1 00:00:01,262 --> 00:00:03,780 I've got to start by admitting that, in many ways, 2 00:00:03,780 --> 00:00:06,560 me giving a talk about how climate action 3 00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:10,120 can help black communities is surprising. 4 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:13,830 I grew up poor and black with a single mother in Tottenham, 5 00:00:13,830 --> 00:00:15,840 one of the most deprived areas in London 6 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:18,360 in the 1970s and '80s. 7 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:20,980 Climate change was the last thing on my mind. 8 00:00:20,980 --> 00:00:23,970 And representing Tottenham as its member of Parliament 9 00:00:23,970 --> 00:00:27,850 for the past 20 years, my focus has been on trying to reduce 10 00:00:27,850 --> 00:00:30,270 the deprivation I grew up around. 11 00:00:30,270 --> 00:00:32,620 In the past, the climate crisis never featured 12 00:00:32,620 --> 00:00:34,510 at the forefront of my politics 13 00:00:34,510 --> 00:00:36,930 because it was never one of the most immediate challenges 14 00:00:36,930 --> 00:00:38,880 my constituents were facing, 15 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:41,230 or at least it didn't feel like it. 16 00:00:41,230 --> 00:00:43,260 Rising sea levels feel unimportant 17 00:00:43,260 --> 00:00:45,560 when your bank balance is falling. 18 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:47,390 Global warming is not your concern 19 00:00:47,390 --> 00:00:49,660 when you can't pay the heating bills. 20 00:00:49,660 --> 00:00:51,710 And you're not thinking about pollution 21 00:00:51,710 --> 00:00:54,020 when you're being stopped by the police. 22 00:00:54,020 --> 00:00:55,930 And so, perhaps this is why, 23 00:00:55,930 --> 00:00:59,610 as the Black Lives Matter movement roared across the world, 24 00:00:59,610 --> 00:01:02,820 there's been so little mention of saving black lives 25 00:01:02,820 --> 00:01:04,870 from the climate emergency. 26 00:01:04,870 --> 00:01:07,700 For too long, those of us who cared about racial justice 27 00:01:07,700 --> 00:01:11,200 treated environmental justice as though it was elitist. 28 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:12,620 And at the same time, 29 00:01:12,620 --> 00:01:15,210 the leaders who did focus on climate change 30 00:01:15,210 --> 00:01:19,860 were usually white and rarely bothered to enlist the support 31 00:01:19,860 --> 00:01:22,450 of black voices in their work. 32 00:01:22,450 --> 00:01:26,300 Even progressive allies sometimes took our votes for granted 33 00:01:26,300 --> 00:01:29,100 and assumed that our community didn't care 34 00:01:29,100 --> 00:01:30,750 or wouldn't understand. 35 00:01:30,750 --> 00:01:34,350 The truth is the opposite is true. 36 00:01:34,350 --> 00:01:37,540 Black people breathe in the most toxic air 37 00:01:37,540 --> 00:01:40,330 relative to the general population. 38 00:01:40,330 --> 00:01:43,380 We are more likely to suffer from respiratory diseases 39 00:01:43,380 --> 00:01:44,770 like asthma. 40 00:01:44,770 --> 00:01:46,760 And it is people of color 41 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,930 who are more likely to suffer in the climate crisis. 42 00:01:50,930 --> 00:01:53,660 This is no coincidence. 43 00:01:53,660 --> 00:01:57,240 The cheapest housing tends to be next to the busiest roads 44 00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:59,370 and many of the lowest paid jobs 45 00:01:59,370 --> 00:02:01,870 are in the most polluting industries. 46 00:02:01,870 --> 00:02:05,270 People of color consistently lie at the bottom 47 00:02:05,270 --> 00:02:08,800 of the housing, educational, and employment ladders. 48 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:12,720 This story connects black communities across the world, 49 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:15,840 from London to Lagos to LA. 50 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:20,410 Black Americans are exposed to 56% more pollution 51 00:02:20,410 --> 00:02:21,790 than they cause. 52 00:02:21,790 --> 00:02:26,140 White Americans breathe 17% less air pollution 53 00:02:26,140 --> 00:02:27,840 than they produce. 54 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,340 It gives a whole new meaning 55 00:02:30,340 --> 00:02:34,560 to the Black Lives Matter slogan, "I can't breathe." 56 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:37,890 We all rightly know the name of George Floyd, 57 00:02:37,890 --> 00:02:40,520 who was murdered by the police. 58 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:44,480 But we should also know the name of Ella Kissi-Debrah. 59 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:48,610 Ella, a nine-year-old mixed-race girl from Southeast London, 60 00:02:48,610 --> 00:02:52,400 was killed by a fatal asthma attack. 61 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:54,950 Evidence suggests this was caused partly 62 00:02:54,950 --> 00:02:59,480 by the unlawful levels of air pollution near her home. 63 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:02,570 And it's not only urban areas where black lives 64 00:03:02,570 --> 00:03:06,083 are disproportionately under threat from climate change. 65 00:03:06,920 --> 00:03:09,840 My parents' home country of Guyana 66 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,440 is one of the most vulnerable countries on Earth 67 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:15,070 to the effects of climate change. 68 00:03:15,070 --> 00:03:18,070 So far, Guyana has contributed relatively little 69 00:03:18,070 --> 00:03:21,180 to the climate emergency, but it's one of the countries 70 00:03:21,180 --> 00:03:24,370 facing the most serious threats from it. 71 00:03:24,370 --> 00:03:27,210 While the annual carbon dioxide emissions per head 72 00:03:27,210 --> 00:03:32,210 in the United States is a staggering 16.5 metric tons, 73 00:03:32,570 --> 00:03:34,013 in Guyana it's just 2.6. 74 00:03:35,260 --> 00:03:38,690 It is a pattern repeated across the globe. 75 00:03:38,690 --> 00:03:41,200 Those countries that have contributed least 76 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,860 to the climate breakdown, mainly in the global south, 77 00:03:44,860 --> 00:03:46,860 will suffer the most from floods, 78 00:03:46,860 --> 00:03:49,500 droughts, and rising temperatures. 79 00:03:49,500 --> 00:03:53,890 This is a pattern of suffering with a long history. 80 00:03:53,890 --> 00:03:57,240 The exploitation of our planet's natural resources 81 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:01,960 has always been tied to the exploitation of people of color. 82 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,910 The logic of colonization was to extract valuable resources 83 00:04:05,910 --> 00:04:07,870 from our planet through force, 84 00:04:07,870 --> 00:04:11,030 paying no attention to its secondary effects. 85 00:04:11,030 --> 00:04:13,920 The climate crisis is, in a way, 86 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:17,360 colonialism's natural conclusion. 87 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,120 The solution is to build a new coalition 88 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:24,550 made up of all the groups most affected by this emergency: 89 00:04:24,550 --> 00:04:26,700 black people in American cities 90 00:04:26,700 --> 00:04:29,740 who are already protesting that they cannot breathe, 91 00:04:29,740 --> 00:04:32,990 people of color in Guyana watching sea levels rise 92 00:04:32,990 --> 00:04:36,650 to the point where many of their homes become uninhabitable, 93 00:04:36,650 --> 00:04:39,330 young people in places like Tottenham, London, 94 00:04:39,330 --> 00:04:42,300 afraid of the world that they will grow old in, 95 00:04:42,300 --> 00:04:44,860 and progressive allies from all nations, 96 00:04:44,860 --> 00:04:48,380 of all races, religions, creeds, and ages on their side, 97 00:04:48,380 --> 00:04:51,760 all demanding recognition that climate justice 98 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:54,810 is linked to racial justice, social justice, 99 00:04:54,810 --> 00:04:57,350 and intergenerational justice too. 100 00:04:57,350 --> 00:04:59,580 And let me say something about how we build 101 00:04:59,580 --> 00:05:02,670 this new movement and what it must look like. 102 00:05:02,670 --> 00:05:06,790 First, we need a recognition that the climate movement 103 00:05:06,790 --> 00:05:09,130 is not only about protecting the planet. 104 00:05:09,130 --> 00:05:11,770 It is primarily about caring 105 00:05:11,770 --> 00:05:14,800 for the people who live on the planet. 106 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,300 Globally as well as nationally, 107 00:05:17,300 --> 00:05:21,810 we need to recognize structural imbalances and inequalities. 108 00:05:21,810 --> 00:05:23,810 A radical green recovery plan 109 00:05:23,810 --> 00:05:25,940 should provide jobs to the people 110 00:05:25,940 --> 00:05:28,670 who've been disenfranchised for centuries, 111 00:05:28,670 --> 00:05:32,000 new jobs planting trees, insulating buildings, 112 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,350 and working on green technologies. 113 00:05:34,350 --> 00:05:37,090 We cannot tackle the climate crisis 114 00:05:37,090 --> 00:05:40,100 without addressing racial inequalities. 115 00:05:40,100 --> 00:05:42,440 And we cannot solve racial inequalities 116 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:45,080 without fixing the economic system. 117 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:48,420 The new deal the economy needs is not only green, 118 00:05:48,420 --> 00:05:50,630 it's green and black. 119 00:05:50,630 --> 00:05:54,830 Second, we need more black leaders. 120 00:05:54,830 --> 00:05:58,490 It cannot be right in 2020 121 00:05:58,490 --> 00:06:01,990 that almost all the leading climate change activists 122 00:06:01,990 --> 00:06:03,980 we recognize are white. 123 00:06:03,980 --> 00:06:08,010 At Davos this year, five young female members 124 00:06:08,010 --> 00:06:10,200 of the Fridays for Future movement 125 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:12,600 came together to give a press conference 126 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:14,710 at the World Economic Forum. 127 00:06:14,710 --> 00:06:17,717 This is a picture the Associated Press put out. 128 00:06:19,988 --> 00:06:22,623 Here is the original image. 129 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,540 As the Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate 130 00:06:26,540 --> 00:06:28,307 herself put it afterwards, 131 00:06:28,307 --> 00:06:32,900 "You didn't just erase a photo, you erased a continent." 132 00:06:32,900 --> 00:06:35,720 We need to look at who is being cropped out 133 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:39,630 of leadership positions in environmental organizations too. 134 00:06:39,630 --> 00:06:43,070 People of color makeup around 40% 135 00:06:43,070 --> 00:06:45,290 of the United States population. 136 00:06:45,290 --> 00:06:48,610 So, why is it a University of Michigan study 137 00:06:48,610 --> 00:06:50,870 found that the percentage of minorities 138 00:06:50,870 --> 00:06:54,470 in leadership positions in US environmental organizations 139 00:06:54,470 --> 00:06:56,530 is less than 12%? 140 00:06:56,530 --> 00:06:58,430 Global organizations should consider 141 00:06:58,430 --> 00:07:01,320 moving their headquarters to the global south 142 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:03,780 and urban areas that are most affected 143 00:07:03,780 --> 00:07:05,740 by the climate emergency. 144 00:07:05,740 --> 00:07:07,500 There should be new scholarships 145 00:07:07,500 --> 00:07:11,750 and bursaries in environmental science for people of color. 146 00:07:11,750 --> 00:07:13,210 Educate yourself. 147 00:07:13,210 --> 00:07:15,790 Join great movements that recognize the links 148 00:07:15,790 --> 00:07:17,900 between climate and race. 149 00:07:17,900 --> 00:07:20,610 To name a few, the Black Environment Network 150 00:07:20,610 --> 00:07:22,170 and Wretched of the Earth. 151 00:07:22,170 --> 00:07:25,950 And finally, racial injustice and climate injustice 152 00:07:25,950 --> 00:07:28,730 are both rooted in the evil notion 153 00:07:28,730 --> 00:07:32,410 that some lives are more important than others. 154 00:07:32,410 --> 00:07:35,160 If you march to say Black Lives Matter 155 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:37,130 in Minneapolis, London, or Sydney, 156 00:07:37,130 --> 00:07:39,560 please also march for the black lives 157 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:41,500 on the Caribbean island of Haiti 158 00:07:41,500 --> 00:07:44,040 as its children are displaced by storms. 159 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:48,120 Please also march for the black lives being lost in Darfur, 160 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:50,530 the first climate change conflict. 161 00:07:50,530 --> 00:07:53,530 And please also march for the indigenous people 162 00:07:53,530 --> 00:07:55,330 of the Amazon rainforest 163 00:07:55,330 --> 00:07:57,820 as Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro 164 00:07:57,820 --> 00:07:59,820 weakens its protections. 165 00:07:59,820 --> 00:08:02,810 If we are serious about protecting black lives 166 00:08:02,810 --> 00:08:05,200 in the global south as well as the north, 167 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:08,290 we need to strengthen international laws. 168 00:08:08,290 --> 00:08:11,660 We need a way to apply international criminal laws 169 00:08:11,660 --> 00:08:15,690 like war crimes or crimes against humanity to the planet. 170 00:08:15,690 --> 00:08:18,610 We need a new international law of ecocide 171 00:08:18,610 --> 00:08:20,300 to criminalize the willful 172 00:08:20,300 --> 00:08:23,270 and widespread destruction of the environment, 173 00:08:23,270 --> 00:08:26,050 a law that criminalizes the most severe crimes 174 00:08:26,050 --> 00:08:27,880 against nature itself, 175 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:31,930 even for acts don't involve direct human suffering. 176 00:08:31,930 --> 00:08:34,310 Economics, race, and class 177 00:08:34,310 --> 00:08:38,040 are at the center of today's political struggles. 178 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:39,640 The Black Lives Matter movement 179 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:42,840 needs to wake up to climate injustices 180 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:45,800 just as the climate movement must make every effort 181 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:48,750 to include the reality of people of color. 182 00:08:48,750 --> 00:08:50,840 Young black boys growing up 183 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:53,180 in single-parent households in Tottenham 184 00:08:53,180 --> 00:08:55,340 won't have the opportunities I had 185 00:08:55,340 --> 00:08:58,080 in a world ravaged by climate chaos. 186 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:01,560 My distant cousins and relatives growing up in Guyana 187 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:04,883 won't have a future if their homes are drowning underwater. 188 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:09,660 Now is the time for black and climate movements 189 00:09:09,660 --> 00:09:13,797 to come together unequivocally and say, "We can't breathe." 190 00:09:14,790 --> 00:09:15,790 Thank you very much.