Black Lives Matter: A Statement from the Climate Works for All Coalition against White Supremacy and Police Violence
The Climate Works for All Coalition of environmental justice, economic justice, and community organizations stands with the protests against white supremacy and police violence. White supremacy underlies the systems that have both inflicted environmental injustices in Black communities, and allowed chronic police violence on Black bodies.
Climate activists in New York City, the United States, and around the world advocate every day for a better world governed by environmentally just policies, an entirely transformed economy that invests in renewable energy and is powered by the people, and city landscapes defined by open space and energy efficient housing. If this vision is one we demand and fight for every day, then our movement must also envision and demand a country that has vanquished white supremacy and the violence of the police state. If we truly advocate for climate justice, environmental justice, and energy justice, as an industry we must demand racial justice. Because we cannot achieve true climate justice without racial justice.
As scientists, activists, energy professionals, sustainability advocates, and policy makers, we know that Black communities in the U.S. bear some of the greatest burden of climate change even though they have contributed the least to the problem. Black communities all over the United States live in neighborhoods with poor air quality, little green space, and higher vulnerability to extreme weather events. They are also more likely to live in unhealthy housing that is poorly maintained, inefficient, and non-resilient in extreme weather such as flooding. It is racist U.S. policies like redlining and malicious zoning practices that have exposed Black communities to greater environmental hazards for centuries.
The political and systemic forces that oppress and endanger Black bodies will not stop unless all people empower and uplift their communities to condemn and prosecute this violence; unless we actively work to rebuild the systems that on a daily basis perpetuate racial discrimination and push Black communities into positions of vulnerability. It is not enough for the climate movement to be quietly anti-racist. It is not enough for climate activists to radicalize to protect public lands and endangered ecosystems, without vocally acknowledging the systems of oppression that have stolen these lands and profited from them on the labor of BIPOC people since 1492 and 1619.
The Climate Works for All Coalition calls on our partners in the climate and energy worlds to condemn the violence against Black bodies and to re-envision how to push for change in a way that intentionally uplifts Black & African American communities in the U.S. For example, the Renewable energy industry is only 6% Black/African American. It is not enough for the energy sector to support energy efficiency for low-income households. The sector must see itself as a potential lever for change, instead of perpetuating the same racist policies that box Black communities out. Our environmental and energy industries must be actively anti-racist and inclusive of Black voices, leaders, and educators as we push for climate action. Achieving a just transition rests on achieving racial justice.
We demand intersectional, inclusive, and reparations-based climate justice and will not accept the white-washing of the environmental & urban sustainability space. We denounce the funding and political support of police institutions. We demand all players in the climate action movement, especially those who obtain funding for housing, low income programming, and equitable energy solutions, stand in solidarity with Black communities by including racial justice as a central platform and denouncing police violence against black communities.
As activists fighting for true climate justice, we stand in strong solidarity with those fighting for racial justice; those in protesting in the streets this past week, those that have always been actively fighting for Black lives, and most importantly the Black members in our communities, workplaces, schools, and homes, that carry the weight of deep injustice on their shoulders through their daily lives. Rest in Power Ahmaud Arbary, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and the many other Black lives we have lost to police violence. Black Lives Matter.
Sincerely,
The Climate Works For All Coalition
Resources and Readings:
Donate:
- Philonise Floyd’s (George Floyd’s brother) family GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd
- Black Visions Collective https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
- The Louisville community bail fund (where Breonna Taylor lived) https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/louisville-community-bail-fund/
Take Action
- Write to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to demand justice https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/d189a2276e234cacb9f02db60dac0569
- Demand County Attorney Mike Freeman charge all of the officers associated with George Floyd’s murder by calling him at 612–348–5550.
Sign the petitions for George Floyd
- https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforfloyd_george_floyd_minneapolis
- https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd?utm_source=brand_us&utm_medium=media&use_react=false
- Sign the petition for Tony McDade https://www.change.org/p/black-lives-matter-activists-justice-for-tony-mcdade
Sign the petitions for Breonna Taylor
- https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforbre-breonna-taylor-officers-fired?source=coc_main_website
- https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor
Sign the Black Lives Matter petition to Defund the Police
Get connected and support:
- Just Leadership USA http://jlusa.org/buildcommunities/
- Showing Up for Racial Justice https://surjnyc.com/
- Color of Change https://colorofchange.org/
- Black Lives Matter https://blacklivesmatter.com/
- Black Youth Project 100 https://www.byp100.org/
- Black Visions Collective https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
Resources:
Why Green Buildings are a Civil Rights Issue:
Antiracist reading list
