Climate Effects on Communities of Color: An ABA Black History Month Discussion
By Sarah Brusseau
Image: “Peoples Climate March NYC” by Susan Melkisethian https://www.flickr.com/photos/susanmelkisethian/15291290076/in/album-72157647472373158/
This blogpost is in collaboration with the Sustainable Development Strategies Group (https://www.sdsg.org). It is the second of two posts detailing lectures from the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice’s Black History Month series.
On February 26, 2021, the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice hosted a program titled Climate Effects on Communities of Color. The goal of the program was to demonstrate the disproportionate impact climate change has on comminutes of color and Indigenous people. Barrett Holmes Pitner, the Founder and Philosopher in Chief of The Sustainable Culture, moderated the panel; Mr. Pitner was also a panelist at the February 3rd a program, When Race and the Environment Collide: The Impact of Systematic Racism on Environmental Justice. The three panelists touched on numerous topics, including colonialism, wealth maximization and the environment, and a specific case study of climate impact in Mebane, North Carolina.
The American Bar Association (ABA) has announced its commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement and reaffirmed its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and social justice within the legal system. Each year to celebrate Black History Month, the ABA honors Black Legal Trailblazers, puts on a 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge, and provides lectures and programs on social justice and civil rights issues.
Lisa Benjamin, Assistant Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School, took an international approach on the climate impacts on communities of color. Her work has placed her in the middle of climate change negotiations throughout the world, particularly in small island developing states and the global South. And through her work she has found climate change negotiations are much more than environmental negotiations; they are economic negotiations. To begin the discussion of economics and environmental justice, Professor Benjamin addressed colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.
Colonialism is known to be a physical exploitation system; people were forcibly taken from their homes and put into slavery. However, colonialism was also an economic extractive system (e.g., natural resources were taken from African countries), and responsible for a lot of the wealth countries have today. Neo-colonialism is prevalent today, with raw materials being extracted from the global South countries to provide for the global North. Professor Benjamin noted consumption is a huge part of the climate issue we have; due to an increase in consumption, we have seen a decrease in biodiversity, a total wipeout of natural resources in certain areas, and a quite enormous gap between the rich and the poor.
Professor Benjamin detailed various studies that have come out about the harms climate change has on communities of color, including Black women are more at risk during pregnancy due to pollution, and the impacts of air pollution and climate change on communities of color, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic (and also on Indigenous communities).[1]
And so, at these climate change negotiations, countries from the global South, countries where physical and economic exploitation has occurred for centuries, countries that only account for 10 percent of global emissions, have their people fighting for the rights of their countries. They are fighting to keep the global warming increase to 1.5°C. They are fighting to stop the exploitation. Because the people who will be impacted the most from climate change are the vulnerable sub-groups, which are comprised primarily of brown and black people. And as climate change worsens, poverty and disadvantage increases.
“Pollution on top of pollution in our neighborhood,” is how Mr. Wilson began his talk.
Omega Wilson, Co-Founder of the West End Revitalization Association, presented on the legal challenges he and his community have faced since 1994 in Mebane, North Carolina. Mebane, founded in the late 1800s, is about 50 miles northwest of Raleigh, North Carolina. Its population of around 12,000 has been dealing with climate impacts and racial disparities for years.
What do you say when you are asked to name basic human rights? Clean drinking water, fresh air, and homes a safe distance from landfills may come to mind. Unfortunately, the people of Mebane have dealt with not being afforded these basic human rights. And for a long time, fear of repercussions from years of racial discrimination prevented them from fighting for these rights. Now, however, the community has come together to address these issues.
Mr. Wilson provided examples of things going on in the community and the environmental impacts they have. A church that was built after slavery ended in the 1860s had to be torn down because E. coli was found in the water. The church, in a community of color, was not allowed to connect to the sewer system (even though the community is surrounded by the sewer system and smells the system every day). Another church was torn down because it stood in the path of a new highway. Mr. Wilson explained not only did cultural degradation occur with the removal of the church, but the air quality of the town would now worsen because of the vehicles, primarily large trucks and trailers, that drive on the highway. Finally in 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the construction of a gas pipeline in Mebane. This pipeline will lead to environmental destruction, the displacement of people of color, and air emissions.
To wrap up the program, a law student from Barry University, Melissa Bryan, presented on her research surrounding environmental racism and residential segregation. Environmental racism and residential segregation are inextricably linked; both are the result of systematic racism, white-dominated policy making, and environmental red-lining. Redlining is a discriminatory practice that essentially draws boundary lines around communities of color to prevent the communities from receiving goods and services and governmental support. The hottest areas of the country are in historically redlined districts. Communities of color struggle to gain basic protections, while “white spaces,” communities that consist of essentially only white people, are afforded “luxuries,” ranging from green growth initiatives to renewable energy developments.
Ms. Bryan provided an example of residential segregation and environmental racism by discussing her home country of Jamaica. Climate gentrification is when the wealthy (usually white populations) move into areas not impacted, or less likely to be impacted, by climate change. This move generally displaces people and communities of color who have lived in the non-affected area for decades. In Jamaica, wealthy people are moving into the mountains and leaving lower-income communities to live on the beach, which is the area showing the greatest impact from climate change (e.g., rising sea level). Significant beach erosion is forcing Jamaicans to move inland where it is substantially more expensive; some Jamaicans cannot afford the move and thus have to battle a constantly changing coastal environment.
Towards the end of her talk, Ms. Bryan noted it is not cheap to implement environmental policies. White people will be the ones who can fund these policies, not people of color. But because white people can easily displace communities of color, it is difficult to effect change.
Climate change is more than an environmental issue; it is an economic, social, cultural, historical, and racial issue. If something is not done about it, vulnerable sup-groups, communities of color, and Indigenous people will continue to feel the grave impacts of climate change.
[1] The term Indigenous communities refers to the peoples and nations throughout the world who are native to a particular place. Individuals and communities may be referred to by other names, such as their tribal name, First People, and Aboriginal people. For this blog post, however, Indigenous communities is the chosen broad defining term.