WEBVTT

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I've got to start by
admitting that, in many ways,

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me giving a talk about how climate action

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can help black communities is surprising.

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I grew up poor and black with
a single mother in Tottenham,

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one of the most deprived areas in London

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in the 1970s and '80s.

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Climate change was the
last thing on my mind.

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And representing Tottenham
as its member of Parliament

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for the past 20 years, my focus
has been on trying to reduce

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the deprivation I grew up around.

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In the past, the climate
crisis never featured

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at the forefront of my politics

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because it was never one of
the most immediate challenges

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my constituents were facing,

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or at least it didn't feel like it.

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Rising sea levels feel unimportant

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when your bank balance is falling.

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Global warming is not your concern

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when you can't pay the heating bills.

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And you're not thinking about pollution

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when you're being stopped by the police.

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And so, perhaps this is why,

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as the Black Lives Matter
movement roared across the world,

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there's been so little
mention of saving black lives

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from the climate emergency.

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For too long, those of us who
cared about racial justice

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treated environmental justice
as though it was elitist.

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And at the same time,

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the leaders who did
focus on climate change

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were usually white and rarely
bothered to enlist the support

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of black voices in their work.

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Even progressive allies sometimes
took our votes for granted

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and assumed that our community didn't care

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or wouldn't understand.

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The truth is the opposite is true.

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Black people breathe in the most toxic air

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relative to the general population.

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We are more likely to suffer
from respiratory diseases

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like asthma.

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And it is people of color

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who are more likely to
suffer in the climate crisis.

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This is no coincidence.

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The cheapest housing tends to
be next to the busiest roads

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and many of the lowest paid jobs

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are in the most polluting industries.

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People of color consistently
lie at the bottom

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of the housing, educational,
and employment ladders.

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This story connects black
communities across the world,

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from London to Lagos to LA.

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Black Americans are exposed
to 56% more pollution

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than they cause.

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White Americans breathe
17% less air pollution

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than they produce.

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It gives a whole new meaning

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to the Black Lives Matter
slogan, "I can't breathe."

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We all rightly know the
name of George Floyd,

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who was murdered by the police.

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But we should also know the
name of Ella Kissi-Debrah.

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Ella, a nine-year-old mixed-race
girl from Southeast London,

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was killed by a fatal asthma attack.

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Evidence suggests this was caused partly

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by the unlawful levels of
air pollution near her home.

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And it's not only urban
areas where black lives

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are disproportionately under
threat from climate change.

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My parents' home country of Guyana

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is one of the most
vulnerable countries on Earth

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to the effects of climate change.

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So far, Guyana has
contributed relatively little

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to the climate emergency,
but it's one of the countries

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facing the most serious threats from it.

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While the annual carbon
dioxide emissions per head

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in the United States is a
staggering 16.5 metric tons,

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in Guyana it's just 2.6.

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It is a pattern repeated across the globe.

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Those countries that
have contributed least

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to the climate breakdown,
mainly in the global south,

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will suffer the most from floods,

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droughts, and rising temperatures.

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This is a pattern of
suffering with a long history.

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The exploitation of our
planet's natural resources

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has always been tied to the
exploitation of people of color.

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The logic of colonization was
to extract valuable resources

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from our planet through force,

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paying no attention to
its secondary effects.

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The climate crisis is, in a way,

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colonialism's natural conclusion.

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The solution is to build a new coalition

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made up of all the groups most
affected by this emergency:

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black people in American cities

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who are already protesting
that they cannot breathe,

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people of color in Guyana
watching sea levels rise

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to the point where many of their
homes become uninhabitable,

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young people in places
like Tottenham, London,

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afraid of the world that
they will grow old in,

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and progressive allies from all nations,

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of all races, religions,
creeds, and ages on their side,

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all demanding recognition
that climate justice

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is linked to racial
justice, social justice,

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and intergenerational justice too.

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And let me say something
about how we build

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this new movement and
what it must look like.

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First, we need a recognition
that the climate movement

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is not only about protecting the planet.

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It is primarily about caring

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for the people who live on the planet.

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Globally as well as nationally,

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we need to recognize structural
imbalances and inequalities.

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A radical green recovery plan

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should provide jobs to the people

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who've been disenfranchised for centuries,

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new jobs planting trees,
insulating buildings,

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and working on green technologies.

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We cannot tackle the climate crisis

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without addressing racial inequalities.

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And we cannot solve racial inequalities

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without fixing the economic system.

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The new deal the economy
needs is not only green,

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it's green and black.

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Second, we need more black leaders.

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It cannot be right in 2020

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that almost all the leading
climate change activists

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we recognize are white.

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At Davos this year, five
young female members

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of the Fridays for Future movement

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came together to give a press conference

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at the World Economic Forum.

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This is a picture the
Associated Press put out.

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Here is the original image.

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As the Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate

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herself put it afterwards,

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"You didn't just erase a
photo, you erased a continent."

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We need to look at who
is being cropped out

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of leadership positions in
environmental organizations too.

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People of color makeup around 40%

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of the United States population.

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So, why is it a University
of Michigan study

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found that the percentage of minorities

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in leadership positions in US
environmental organizations

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is less than 12%?

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Global organizations should consider

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moving their headquarters
to the global south

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and urban areas that are most affected

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by the climate emergency.

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There should be new scholarships

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and bursaries in environmental
science for people of color.

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Educate yourself.

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Join great movements
that recognize the links

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between climate and race.

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To name a few, the Black
Environment Network

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and Wretched of the Earth.

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And finally, racial injustice
and climate injustice

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are both rooted in the evil notion

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that some lives are more
important than others.

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If you march to say Black Lives Matter

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in Minneapolis, London, or Sydney,

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please also march for the black lives

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on the Caribbean island of Haiti

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as its children are displaced by storms.

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Please also march for the black
lives being lost in Darfur,

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the first climate change conflict.

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And please also march
for the indigenous people

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of the Amazon rainforest

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as Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro

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weakens its protections.

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If we are serious about
protecting black lives

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in the global south as well as the north,

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we need to strengthen international laws.

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We need a way to apply
international criminal laws

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like war crimes or crimes
against humanity to the planet.

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We need a new international law of ecocide

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to criminalize the willful

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and widespread destruction
of the environment,

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a law that criminalizes
the most severe crimes

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against nature itself,

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even for acts don't involve
direct human suffering.

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Economics, race, and class

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are at the center of
today's political struggles.

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The Black Lives Matter movement

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needs to wake up to climate injustices

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just as the climate movement
must make every effort

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to include the reality of people of color.

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Young black boys growing up

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in single-parent households in Tottenham

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won't have the opportunities I had

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in a world ravaged by climate chaos.

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My distant cousins and
relatives growing up in Guyana

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won't have a future if their
homes are drowning underwater.

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Now is the time for black
and climate movements

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to come together unequivocally
and say, "We can't breathe."

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Thank you very much.