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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, as #covid19 struck, I thought I’d been proven right…
THREAD
(1/21)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696815.2019.1630264?journalCode=cjac20
Indeed, as #covid19 struck, I thought I’d been proven right…
THREAD
(1/21)
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 (2/21)
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 (2/21)
...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
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)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/28/britons-in-pakistan-accuse-uk-government-of-abandoning-them
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)
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 as we all #stayhome
, 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)
https://www.ft.com/content/c736cd3c-1457-440b-af07-4061afb35bc9
Even as we all #stayhome
, 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)
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/comment/addressing-the-bme-housing-challenge-51685
(5/21)
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)
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 (7/21)
"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 (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 (8/21)
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/london-air-pollution-housing-development-windows-closed-lewisham-a8868321.html (8/21)
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 @rosamund_ElsFdn
She lived with her family 25 metres from the busy South Circular Road. (9/21)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44612642 @rosamund_ElsFdn
She lived with her family 25 metres from the busy South Circular Road. (9/21)
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
(10/21)
https://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/library/asthma-library/air-pollution-asthma
(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 (11/21)
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 (11/21)
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/ (13/21)
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/ (13/21)
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
(14/21)
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
(14/21)
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 terrifying thing is, new research suggests that covid-19 turbo-charges these exact mechanisms.(15/21)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/06/climate-change-racist-crisis-london-city-airport-black-lives-matter
The terrifying thing is, new research suggests that covid-19 turbo-charges these exact mechanisms.(15/21)
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
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
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'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 'market', 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
