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For my environmentalists - we should obviously be against racism in general. We should ALSO confront the racism inherent in climate change and environment issues (and yes, within our work and community)! Here's a long thread of smart people explaining why and how.
@Sammy_Roth wrote a very good summary of the ways racism, pollution and climate change are all twisted together. He's rounded up lots of research, stories and perspectives worth your time: https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2020-06-04/why-communities-fighting-for-fair-policing-also-demand-environmental-justice-boiling-point
Here's that classic 1987 study showing race is the biggest predictor of whether you live near a toxic waste dump. From the @unitedchurch Commission for Racial Justice, then led by @DrBenChavis, who I think coined the term "environmental racism" - https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1310/ML13109A339.pdf
A great reading list from @SominiSengupta, put into historical context (ft. longtime leaders like @DrBobBullard) - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/05/climate/racism-climate-change-reading-list.html
Here's a New Yorker story from 2015 explaining the exclusionary and racist past of conservation & environmentalism in the United States. By @JedediahSPurdy - https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/environmentalisms-racist-history
All about the awful pollution black communities are up against, which they have been fighting for a very long time btw. Like... before the mainstream environmental movement. By @yessfun - https://earther.gizmodo.com/pollution-is-racial-violence-1843905861
The solutions part! 5 environmental justice activists ( @adrien4ej @GreenKerene @jnoisecat @mariahgladstone @alvaros_views) tell @clurelisa where we go from here, here being the racism/climate change/coronavirus dumpster fire - https://grist.org/fix/combatting-climate-change-covid-19-and-systemic-injustice-on-the-same-front/
Very powerful personal take from @ayanaeliza on how racism harms black environmentalists and stands in the way of our collective climate action. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/03/im-black-climate-scientist-racism-derails-our-efforts-save-planet/
Some of the articles above point out that people of color in the United States are MORE concerned about climate change than white people are. Two studies on this:
https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/race-and-climate-change/ https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/11/environmentalist-demographics-race-class/574468/
https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/race-and-climate-change/ https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/11/environmentalist-demographics-race-class/574468/
@emorwee has a consistently fabulous climate change newsletter. She wrote about why the climate movement absolutely needs to be intersectional: https://heated.world/p/the-climate-movements-silence?r=2hvpg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy
A 2016 essay by @1blackbirder on the scary reality of being a black man out in nature. Sadly, this is so relevant today (and very near and dear to my own heart): https://lithub.com/birding-while-black/
@billmckibben talked with @ninalakhani about the dangers indigenous land activists face, showing that environmental racism and violence has many faces: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/racism-police-violence-and-the-climate-are-not-separate-issues
For those ready to do this work, climate change newsletter @inherit_entropy has some very practical resources and actions for pursuing racial justice (in your work and in your life): https://mailchi.mp/da43cb6a1390/entropy-inherited-issue-679682?e=0c2b11e197
I think this op-ed by @DrDesThePlanner is really important. She shines a light on the fact that environmental causes & projects, if they don't involve and serve the communities they impact, end up being ignorant, unhelpful, and... racist. https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2020/06/open-streets-transportation-planning-urban-design-racism/612763/
