Thread by @whowhywherewhen, Last year, I wrote an article for @AfricaJacs arguing that air travel [...]

Last year, I wrote an article for @AfricaJacs arguing that air travel was *the* issue that showcased the deadly intersection of race, #ClimateChange and inequality.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696815.2019.1630264?journalCode=cjac20

Indeed,">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1... as #covid19 struck, I thought I’d been proven right…
THREAD

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Down pointing backhand index" aria-label="Emoji: Down pointing backhand index">
(1/21)

Flying in the univer-topia: white people on planes, #RhodesMustFall and climate emergency

(2019). Flying in the univer-topia: white people on planes, #RhodesMustFall and climate emergency. Journal of African Cultural Studies: Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 267-270.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696815.2019.1630264?journalCode=cjac20

By looking at who the British govt was willing to put on a plane & where to, we saw who it was willing to endanger or protect in a crisis.

When lockdown was declared on 23rd March, the Government was still planning to deport people to Jamaica...
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/covid-19-break-for-jamaicans-facing-deportation-from-the-uk_190693?profile=1373">https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/covi... (2/21)

COVID-19 break for Jamaicans facing deportation from the UK

THE British Government has put a hold on the deportation of Jamaicans who have run afoul ...

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/covid-19-break-for-jamaicans-facing-deportation-from-the-uk_190693?profile=1373

...but refusing to repatriate hundreds of British citizens stuck in Pakistan.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/28/britons-in-pakistan-accuse-uk-government-of-abandoning-them">https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

On top of all the usual inequalities embodied by air travel - visa refusals, carbon emissions, travel bans - flying traces the vectors of pandemic politics. (3/21)

Britons in Pakistan accuse UK government of abandoning them

Anger after UK lays on rescue flights for Britons in China and Peru, but not Pakistan

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/28/britons-in-pakistan-accuse-uk-government-of-abandoning-them

Now of course, 50-70% of flights are grounded. Emissions from planes have been cut by a third.

https://www.ft.com/content/c736cd3c-1457-440b-af07-4061afb35bc9

Even">https://www.ft.com/content/c... as we all #stayhome

https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt="">, its BAME folk who are at greater risk of dying from #covid. And climate crisis is part of the story, even without the planes. (4/21)

Aircraft emissions fall sharply as pandemic grounds flights

FT analysis finds pollution around the world from planes down by almost a third

https://www.ft.com/content/c736cd3c-1457-440b-af07-4061afb35bc9

First of all, the list of lockdown housing inequalities shaped by race and class is well known: we see it in who has access to a garden, who lives in overcrowded accommodation, who is pushed by low pay into poor quality rental housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/addressing-the-bme-housing-challenge-51685
(5/21)">https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/c...

Addressing the BME housing challenge

With poverty increasing among black and minority ethnic groups, poorer housing outcomes are occurring in these communities, says Cym D’Souza

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/addressing-the-bme-housing-challenge-51685

But, faced with a deadly respiratory virus, its especially cruel that structural racism influences the quality of the air that you breathe.

We’ve known for over a decade that people of colour in the UK are exposed to on average 17% more air pollution than white folks. (6/21)

This rises to 28% for people who identify as Black British African. A 2009 study found that:

"In both urban+rural areas White-British are consistently exposed to lower concentrations of PM10 as compared with all other ethnic groups."

https://www.documents.clientearth.org/wp-content/uploads/library/2009-07-27-clientearth-mayor-of-london039s-air-quality-strategy-is-insufficient-annex-2-uk-notification-to-the-european-commission-to-extend-the-compliance-deadline-for-meeting-pm10-limit-values-in-ambient-air-to-2011-ce-en.pdf">https://www.documents.clientearth.org/wp-conten... (7/21)

Only last year @LewishamCouncil granted planning permission to a housing development in an air pollution hotspot that was so deadly the future residents were advised not to open their windows.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/london-air-pollution-housing-development-windows-closed-lewisham-a8868321.html">https://www.independent.co.uk/environme... (8/21)

Residents in new London housing development will be told to keep win…

Residents at a new south London housing development will be advised against opening their windows because of high levels of air pollution in the area. The London Borough of Lewisham has been

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/london-air-pollution-housing-development-windows-closed-lewisham-a8868321.html

In 2013, in the same borough, a 9-year old girl died after 3 years of seizures and 27 visits to hospital for asthma attacks. Her name was Ella Kissi-Debrah.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44612642">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie... @rosamund_ElsFdn

She lived with her family 25 metres from the busy South Circular Road. (9/21)

Air pollution linked to child's death

Air pollution is linked to the asthma death of a nine-year-old girl who lived near to a busy London road.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44612642

Guess what the number one piece of advice is for asthmatics to avoid air pollution? You guessed it:

https://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/library/asthma-library/air-pollution-asthma">https://www.aaaai.org/condition...

(10/21)

Guess what the number one piece of advice is for asthmatics to avoid air pollution? You guessed it: https://www.aaaai.org/condition... (10/21)

The South Circular has illegally high levels of air pollution, including nitrogen dioxide ( #NO2).

NO2 is most dangerous for “unborn babies, newborns and young children.”
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/blogpost/young-and-old-air-pollution-affects-most-vulnerable">https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-... (11/21)

Young and old, air pollution affects the most vulnerable

Air pollution affects the human body in the short and long term, in ways that are detrimental to health. Vulnerable people appear to be most at risk, as highlighted by studies linking air pollution...

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/blogpost/young-and-old-air-pollution-affects-most-vulnerable

Exposure to high levels of NO2 as a child can lead to lung problems for life. The risk of lung inflammation persists even when pollution levels temporarily drop, as they have in recent weeks. (12/21)

In both the UK and the US, people of colour face a heightened exposure to air pollution and its long-term health effects

As the @newscientist put it:

Ethnic minorities produce less pollution but are exposed to more

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2196146-ethnic-minorities-produce-less-pollution-but-are-exposed-to-more/">https://www.newscientist.com/article/2... (13/21)

Ethnic minorities produce less pollution but are exposed to more | New Scientist

Black and Hispanic people in the US are, on average, exposed to more dirty air than white people, despite generally producing less pollution

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2196146-ethnic-minorities-produce-less-pollution-but-are-exposed-to-more/

Racism intersects with poverty and market forces.

In 2016 a @KingsCollgeLon study concluded:

“poor families end up living in cheaper housing which is often in close proximity to busy roads”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/10/londons-black-communities-disproportionately-exposed-to-air-pollution-study">https://www.theguardian.com/environme...
(14/21)

London’s black communities disproportionately exposed to air pollution – study

Black, African and Caribbean people are exposed to higher illegal nitrogen dioxide levels than the percentage of the population they account for

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/10/londons-black-communities-disproportionately-exposed-to-air-pollution-study

This is all to say that, we already know that air pollution kills. We already know that, as @ukblm puts it, the climate crisis is a racist crisis.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/06/climate-change-racist-crisis-london-city-airport-black-lives-matter

The">https://www.theguardian.com/commentis... terrifying thing is, new research suggests that covid-19 turbo-charges these exact mechanisms.(15/21)

Climate change is a racist crisis: that’s why Black Lives Matter closed an airport | Alexandra...

Today’s BLM protest at London City airport makes perfect sense: whether it’s via air pollution or police detention, race inequality is alive and kicking in Britain

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/06/climate-change-racist-crisis-london-city-airport-black-lives-matter

Remember nitrogen dioxide?

A study by German scientists published today suggests that “long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the Covid-19 virus”. (16/21) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/20/air-pollution-may-be-key-contributor-to-covid-19-deaths-study">https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

Air pollution may be ‘key contributor’ to Covid-19 deaths – study

Research shows almost 80% of deaths across four countries were in most polluted regions

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/20/air-pollution-may-be-key-contributor-to-covid-19-deaths-study

Obviously there are multiple mechanisms by which racism translates into the shocking rate of BAME deaths from #covid19. More research is needed to confirm or deny the exact causal claims about NO2 and covid-19. (17/21)

All I& #39;m saying is that the tragedy currently unfolding should be no surprise given that we live in a country where people of colour on low incomes are forced to raise their children breathing air that will make them sicker for the rest of their lives. (18/21)

Since the 1970s, successive Westminster governments have built an economic system where the most basic aspects of human life are allocated by market forces. You want clean air, a decent place to live, green space? Better not be poor. Better not be black. (19/21)

Air pollution and housing is just one example. @kmbayliss and @giulio_mattioli show how privatisation of water, energy and local buses in England has "promoted the needs of investors, and the & #39;market& #39;, over the population." (20/21)

I started out believing that the link between climate crisis, racism + inequality was best seen in jet-trails in the skies above us. But covid has reminds us that its there in our private moments: in our homes where we now shelter, when we open a window to let in the breeze.(end)

Thanks for twitter inspiration @SimuChigudu @JKSteinberger @thewrittenro @thebrownhijabi @WanjiKelbert @ClientEarth @chakrabortty @bm_piotrowska @TanyaPowley @Nanjala1 @AfricaJacs @Udadisi

Here& #39;s the @kmbayliss and @giulio_mattioli report btw https://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/fileadmin/Documents/research/sri/workingpapers/SRIPs-116.pdf">https://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/fileadmin...

Latest Threads Unrolled: