Late last month, the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer lit a tinderbox of outrage that has been simmering for months, years, generations. That outrage has actually pulled Americans out of social seclusion and into the streets in all 50 states, and motivated protests around the world They show no indication of stopping. They reveal every indication of winning.
This is various. This is huge.
Even in the climate motion– which has actually long stuck to the sidelines in minutes like this– advocates and companies are publicly declaring that Black Lives Matter. They are finally standing up and speaking out in defense of Black people’s right to breathe.
There’s simply one issue: This new commitment to Black individuals typically appears to come with an assumption that the fight for environment justice has to stop. As a “ Climate Individual,” my social media feeds are awash in calls to stop briefly climate activism for the sake of supporting Black people, as though the two are mutually special.
There utilized to be a misconception in environmental circles that Black people don’t care about the environment or about climate issues. There’s a lot of data to show that that’s not real However I do not require that data, since I have actually been around Black people my entire life and I’ve never met one who didn’t care about the environment, or about animals. I have actually satisfied plenty, however, who don’t care for ecologists. And I understand why.
Generally, when the environmental movement has attempted to connect to Black neighborhoods, it turns into something I’ve called “ existential exceptionalism” The discussion goes something like, “Oh, you’re stressed over police violence? Well, you require to be stressed over these POLAR BEARS!” Environment modification is framed as the concern that threatens “all of us” and for that reason should be everybody’s concern. Environment change, the misconception goes, is the Great Equalizer.
Not only is this approach dismissive and insensitive, the property is just false.
It’s been recorded once again and again that environment change hurts Black individuals first and worst— both in the United States and internationally. Black people did the least to create the problem, and our systemic injustice runs directly parallel to the environment crisis.
Climate modification takes any issue you already had, any threat you were already under, and multiplies it With the environment crisis itself– the storms and the temperatures– it’s not so much that the game is rigged, it’s the pla