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By Antara Basu Graphic design by Rosie Phillips
Introduction
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges in the 21st century. However, there is a divide between the agents responsible for accelerating climate risks and those suffering from it. Historically, indigenous people, communities of colour and other disadvantaged societies have been vulnerable to grave injustices, which translate into present-day structural inequalities. It should not be surprising, then, that the climate crisis disproportionately impacts minority communities. Lower socio-economic status and reduced access to healthcare and education services, owing to practices like slavery, colonisation and imperialism, have created a reality where people of colour are more likely to live near waste landfills, and industrial complexes handling toxic waste. This severely impacts natural resources like air quality, groundwater supply, and the overall quality of life for certain communities. It is, thus, critical to adopt an intersectional approach to environmental resilience. The inclusion of marginalised communities will ensure the right to a clean and safe environment for all people.
This article will analyse the relationship between climate change, racism and colonialism. It will also explore policy solutions targeting environmental justice. These involve the adoption of educational curriculums teaching about ecological apartheid, climate reparation from richer states to low-income countries or supporting green economies via the installation of cleaner energy sources like solar panels in areas densely populated by vulnerable communities.
What is Environmental Racism?
Many people understand climate change as a collective existential risk that poses an equal threat to all populations. However, systems of oppression have resulted in differences in how communities are exposed to this threat. Chavis defined environmental racism as “racial discrimination in environmental policy-making, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of colour for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities, and the history of excluding people of colour from leadership of the ecology movements.”
The way people experience the risks of global warming is influenced by economic, racial and gender disparities. While it can be unsettling to confront the racist undertones of climate change, discomfort is not an excuse to turn a blind eye to the interlinked nature of environmental hazards and racism.
The Flint Michigan case study is a popularly cited example of environmental racism. Following a change in the water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron, the city failed to treat it with an anti-corrosion chemical. As a result, the water supply was contaminated with dangerous amounts of lead, leading to elevated lead levels among the black majority residents of the city. The tap water was consumed by between 6,000 and 12,000 children. This tragedy prevailed despite complaints by inhabitants regarding “foul-smelling and discoloured water, of hair loss and skin rashes.” Eventually, The Michigan Civil Rights Commission acknowledged that this incident of environmental injustice was exacerbated by inaction on the part of the concerned authorities and could be attributed to systemic racism.
The Flint Michigan water crisis is one of many examples of environmental injustice. In the US, indigenous populations are often exposed to hazards such as nuclear waste. Till 1971, 4,000 miners from the Navajo indigenous community were allowed to work in uranium mines, without being informed about the risks of radiation exposure. The US Public Health Service was, thus, complicit in the adverse health effects faced by these miners. One could argue that environmental racism in this instance was a state-sanctioned practice.
Environmental racism is a consequence of historically racist practices and existing structural inequalities. Communities of colour often lack the financial or legal resources to fight decisions that elevate their susceptibility to hazardous substances, putting several lives at risk. On the other hand, these resources are available to their white counterparts who can weaponize them to divert these decisions away from their communities. The next sections will discuss why and more specifically how the climate crisis impacts these communities.
How do Climate Inequalities Affect Disadvantaged Communities?
How climate change effects are felt across populations depends on their vulnerability and resilience. One of the main reasons why climate change systematically hits disadvantaged societies is because structural inequalities increase their vulnerability and simultaneously decrease their ability to implement countermeasures to bounce back from these damages.
According to UN data, 11% of the global population inhabited low-elevation coastal areas in 2000 because of poverty. In developing countries across the Caribbean or South/East Asia, many are forced to live in dangerous hill-sloped zones because they cannot afford better alternatives. Poverty-stricken families reside in the least desirable lands which are subject to hazards like contamination, flooding or mudslides. About 4.2 billion people have been impacted by ecological damage and developing countries shoulder most of the burden with poorer states bearing economic costs of about 5% of total GDP. It is expected that the climate crisis will have adverse impacts on the world's poorest, because of an amalgamation of geographical limitations and global poverty, making adaptation and recovery harder.
Citizens of states in the Global South bear the large brunt of hazards caused by environmental damage, even though their carbon emissions are relatively low. Jason Hicken’s research highlights that the Global North is responsible for "92% of all excess global emissions, while the Global South is responsible for only 8%.” Western states industrialized first and gave rise to the “power base of the fossil fuel corporations.” Western lifestyles are more compatible with high resource consumption and energy use, and these populations are predominantly white. In contrast, African and Asian states have the lowest emissions and predominantly black and brown populations. Yet, climate change is ravaging these areas at a higher and more intense pace. The 2022 heatwaves in India or the devastating floods in Pakistan with about 1,500 fatalities and the displacement of over 30 million people in August are some recent examples.
It is impossible to miss the colonial element. While colonising powers have contributed to excess emissions, it is well-known that the consequences of these fall disproportionately on the Global South. Freedom struggles may have guaranteed political autonomy, but colonial injustices persist. “Centuries of unequal power relationships have embedded this structural injustice so that climate change echoes the power relationships of colonialism and empire.”
These racial divisions and power imbalances exist not only across nations but also within. American campaigners in the 1980s highlighted a pattern in the location of waste landfills and incinerators near black neighbourhoods. The US releases 9 million tons of toxins into the air annually. But over a million of only African American individuals are subject to cancer risk because of unclean air. Over a million reside within a half mile of gas facilities, and over 6.7 million reside near oil refineries. Their proximity to several industrial complexes increases the risk of toxic spills and leaks, especially during natural disasters like storms.
Historical segregation and the entrenched belief that black and brown lives are more disposable have resulted in skewed city planning which leaves a disproportionate number of African Americans inhabiting “fence-line” communities. These communities are situated near facilities which release odour, harmful chemicals, and emissions. This translates to exposure to high levels of pollution with potentially long-term medical consequences. For example, it is known that breathing poor air quality increases the risk of health conditions like asthma. Statistically, among the children who suffer from asthma, 13.4% are African American in comparison to the relatively lower percentage of 7.3% for their white counterparts. These risks are compounded by inaccessibility to medical services, reduced political power and lack of money and awareness about legal recourse.
A rise in the frequency of natural disasters is a well-known climate change phenomenon. A study published by Rice University and the University of Pittsburgh found that in the aftermath of natural disasters, white communities experienced an increase in wealth, while minority communities faced the opposite. The differences in the levels of damage and reinvestment afterwards are staggering. In the US, Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Hurricane Harvey (2017) devastated the black populace in New Orleans, and Houston respectively. Despite a twelve-year gap between the two, people of colour suffered the most.
It is easy to identify a vicious cycle that perpetuates and sustains these inequalities. Non-white societies with fewer resources to begin with and a weaker infrastructure are already stretched thin when these crises hit them. And in the aftermath, they lack the financial reserves to rebuild and reinvest to facilitate future preparedness. Simply put vulnerability to climate disasters directly corresponds to vulnerability to the distressing effects of the climate disaster. This unequal distribution and access to resources is rooted in racial discrimination. However, it is impossible to address this without the redistribution of resources and involvement of these communities in the environmental justice movement. The following sections will explore potential policy solutions to equalise the burden of climate change.
Potential Policy Solutions
The aforementioned imbalances of power directly influence environmental negotiations. The Global North with more temperate climates is currently far less susceptible to the immediate dangers of climate change but they retain great economic and political power. As a result, they have successfully driven climate policies, prioritising their economic interests. International conferences like COP27 have failed to deliver tangible policy solutions rendering their purpose as nothing more than serving as photo ops for political leaders. Recently, there have been demands for reparations for climate damages from richer to poorer countries. It is justified for states with vast financial resources to support developing countries tackle climate challenges that they were responsible for in the first place.
Accountability and pressuring corporations to go green in undeniably significant. But it is critical to move beyond community activism and climate change protests. We need to also look for solutions that can be implemented in real-time, which will mitigate the effects of climate change on marginalised communities. Environmental justice cannot be attained without intersectional environmentalism. Political power is monopolised by rich developed white societies. This power needs to be distributed by the inclusion of marginalized communities in the decision-making and leadership process. Learning about environmental racism is equally important because environmental resources are controlled by a racialized system. Increasing public awareness about environmental racism and policies that disproportionately target vulnerable communities can be achieved by the implementation of educational curriculums that teach about ecological apartheid, and environmental justice movements.
Modern-day segregation manifests through practices like redlining, wherein financial services like loans and mortgages are denied to individuals based on race/ethnicity. This coupled with historical segregation and underdevelopment of coloured areas pushes these communities towards undesirable lands, in close proximity to factories and toxic waste facilities. The way forward is to eradicate these practices.
We can also support green economies that will uplift indigenous communities and communities of colour. The transition to cleaner energy sources like solar and wind energy must consider the limitations as well because this transition should not reinforce inequalities. It is important to acknowledge and address training requirements and a lack of knowledge or monetary resources that can potentially act as barriers to the construction of a green economy. Policies can implement community projects which will assist members in the shift to green energy by providing them with training to install solar panels in their homes. The creation of community cooperatives can supplement these initiatives by placing ownership and smaller financial reserves in the hands of these communities.
It is difficult to dismantle decades of structural injustices, but it needs to be done. The climate crisis, although it burdens populations differently, is a global crisis and demands a global response.
References
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