VIDEO: Young, Black and on the Front Lines of the Climate Movement

These young people are transforming the way their communities and the nation address the climate crisis.

As the fight for climate justice continues, young people are shaping what equitable climate action looks like: centering Black and Brown voices and the intersections of climate change. Shanita Hubbard, chair of Freelance Task Force at the National Association of Black Journalists, spoke with two climate leaders: Dillon Bernard, Communications Director at Future Coalition & Andrea Manning, student at the University of Georgia and core organizer with Zero Hour. They shared their stories of activism, how race impacts their work, and what more the media can do to support diverse youth activists.

Climate change is no longer an issue of the future, but is happening all around us. If you add weather impacts like more intense heat waves and flooding, to long-standing policies that contaminated the quality of air and water in African American communities, it’s clear how Black communities are particularly vulnerable to the climate crisis. However, they’ve also always been resilient.

Historically, environmental justice has been seen as a basic right for many civil rights movements led by African American people as early as the 1950s. African American people have always been a part of the climate and environmental movement, but they aren’t always seen.

Dillon Bernard (@dillonsbernard, dillon@futurecoalition.org) is the Communications Director at Future Coalition. Andrea Manning (@aerdnamanning, andrea@thisiszerohour.org) is a student at the University of Georgia and core organizer with Zero Hour. Shanita Hubbard (@msshanitarenee) is the chair of Freelance Task Force at the National Association of Black Journalists.