As an atmospheric scientist who was raised in Philadelphia and has spent much of my profession researching air quality, climate change, and climate extremes in West Africa, the internationally recognized definition of climate justice does not reflect my reality or the reality of many in America, Africa, and its diaspora.
Climate justice is mentioned several times in the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by Working Group II. In the IPCC framework, climate justice promotes equity, more inclusive views and perspectives, and increases who participates in the decision-making process. However, this perspective has shortcomings concerning the historical backdrop of social and racial injustice in the United States and much of the Global South because it needs to identify the causes of vulnerability, limited adaptability, and resilience in the context of the past and present.
This is important because as the planet has warmed, we have observed an increase in the number of billion-dollar extreme events in the United States (Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, and Ian) and even more dire situations worldwide. In 2022, flooding in Pakistan caused more than $30 billion in damage. In the first six months of 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy killed more than 2,000 people in Southeastern Africa. These climate extremes are only increasing inequity in many communities in the United States and countries around the world.
Anthropogenic climate change is expected to impact those living in vulnerable areas such as coastal zones and flood plains. Those in the Global South are expected to experience greater hardship from climate change with inland and coastal flooding, wildfires, heat stress, poor air quality, sea level rise, and severe weather (e.g., tornadoes and hurricanes). Recovery will be challenging for persons of color (POC) in the United States and those living in the Global South who are directly impacted by inequity and have less access to resources. For this reason, we must not only address climate change but, more importantly, climate justice.
I view climate justice as the intersection of the climate crisis, social justice, and environmental justice. We must address these issues simultaneously with an inclusive and sustainable climate justice movement which is arguably the only viable solution.
Social Justice, while broad, has overwhelmingly been tied to racial justice for African Americans and many POC in the Americas for the past four centuries. Slavery and colonialism extracted humans and produced materials that provided the wealth to industrialize the Global North. Yet, African Americans and people living in Africa and its diaspora did not experience the same positive outcomes of industrialization that benefited White Americans and Europeans.
A contemporary outcome of this past is evident when examining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) social vulnerability index (SVI), which shows significant disparities in housing, health, income, education, and employment, in the Southern US and urban areas leading to high SVI values where communities of color exist.
Environmental justice intersects with social justice because of negative health outcomes in communities of color. Forty-one years after the dumping of toxic waste in Warren County, North Carolina, a county that is predominately African American, and 36 years since the report on toxic wastes and race by the United Church of Christ, environmental justice remains a frontline issue in many communities of color, which includes, in recent years, the water crises in Flint and Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, and toxic waste sites.
Environmental justice also intersects with climate change because of environmental damage near fossil fuel extraction sites and higher concentrations of particulate matter and toxic substances from refineries, car traffic, and power plants which increases respiratory, cardiovascular disease, and cancer in low-income and communities of color. Historical redlining in metropolitan cities over 80 years ago, which determined where migrating black families lived, negatively impacted POC who live in warmer and more polluted environments today.
We can prepare and strengthen present and future generations by building an inclusive climate justice movement using a multifaceted approach. First, we must continue to reduce carbon emissions at international, national, state, and local levels to limit a global disaster for future generations around the world, which would greatly exacerbate social injustice. Second and equally important, private and public institutions must address social justice issues with non-profits and grassroots community efforts to promote programs to reduce institutional racism, improve policing, reduce gun violence, and add more educational opportunities through formal and informal programs.
The transition to renewable energy also creates educational and employment opportunities that can reduce the impacts of environmental justice, address the impacts of climate change, provide job training in solar energy and electric vehicles, promote equitable and just methods for securing critical minerals, and provide new employment in data science, policy, and community watchdog activities such as measuring and monitoring water and air quality. Such activities in communities of color are being promoted in President Biden's Justice40 program. Climate justice literacy should also be encouraged in educational institutions and within communities.
A focus on climate justice, through the historical lens of racial and environmental injustice, provides the foundation for kickstarting and sustaining an inclusive climate justice movement. This movement must extend beyond city, county, state, and national boundaries to address social and environmental justice within the context of the 21st-century global climate crisis.
Dr. Gregory Jenkins is a Philadelphia native and a professor in the Department of Meteorology & Atmospheric Science, with affiliate appointments in African Studies and Geography at Penn State University, and Director of the Alliance for Education, Sciences, Engineering and Design with Africa (AESEDA) in the College of Earth & Mineral Sciences (EMS).
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
