In the Ted Talk “Climate justice can’t happen without racial justice,” the first black member of parliament David Lammy discusses the inextricable link between climate change and racial justice. For years, proponents of black rights have focused on demands that appeared to be more immediate than climate change, such as police brutality and economic disenfranchisement. As a result, the discourse concerning environmental justice has been dominated by white people. However, Lammy argues that people of color living in the global south and urban areas are the ones who are most affected by the climate emergency. Black Americans are exposed to 56 percent more pollution than they cause. Guyana produces eight times less carbon dioxide per head than the United States yet suffers the most from droughts, floods, and rising temperatures. The issue of climate change cannot be properly confronted without addressing its undue impact on people of color.
Lammy’s references to the Black Lives Matter movement and the story about Ella Kissi-Debrah hit a particular chord for me. The incident wherein a police officer choked George Floyd to death became a famous news story worldwide and the phrase “I Can’t Breathe” became the global calling card of police brutality. This phrase also aptly describes the fact that black people breathe in the most toxic air relative to the general population and are more likely to suffer from respiratory diseases. Ella Kissi-Debrah was a nine-year-old mixed girl who died of a fatal asthma attack because of the unlawful levels of pollution near her home. However, her story has not garnered nearly as much attention as Floyd’s, and the climate change movement still sidelines people of color from leadership positions. In order to ameliorate this global problem, a new coalition should be formed by communities most affected by the climate crisis. There should be scholarships in ecology and environmental science for people and color, and international laws concerning ecocide should be created to stop the widespread destruction of the planet.