police brutality, racism, colorism, and xenophobia were all pulled to the forefront as millions around the world demanded change. It’s a movement that continues to this day with people seeking a solution to systemic racism. But what’s been lost in the shuffle is environmental racism and its effects on minorities. So this week let’s look at how climate change has adversely affected communities of color.
How race and climate change are linked in the United States
In the United States, much of the racial reckoning has dealt with police practices and corporate racism. However, environmental racism is also a huge problem that often flies under the radar.
Perhaps the most famous case of environmental racism is in Flint, Michigan. Everyone has heard about the water crisis there, which is technically resolved but the aftereffects still linger. To recap, it all started in 2014 when city officials decided to switch the water supply to the Flint River in what was touted as a cost-cutting move. Flint was already a poor city dealing with the loss of many factory jobs and the majority of residents are black.
So unknowingly, Flint residents began drinking, showering, and cooking with the contaminated water. The water was contaminated with industrial waste left over from the same factories that had left the city in poverty. Water poisoned with lead can damage the kidneys, hearts, and nerves among many other side effects. Even though the city switched the water supply back a year later, the contaminated water had already damaged the pipes, which is why the crisis continued.
Years later in 2017, the water was finally deemed safe to drink. But after three years of betrayal and having to live off of bottled water, many Flint residents are reluctant to use the city water. Flint is a clear example of environmental racism because it’s a community of color being polluted without the residents having any say over the decisions. If Flint was white and above the poverty line would the same decision have been made? It’s tough to find a definitive answer but by looking at other examples, a trend of communities of color bearing the brunt of climate change emerges.
Take the Dakota Access Pipeline as an example. It’s an expansion of fossil fuels, but the pipeline is being built over Native American lands, a group that’s been targeted for centuries. The Keystone pipeline has already leaked almost 400,000 gallons of oil, so what’s to say the same won’t happen with the Dakota Access Pipeline?
Look at some of the most polluted areas in the country and the same trend emerges. Low-income communities of color, like the 48217 zip code in the southwest side of Detroit, are some of the most polluted in the country. Residents in the 48217 have been breathing toxic air for most of their lives and many have dealt with dangerous health issues like cancer. Poor air quality can damage residents’ lungs, something that’s made black and brown communities more susceptible to the coronavirus pandemic.
There are countless examples of environmental racism against minority communities. That’s not to say white people aren’t affected, but instead that minorities are bearing the brunt of climate change’s effects. There are a few reasons for that discrepancy. Communities of color are often poorer than their white counterparts, which makes it easier for corporations to acquire land and pollute their neighborhoods. Residents in those neighborhoods often don’t have the same political influence as the richer neighborhoods making it easier for politicians to choose poor neighborhoods as dumping grounds for toxic waste.
Think about how cities like Syracuse are laid out. The poorer communities, often black, are near the city, whereas the more affluent residents live in nearby suburbs. Now, what runs through the heart of the city, the future of which has been debated for over 10 years? The interstate, where thousands of carbon-emitting cars drive through the city. It’s not something people may think about, but the further away you are the less likely you are to feel the effects of all those cars.
It’s all of these small actions with interstates, locations of pipelines, and water sources that add up and deal significant damage to communities of color. When serious climate action is taken here in the United States, it needs to be done in a way that aids all communities because for too long minorities have dealt with the worst of the crisis.
Climate Change Awareness & Action (CCAA) was formed for the purpose of educating others and actively working towards reversing the anthropogenic climate disruption that threatens the earth.
It is imperative that we increase awareness and spur action on climate change:
to support fair and just public policies and legislation
to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
to support regenerative agriculture and conservation
CCAA seeks to create a community of people working together in CNY to bring about the changes we need to avoid an environmental crisis.
Climate Inequality around the world
It’s not just in the United States where climate inequality is an issue. When you look at the world and compare individual nations’ carbon footprint and climate change related damage, the effects aren’t usually doled out equally.
By taking a worldview, it’s evident that richer nations emit more and feel fewer effects, while poorer countries emit less but face far worse effects. It’s the same theme of the rich having the wealth to mitigate the effects of climate change. Within individual countries, environmental racism is still a thing where citizens of the same country feel different levels of effects. However, this time let’s look at how holistically climate change hasn’t impacted the biggest emitters in the same way.
Some of the biggest emitters in the world are nations like the United States, China, Russia, India, and Japan. All industrialized or industrializing nations, which as we know now is a key process that increases a nation’s carbon emissions. The justification for emitting so much carbon is usually economic growth so that each nation’s citizens can grow wealthier and achieve a higher standard of living.
Currently, the richest 10% are responsible for at least 25-43% of global carbon emissions, while the poorest 10% only accounts for about 3-5%. For example, the average American emits about 15 tons of carbon each year. Whereas in Bangladesh it’s less than one.
A quarter of Bangladesh is currently underwater. Torrential rains have flooded the nation and now millions have lost everything. Climate change has caused intense weather events to flood Bangladesh over the past few years, and coupled with rising sea levels, entire communities are being washed away.
Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston back in 2017. Many lives were lost and people lost everything there too. No one deserves to lose their livelihood to climate change regardless of how much carbon their nation emits. However, the key difference is many Americans have a better chance of returning to their normal lives. The American Red Cross raised over half a billion dollars for Harvey and NFL Star JJ Watt raised over 40 million dollars for his own Harvey relief fund.
In Bangladesh, that may not be the case. For a poor country, that kind of money won’t be raised domestically. It’s not just a major city that’s been flooded there. A quarter of the entire landmass is underwater, which is around 35,000 square kilometers. For reference, that’s a bigger area than Massachusetts.
Another great example is the Marshall Islands. Located in the central Pacific, the islands were a major American nuclear bomb test site. Now, with rising sea levels, the islands could disappear. The islands have a population of about 60,000 who could soon become climate refugees because their homes and communities will be engulfed by the seas.
The world is used to refugees arriving from war-torn nations, but soon the new normal could be climate refugees. It’s a result of major climate inequality in the world. These climate refugees simply won’t have a home through no fault of their own. They simply didn’t emit the amount of carbon that caused oceans to swallow their islands.
Climate change is a problem that affects all human beings. But some nations have the financial capabilities to hold off the worst effects, while others simply do not. This November, the United States will officially pull out of the Paris Climate Accords, a world agreement that would help nations like Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands.
Moving forward there needs to be a shift in how climate change policy is drafted. It can’t be every nation for itself. There has to be accountability, especially for the highest emitters. The doom and gloom predictions for what will happen in the United States are said to come true in the next decades, but for the poorer nations, the worst effects are already here. When the world finally does come together, inequality must be addressed along with climate change.
Editor: Gaurav Shetty Publisher: Yvonne Chu Chair: Peter Wirth
National Solar Tour comes to Syracuse
Solar owners across the nation, including CNY, are virtually opening their homes and businesses the week of September 28-October 4 as part of the 25th Annual National Solar Tour. The Tour brings together solar supporters, home and business owners, and community members to celebrate and help grow solar in their communities. Throughout the week, you’ll have the opportunity to not only get an up-close look at solar installations, learn how they work, and ask questions but you also hear from leaders in the solar field. Click here to learn more and RSVP!
If you’d like have your home or business featured on CCAA’s National Solar Tour Page you can sign up here. It does not have to be your own home either it could be a friend’s home, a local business, or religious institution. All you have to do is share photos and videos to be a part of our page!
CCAA holds its monthly meetings on the second Tuesday of every month. If you’d like to learn more feel free to email cc.awareness.action@gmail.com.
For an even more comprehensive list of events pertaining to sustainability and climate change, contact Diane Brandli with GreeningUSA to subscribe to the GreeningUSA listserve or to publicize an event you are organizing. dbdesigninteriors@verizon.net
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
If you are interested in working on the issue of climate change, please contact us at cc.awareness.action@gmail.com or call at 315-308-0846. Don’t worry about your skill level. We are all learning. We need people who can:
