Community-powered solutions to the climate crisis

Climate change is the epic challenge of our lives, and community leaders like Rahwa Ghirmatzion and Zelalem Adefris are already working on sustainable, resilient solutions. Through their organizations in Buffalo and Miami, they're focused on durable, affordable housing for under-resourced communities, the most vulnerable to the instability of climate change. Watch for a lesson on how we can work alongside our neighbors to address climate catastrophe and social inequality. (Narrated by Don Cheadle)

Don Cheadle: Home.

It's where we celebrate our triumphs,

make our memories
and confront our challenges.

And these days there are plenty of those.

An historic pandemic, wildfires,
floods and hurricanes

all threaten our basic safety.

These challenges hit even harder

in communities that have been cut out
of equal opportunities.

In the US, unfair
and racist housing policies,

called redlining,

have for decades forced Black, brown,
Indigenous and poor white families

into areas rife with toxic chemicals
that make people sick.

They are surrounded
by concrete that traps heat.

Extreme temperatures demand more cooling,

more money, more energy, more carbon.

Our problems are interconnected.

Imagine all we can do when we realize
the solutions are too.

At the Solutions Project,

we've seen that some of the people
most impacted by COVID-19,

least likely to have
a steady place to call home

and most affected
by the damage to our climate

are already working on effective
and scalable solutions.

Take Buffalo and Miami,

where affordable housing
has become a community solution

to the climate crisis.

Rahwa Ghirmatzion: Buffalo, New York,
is the third poorest city

in the United States

and sixth most segregated,

but our people power is strong.

Over the last 15 years,
my organization, PUSH Buffalo,

has been working with residents
to build green affordable housing,

deploy renewable energy

and to grow the resilience and power
in our communities.

When we saw heating bills soar
over the last decade,

we organized to pass state policy,

help small businesses

and to put our people to work
weatherizing homes.

We responded with eco-landscaping
and green infrastructure.

When record rainfalls
flooded our neighborhoods,

we replaced the concrete that overwhelmed
and made heat waves unbearable.

Let us visit School 77,

an 80,000-square-foot
public school building

that was closed and abandoned
for nearly a decade.

But PUSH Buffalo and the community

transformed it into solar-powered,
affordable senior apartments

and a community center.

This is what the community wanted.

When private developers
were eyeing that school building

for high-end loft apartments,

800 residents mobilized
and came up with the plan.

We became New York State's
first community solar project

and during the coronavirus pandemic,
a volunteer-run Mutual Aid Hub.

Zelalem Adefris: At Catalyst Miami
and the Miami Climate Alliance,

we work with dozens of other organizations

to enact policies
that provide safe housing

and protect the climate.

Here in Miami, we've seen
a 400-percent increase in tidal flooding

between 2006 and 2016

and have seen 49 additional
90-degree days per year since 1970.

We fought for the Miami Forever Bond
to fund 400 million dollars

for affordable housing
and climate solutions.

Yet every day, we continue
to see luxury high-rise condos

being built in our neighborhoods,

adding more concrete
and heat on the ground.

Some of our members are taking matters
into their own hands, literally.

Conscious Contractors
is a Grassroots Collective

that formed during Hurricane Irma

to protect, rebuild
and beautify our communities,

all while increasing energy efficiency.

They don't think that anyone
should have to choose

between paying a high AC bill

and living in a hot and moldy house
that will worsen respiratory illnesses

such as asthma or coronavirus.

They fix problems at the source.

Advocates across the country
are holding their governments accountable

to climate solutions
that keep their communities in place.

We need to push
for more affordable housing,

green infrastructure and flood protections

because these are the solutions
that solve many problems at once.

DC: Climate change
is the epic challenge of our lives,

but we're confident we can solve it.

Community leaders like Rahwa and Zelalem
are already doing it.

We can create the future we want,

but getting there is going to take
everyone contributing

around the world, wherever we call home.