By Maya Shah
A few weeks ago, I saw a card for the Youth4Climate movement, which was in solidarity with BLM Leeds. Then I was encouraged to add my name to an open letter from the Climate Justice League in support of Chris Kaba, a black man killed by police in South London in September. While reading and signing the letter, I realised I had never thought to connect climate justice to racial justice. While both important, I could not see an obvious link. However, you can’t separate climate justice from racial justice: as Greenpeace France argues, ‘they are two sides of the same coin.’
Climate injustice is driven by racial and social inequalities. The activist Chihiro Geuzebroek speaks of environmental racism – how Western powers have historically exploited indigenous land to amass their wealth, regardless of any consequences on the indigenous peoples. They justified their actions because they believed the natives’ lives were more dispensable.
For example, white explorers in North America believed in Manifest Destiny: their god-given right to expand westward to spread capitalism. The settlers hunted buffalo for their benefit, depleting their population immensely by killing nine million in three years. This environmental injustice has clear racial links – the white settlers did not care about the consequences of killing millions of animals on the Native Americans because they viewed them as inferior. And there were very negative consequences, because the Native Americans relied on buffalo massively for their nomadic lifestyle. They were ultimately forced to move to reservations, where they suffered from disease and other issues like alcoholism. By committing these environmental injustices, the white settlers showed they did not respect the indigenous peoples, thus reinforcing racial hierarchies.
Sadly, this still happens. Military waste from the Cold War was discarded on Native American reservations. Not only did this damage the land, but it also exposed the natives to dangerous chemicals, showing how white western powers still use racist beliefs to influence how they commit climate injustices.
Fossil fuels have clear links to racism. Foreign companies based in the Global North drill and extract oil and gas from the Global South, in countries such as Namibia. The work of companies like ReconAfrica are environmentally damaging – this Canadian company’s extraction threatens water supplies and the Okavango Delta, which is a UNESCO heritage site. Furthermore, fossil fuel extraction in Nigeria pollutes the land and water, thus disregarding the indigenous people’s need for resources. It is not hard to see that Western companies exploit land at the expense of indigenous peoples’ survival, because they do not view them as equals.
Within the USA, the history of taking land from indigenous peoples and housing discrimination have meant minority communities are disproportionately impacted by fossil fuels. Fossil fuel extraction causes water and air pollution, with terrible health impacts, such as a greater risk of cancer, and pregnancy implications. Greenpeace found that African Americans face 1.54 times more exposure to particulate matter from fossil fuel pollution compared to the population in general. Furthermore, Latina women in the Eagle Ford shale have a higher risk of giving birth prematurely, due to fracking in their area. Even within countries, systemic racist practices have ensured that minorities suffer greater consequences from fossil fuels.
It is clear that climate justice and racial justice can’t be separated. The systems that perpetuate climate change are the same systems that have enforced racial injustices and hierarchies. Therefore, it is crucial that indigenous and minority communities have a platform to raise awareness of their exploitation, and how they bear the brunt of the destruction from climate change. By doing this, it will also give more respect and recognition to these groups, who have been disregarded and marginalised for so long.