Climate Justice Demands Action

🌎 Take Simple Climate Action

Jan 18, 2022

Welcome to Save Our Happy Place, your weekly pop of environmental and climate activism. Squeeze in a little weekly climate action with us, and know you are doing your part to save the places you love from climate change. In this edition, we are honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his life, legacy, and his vision as we continue working towards racial, social, and climate justice.

Putting People Over Profits

and other ways to ensure a just transition

With the existential weight of the climate crisis on our shoulders, we can find some solace in knowing that necessity is the mother of invention. The science is there, the will is there, the policies are coming along, so we have reason to be hopeful that we are on the cusp of a more sustainable future. What we cannot guarantee is that the transition to a more sustainable planet will be just, fair or equitable. If every aspect of our lives must be overturned, then we must ensure that the social problems that have plagued our society don’t follow us into our greener pasture. That is why we must keep climate justice top of mind.

What is Climate Justice?

Climate justice is the “dismantling of systems of oppression in the environmental movement.” It is acknowledging that the climate crisis is more than just an environmental problem, it is a social and political problem. Many of the communities most severely affected by climate change are some of the smallest contributors to this global crisis. For example, Black Americans breathe 56 percent more pollution than they produce, and Latinos breathe 63 percent more. White Americans breathe 17 percent less pollution. Source: Scientific America

"Climate justice is about intersectional equity. It is about being radically inclusive of all groups of people so that everyone has access to clean air, food, and water.” - Indian activist Disha Rav

Why Is It Important?

Environmental justice is a response to environmental racism. This concept refers to low-income communities and people of color being disproportionately exposed to toxins and hazardous waste. Institutions systemically target these communities for undesirable land use and overtly lax enforcement of zoning restrictions, among other environmental laws. These communities already feel the effects of injustice and oppression in addition to the impacts of climate change.

Incorporating Climate Justice Into Your Activism:

The first step towards integrating climate justice into your activism is to educate yourself on these issues and lift the voices of these communities. Please check out the list of organizations below for more resources on environmental justice and ways to get involved locally.

Environmental Justice Organizations:

Justice Demands Action

Tell Your Senators: Tackle the Climate Crisis by Passing Voting Rights Legislation

What? Email your Senators demanding they Pass Voting Rights Legislation to ensure that all Americans’ voices are heard.
Why? The Senate is considering two bills — the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This legislation is particularly important for the low-income communities and communities of color who are hardest hit by environmental injustice.
How? Click link to send email (Estimated time 1 minute)

Email Your Senators

Sign Petition for a Civilian Climate Corp

What? Sign petition with Berggruen Institute to deliver to the United Nations, President Biden, and the US Congress a resolution demanding the creation and funding of a civilian climate corp.
Why? Institutions and governments have not taken the action needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change and missed the mark on the intersecting issues of racial justice and economic inequality. A civilian climate corp would ensure intersectionality and climate justice as we transition to a more sustainable world in partnership with the Build Back Better Act.
How? Click link to sign petition (Estimated 1 minute)

Sign Petition

Call NY Representatives to Pass the NY Build Public Renewables Act

What? Ask New York State Representatives to co-sponsor the Build Public Renewables Act.
Why? New York has the power to go 100% renewable by 2040, to stop the polluting and poisoning of Black and brown neighborhoods, and to create up to 51,000 new jobs in the process.
How? Click link for the script to make the call and list of numbers. (Estimated 5 minutes)

Make the Call

Some Rays of Sunshine

The Headlines We’re Happy to See

Environmental Justice In Action

Womangrove members tend to their saplings in a former shrimp pond in the Tanakeke Islands that has been restored to a mangrove area. Image by Wahyu Chandra/Mongabay-Indonesia.

NJ Gov. Murphy steps in to halt vote on a power plant in Newark thanks to a coalition of environmentalists, doctors, and local activists - Read More
US EPA released a draft of its Environmental Justice Action Plan. - Read More
Indonesia’s Womangrove collective reclaims the coast from shrimp farms - Read More
Mexico’s environment ministry backs Tecoltemi Nahua, an indigenous community, in a legal battle challenging the constitutionality of the country’s mining laws. - Read More