Current:Home > FinanceEnvironmental Justice Grabs a Megaphone in the Climate Movement-LoTradeCoin
Environmental Justice Grabs a Megaphone in the Climate Movement
View Date:2024-12-23 23:11:20
Thenjiwe McHarris of the Movement for Black Lives leaned into the microphone and, with a finger pointed firmly at her audience, delivered a powerful message to the 200,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for the People’s Climate March.
“There is no climate justice without racial justice,” McHarris boomed as the temperature reached 91 degrees, tying a record for late April. “There is no climate justice without gender justice. There is no climate justice without queer justice.”
For a movement historically led by white males who have rallied around images of endangered polar bears and been more inclined to talk about parts per million than racial discrimination, McHarris’s message was a wake-up call.
“We must respect the leadership of black people, of indigenous people, of people of color and front line communities who are most impacted by climate change,” she said. “This must be a deliberate, strategic choice made as a means to not only end the legacy of injustice in this country, but an effort to protect the Earth.”
From the Native American standoff against a crude oil pipeline at Standing Rock to leadership at this year’s United Nations climate conference by Fiji, a small island nation whose very existence is threatened by sea level rise, 2017 was the year the needs of the dispossessed washed like a wave to the forefront of the environmental movement.
- The Quinault Indian Nation led a successful fight against a large new oil export terminal in Hoquiam, Washington, where the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of a coalition of environmental groups led by the tribe in January.
- California will invest $1 billion in rooftop solar on the apartments of low-income renters after Communities for a Better Environment, a group dedicated to reducing pollution in low-income communities and communities of color, pushed for the legislation.
- When the EPA tried to delay new regulations against smog, states, public health advocates, environmental organizations and community groups including West Harlem Environmental Action sued, and the EPA withdrew its attempted delay.
- At a recent EPA hearing on the Clean Power Plan, nearly a dozen representatives from local NAACP chapters testified on how low-income communities and communities of color would be disproportionately impacted by pollution from coal-fired power plants if the Obama-era policies to reduce power plant emissions were repealed.
- Democratic lawmakers introduced new legislation on environmental justice in October that would codify an existing, Clinton-era executive order into law. The bill would add new protections for communities already impacted by pollution by accounting for cumulative emissions from existing facilities when issuing new permits. The bill likely has little chance of passing in the current, Republican-led House and Senate, but it could inspire similar action at the state level. One week after the bill was introduced, Virginia established its own environmental justice council charged with advising the governor on policies to limit environmental harm to disadvantaged communities.
“We are at a point where we have crossed the threshold beyond which we can not return to a period where environmental justice is not a part of the conversation,” Patrice Simms, vice president of litigation for the environmental law organization Earthjustice, said.
Driven by pollution concerns, advocates from low-income and minority communities across the country are providing a powerful, new voice on environmental issues.
“I didn’t become an environmentalist because I was worried about global warming [or] because I was concerned about penguins or polar bears,” Sen. Cory Booker, who introduced the recent environmental justice bill, said. “I became an environmentalist because I was living in Newark. I was an activist and concerned about issues of poverty and disadvantage.”
For Native Americans, the need to address environmental justice and threats to tribal sovereignty, are long overdue.
“If this country continues to encroach and continues to threaten our land rights and human rights, something is going to give,” said Dave Archambault, former chairman of the Standing Rock tribe, who led his people in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline. “I can’t tell you what the next fight is going to be, but I know that if this country continues to treat a population the way it has, not just recently but the past 200 years, something has to happen.”
veryGood! (4241)
Related
- FanDuel Sports Network regional channels will be available as add-on subscription on Prime Video
- Surge in syphilis cases drives some doctors to ration penicillin
- Bye-bye, birdie: Maine’s chickadee makes way for star, pine tree on new license plate
- Priyanka Chopra Embraces Her Fresh Faced Skin in Makeup-Free Selfie
- Over 1.4 million Honda, Acura vehicles subject of US probe over potential engine failure
- Ohio commission awards bids to frack oil and gas under state parks, wildlife areas
- Jodie Turner-Smith speaks out about Joshua Jackson divorce: 'I don't think it's a failure'
- Police ID suspects in killing of man on Bronx subway car as transit officials discuss rising crime
- Driver dies after crashing on hurricane-damaged highway in North Carolina
- Independent Spirit Awards 2024: 'Past Lives,' 'American Fiction' and 'The Holdovers' take home top honors
Ranking
- Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul referee handled one of YouTuber's biggest fights
- Handcuffed car theft suspect being sought after fleeing from officers, police say
- Independent Spirit Awards 2024: 'Past Lives,' 'American Fiction' and 'The Holdovers' take home top honors
- Political consultant behind fake Biden robocalls says he was trying to highlight a need for AI rules
- Mississippi rising, Georgia falling in college football NCAA Re-Rank 1-134 after Week 11
- Bradley Cooper Proves He Is Gigi Hadid’s Biggest Supporter During NYC Shopping Trip
- U.S. Air Force member dies after setting himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy in Washington in apparent protest against war in Gaza
- Kenneth Mitchell, 'Star Trek: Discovery' actor, dies after battle with ALS
Recommendation
-
Padma Lakshmi, John Boyega, Hunter Schafer star in Pirelli's 2025 calendar: See the photos
-
Laneige’s 25% off Sitewide Sale Includes a Celeb-Loved Lip Mask & Sydney Sweeney Picks
-
FTC and 9 states sue to block Kroger-Albertsons supermarket merger
-
Sophia Grace Will Have Your Heartbeat Runnin' Away With Son River's First Birthday Party
-
Pennsylvania House Republicans pick new floor leader after failing to regain majority
-
USWNT vs. Mexico: Live stream, how to watch W Gold Cup group stage match
-
Primary apathy in Michigan: Democrats, GOP struggle as supporters mull whether to even vote
-
Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry says he has late-stage stomach cancer