Climate justice can't happen without racial justice
-
0:01 - 0:04I've got to start by admitting
that in many ways -
0:04 - 0:10me giving a talk about how climate action
can help Black communities is surprising. -
0:10 - 0:14I grew up poor and Black
with a single mother in Tottenham, -
0:14 - 0:16one of the most deprived areas in London,
-
0:16 - 0:18in the 1970s and '80s.
-
0:18 - 0:21Climate change was the last
thing on my mind. -
0:21 - 0:26And representing Tottenham as its member
of Parliament for the past 20 years, -
0:26 - 0:30my focus has been on trying to reduce
the deprivation I grew up around. -
0:30 - 0:35In the past, the climate crisis never
featured at the forefront of my politics -
0:35 - 0:37because it was never one
of the most immediate challenges -
0:37 - 0:39my constituents were facing,
-
0:39 - 0:41or at least it didn't feel like it.
-
0:41 - 0:46Rising sea levels feel unimportant
when your bank balance is falling. -
0:46 - 0:50Global warming is not your concern
when you can't pay the heating bills. -
0:50 - 0:54And you're not thinking about pollution
when you're being stopped by the police. -
0:54 - 0:56And so perhaps this is why
-
0:56 - 1:00as the Black Lives Matter movement
roared across the world, -
1:00 - 1:03there's been so little mention
of saving Black lives -
1:03 - 1:05from the climate emergency.
-
1:05 - 1:08For too long, those of us
who cared about racial justice -
1:08 - 1:11treated environmental justice
as though it was elitist. -
1:11 - 1:13And at the same time,
-
1:13 - 1:15the leaders who did focus
on climate change -
1:15 - 1:17were usually white
-
1:17 - 1:22and rarely bothered to enlist the support
of Black voices in their work. -
1:22 - 1:26Even progressive allies
sometimes took our votes for granted -
1:26 - 1:31and assumed that our community didn't care
or wouldn't understand. -
1:31 - 1:34The truth is the opposite is true.
-
1:34 - 1:40Black people breathe in the most toxic air
relative to the general population. -
1:40 - 1:45We are more likely to suffer
from respiratory diseases like asthma. -
1:45 - 1:47And it is people of color
-
1:47 - 1:50who are more likely to suffer
in the climate crisis. -
1:51 - 1:54This is no coincidence.
-
1:54 - 1:57The cheapest housing
tends to be next to the busiest roads, -
1:57 - 2:02and many of the lowest paid jobs
are in the most polluting industries. -
2:02 - 2:06People of color consistently
lie at the bottom of the housing, -
2:06 - 2:09educational and employment ladders.
-
2:09 - 2:13This story connects Black
communities across the world, -
2:13 - 2:15from London to Lagos to LA.
-
2:16 - 2:20Black Americans are exposed
to 56 percent more pollution -
2:20 - 2:22than they cause.
-
2:22 - 2:26White Americans breathe
17 percent less air pollution -
2:26 - 2:28than they produce.
-
2:28 - 2:33It gives a whole new meaning
to the Black Lives Matter slogan -
2:33 - 2:35"I can't breathe."
-
2:35 - 2:38We all rightly know the name
of George Floyd, -
2:38 - 2:41who was murdered by the police.
-
2:41 - 2:44But we should also know the name
of Ella Kissi-Debrah. -
2:44 - 2:49Ella, a nine-year-old
mixed-race girl from South East London, -
2:49 - 2:52was killed by a fatal asthma attack.
-
2:52 - 2:54Evidence suggests this was caused
-
2:54 - 2:59partly by the unlawful levels
of air pollution near her home. -
2:59 - 3:01And it's not only urban areas
-
3:01 - 3:06where Black lives are disproportionately
under threat from climate change. -
3:07 - 3:10My parents' home country of Guyana
-
3:10 - 3:12is one of the most vulnerable
countries on Earth -
3:12 - 3:15to the effects of climate change.
-
3:15 - 3:18So far, Guyana has contributed
relatively little -
3:18 - 3:20to the climate emergency,
-
3:20 - 3:24but it's one of the countries
facing the most serious threats from it. -
3:24 - 3:29While the annual carbon dioxide emissions
per head in the United States -
3:29 - 3:33is a staggering 16.5 metric tons,
-
3:33 - 3:35in Guyana it's just 2.6.
-
3:35 - 3:39It is a pattern repeated across the globe.
-
3:39 - 3:43Those countries that have contributed
least to the climate breakdown, -
3:43 - 3:45mainly in the global south,
-
3:45 - 3:49will suffer the most from floods,
droughts, and rising temperatures. -
3:50 - 3:54This is a pattern of suffering
with a long history. -
3:54 - 3:57The exploitation of our planet's
natural resources -
3:57 - 4:02has always been tied
to the exploitation of people of color. -
4:02 - 4:04The logic of colonization
-
4:04 - 4:08was to extract valuable resources
from our planet through force, -
4:08 - 4:11paying no attention
to its secondary effects. -
4:11 - 4:17The climate crisis is in a way
colonialism's natural conclusion. -
4:17 - 4:20The solution is to build a new coalition
-
4:20 - 4:25made up of all the groups
most affected by this emergency: -
4:25 - 4:27Black people in American cities
-
4:27 - 4:30who are already protesting
that they cannot breathe; -
4:30 - 4:33people of color in Guyana
watching sea levels rise -
4:33 - 4:37to the point where many of their homes
become uninhabitable; -
4:37 - 4:39young people in places
like Tottenham, London, -
4:39 - 4:42afraid of the world
that they will grow old in; -
4:42 - 4:45and progressive allies from all nations,
-
4:45 - 4:48of all races, religions,
creeds and ages on their side, -
4:48 - 4:50all demanding recognition
-
4:51 - 4:55that climate justice is linked
to racial justice, social justice -
4:55 - 4:57and intergenerational justice too.
-
4:57 - 5:01And let me say something
about how we build this new movement -
5:01 - 5:03and what it must look like.
-
5:03 - 5:05First, we need a recognition
-
5:05 - 5:09that the climate movement
is not only about protecting the planet. -
5:09 - 5:15It is primarily about caring
for the people who live on the planet. -
5:15 - 5:17Globally as well as nationally,
-
5:17 - 5:22we need to recognize
structural imbalances and inequalities. -
5:22 - 5:26A radical green recovery plan
should provide jobs to the people -
5:26 - 5:29who've been disenfranchised for centuries,
-
5:29 - 5:32new jobs planting trees,
insulating buildings -
5:32 - 5:34and working on green technologies.
-
5:34 - 5:40We cannot tackle the climate crisis
without addressing racial inequalities. -
5:40 - 5:45And we cannot solve racial inequalities
without fixing the economic system. -
5:45 - 5:48The new deal the economy
needs is not only green, -
5:48 - 5:51it's green and Black.
-
5:51 - 5:55Second, we need more Black leaders.
-
5:55 - 5:58It cannot be right in 2020
-
5:58 - 6:04that almost all the leading climate change
activists we recognize are white. -
6:04 - 6:06At Davos this year,
-
6:06 - 6:10five young female members
of the Fridays for Future movement -
6:10 - 6:15came together to give a press conference
at the World Economic Forum. -
6:15 - 6:18This is a picture
the Associated Press put out. -
6:20 - 6:23Here is the original image.
-
6:24 - 6:28As the Ugandan activist, Vanessa Nakate,
herself put it afterwards, -
6:28 - 6:33"You didn't just erase a photo,
you erased a continent." -
6:33 - 6:36We need to look at
who is being cropped out -
6:36 - 6:40of leadership positions
in environmental organizations too. -
6:40 - 6:45People of color makeup around 40 percent
of the United States population. -
6:45 - 6:49So why is it a University
of Michigan study -
6:49 - 6:52found that the percentage of minorities
in leadership positions -
6:52 - 6:57in US environmental organizations
is less than 12 percent? -
6:57 - 6:58Global organizations should consider
-
6:58 - 7:01moving their headquarters
to the global south -
7:01 - 7:05and urban areas that are most affected
by the climate emergency. -
7:06 - 7:10There should be new scholarships
and bursaries in environmental science -
7:10 - 7:12for people of color.
-
7:12 - 7:13Educate yourself.
-
7:13 - 7:18Join great movements that recognize
the links between climate and race. -
7:18 - 7:19To name a few,
-
7:19 - 7:22the Black Environment Network
and Wretched of the Earth. -
7:22 - 7:23And finally,
-
7:23 - 7:29racial injustice and climate injustice
are both rooted in the evil notion -
7:29 - 7:32that some lives
are more important than others. -
7:32 - 7:37If you march to say Black Lives Matter
in Minneapolis, London or Sydney, -
7:37 - 7:41please also march for the Black lives
on the Caribbean island of Haiti -
7:42 - 7:44as its children are displaced by storms.
-
7:44 - 7:48Please also march for the Black lives
being lost in Darfur, -
7:48 - 7:51the first climate change conflict.
-
7:51 - 7:55And please also march for the Indigenous
people of the Amazon rainforest, -
7:55 - 8:00as Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro
weakens its protections. -
8:00 - 8:04If we are serious about protecting
Black lives in the Global South -
8:04 - 8:05as well as the north,
-
8:05 - 8:08we need to strengthen international laws.
-
8:08 - 8:12We need a way to apply
international criminal laws, -
8:12 - 8:16like war crimes or crimes
against humanity, to the planet. -
8:16 - 8:19We need a new international law of ecocide
-
8:19 - 8:23to criminalize the willful and widespread
destruction of the environment, -
8:23 - 8:28a law that criminalizes the most
severe crimes against nature itself, -
8:28 - 8:32even for acts don't involve
direct human suffering. -
8:32 - 8:34Economics, race and class
-
8:34 - 8:38are at the center
of today's political struggles. -
8:38 - 8:43The Black Lives Matter movement
needs to wake up to climate injustices -
8:43 - 8:45just as the climate movement
-
8:45 - 8:49must make every effort
to include the reality of people of color. -
8:49 - 8:53Young Black boys growing up
in single-parent households in Tottenham -
8:53 - 8:55won't have the opportunities I had
-
8:55 - 8:58in a world ravaged by climate chaos.
-
8:58 - 9:02My distant cousins and relatives
growing up in Guyana -
9:02 - 9:05won't have a future if their homes
are drowning under water. -
9:06 - 9:10Now is the time for Black
and climate movements -
9:10 - 9:14to come together unequivocally
and say, "We can't breathe." -
9:15 - 9:16Thank you very much.
- Title:
- Climate justice can't happen without racial justice
- Speaker:
- David Lammy
- Description:
-
Why has there been so little mention of saving Black lives from the climate emergency? For too long, racial justice efforts have been distinguished from climate justice work, says David Lammy, Member of Parliament for Tottenham, England. In a stirring talk about building a new movement to care for the planet, Lammy calls for inclusion and support of Black and minority leadership on climate issues and a global recognition that we can't solve climate change without racial, social and intergenerational justice.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 09:18
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | ||
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | ||
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | ||
Rhonda Jacobs edited English subtitles for Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | ||
Cissy Yun approved English subtitles for Climate justice can't happen without racial justice |