Postcards to the Green New Deal from the Former Soviet Union
Climate justice activists are implementing best practices in unexpected places.
Last month, as the the Green New Deal reached peak momentum and media attention in the U.S., I was huddled in a conference room in Tbilisi, Georgia with a dozen human rights activists from the former Soviet Union. My team and I were training these young professionals to create media pieces to change the narratives on human rights issues in their home countries, and I was mentoring several focused on environmental justice.
My work on environmental justice has introduced me to displaced indigenous villagers in Oaxaca, residents of the Cancer Belt in California, and endangered gorillas in Congo — all of whom are caught up in the web of global climate change. I am intimately aware of the human face of climate change, and it is anything but ‘elite’ (as Republican Representative Sean Duffy implied). I can also testify that the true heroes of the climate change movement, the people on the front lines, risking their lives to save their communities and our planet, are as diverse, working-class, and grassroots as any collective I’ve ever seen. If you need proof, you can check out my latest short film, which features fishermen from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo traveling to California to hear from farmworkers about how to be part of the solution to climate change.
But my point is not how wrong Representative Duffy was in his assertion (fortunately, Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez handled that already). My point is that taking a global lens to the Green New Deal can help our fight here at home. As a start, I offer four specific lessons from my mentees’ projects in Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
- Tip from Central Asia: Keep fighting to change hearts and minds.
In the Central Asian countries of Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, environmental activism is seen as overly serious and dangerously political, often rendering it unsafe for discussion under authoritarian regimes. In an effort to bypass this stigma, Svetlana* is focused on popularizing the value of the environment among younger generations by linking it to cultural heritage and identity — thus creating unity across national boundaries while at the same time starting an entirely new conversation about the environment and its protection. In the long-term, this strategy has the potential to plant the seeds of environmental protection deep within her audiences’ minds, preparing a new generation of environmental activists and pulling allies from the arts, history, cultural and culinary communities.
In the US, the battle to win hearts and minds is equally important. Last week’s Senate vote may have halted progress of the Green New Deal on the policy front, but the fight continues in the court of public opinion. Although the debate around the Green New Deal reached circus-like proportions, perhaps best represented by one Republican lawmaker’s public stance in defense of the supposedly-endangered hamburger, it did drive an increase in coverage of climate change, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. While analysts conceded that some of the coverage was either superficial, politically-motivated, or a platform for for old-school climate-change denialism, they also pointed out that keeping climate change in the conversation is much better than ignoring it. Cultural and narrative change takes time, and it takes repetition. We must keep this conversation alive, infused with our energy and our voices, in order to change our policies.
2. Tip from Armenia: Put a human face on climate change, and focus on concrete things like health.
In Armenia, metal mining poses a deadly threat to public health. According to one study, farm produce was laden with heavy metals, including mercury, arsenic and cadmium, and up to 57% of residents of the capital city live in contaminated conditions. Unfortunately, statistics like this, especially when the indicate seemingly insurmountable problems, don’t spark action. On the contrary, they often cause people to feel helpless and shut down. According to Per Espen Stoknes, the economist and psychologist behind the book What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming, this is because scientific narratives dull an audience’s sense of urgency around an issue by creating a sense of distance.
To counter this sentiment, Naira* is making a video that features the individuals living closest to these toxic mines, who will provide personal testimony about their experience. Her focus on health is consistent with one of Stoknes’ key recommendations: “Health of people, your family, your children, the community and also health of the forests or the health of the water system.That really makes it feel personal, near, urgent and here.” This recommendation is essential for the success of climate action, and any future policies seeking to advance the Green New Deal.
In responding to accusations that her bill was elitist, Ocasio-Cortes expertly pointed to the health of children in the South Bronx and Flint, Michigan, centering the conversation around real, tangible victims of environmental racism. This tactic must be repeated time and again, to keep linking the abstract and complex idea of climate change to urgent, personal and local victims.
3. Tip from Uzbekistan: Broaden your network of allies to find messengers who can influence your adversaries.
The cotton industry in Uzbekistan is the source of some of the worst human rights abuses of our time. Cotton harvesting is rife with well-documented cases of modern-day slavery, and the industry’s insatiable thirst for water has contributed to the complete drying up of the Aral Sea. Uzbek officials are unresponsive to public pressure or international shaming when it comes to their human rights abuses. But there is one group they will listen to: fashion brands. Uzbekistan desperately wants to destigmatize their cotton and convince major brands to purchase it.
As such, Timur*, a young Uzbek filmmaker, is focusing his efforts on speaking to clothing manufacturers in order to get them pressure Uzbek officials to make real changes to their environmental and labor practices. This strategy draws on a well-proven theory that the messenger matters when you want to be persuasive.
In fact, a 2019 study revealed that these effects hold enormous potential for swaying climate change deniers. Researchers presented Evangelical Christian college students — many of whom reject the idea of climate change — with a recorded lecture by an evangelical climate scientist. They found that when information was presented “with a Christian perspective,” the percentage of students who thought global warming was happening increased by up to 35%. Considering that about 25% of adults in America identify as Evangelical, this breakthrough provides a clear roadmap for outreach and persuasion on the climate change front.
4. Tip from Kazakhstan: Dream big and ask for what you want, no matter how impossible it seems.
Oil is the political and economic lifeblood of Kazakhstan. It accounts for more than 50% of the country’s exports, and is the foundation of its ties to Russia, a key ally of Kazakhstan within the Eurasian Economic Union. For decades, the oil and gas sector have caused massive pollution, conflicts, and even sudden deaths among workers, as well as contaminating the air for surrounding communities. Unfortunately, repeated economic crises and unemployment make ordinary Kazakhs increasingly reliant on the oil industry for survival, and even more vulnerable to violations of their labor rights.
In the midst of this, my team and I are helping Natasha*, a young Kazakh photographer, push her fellow citizens to imagine a future where their rights aren’t trampled by the oil industry and its cronies. Her strategy for breaking through such widespread defeatism is to invite young parents to revisit their innocent childhood dreams, in an effort to spark even a moment of optimism and possibility. This devastatingly simple exercise is a testament to the entrenched nature of the narrative around oil in Kazakhstan.
In the U.S., we have thankfully not reached this point. But climate activists and policymakers do fall victim to conceding more than they should, and not dreaming big enough. The left has spent decades courting centrists in an attempt to win votes and pass new policies. As climate journalist David Roberts argues, it’s time to abandon incrementalism, stop asking for less, and go for the glory. From a practical standpoint, our hyper-partisan political environment means that even watered-down leftist legislation will be blocked. But, more importantly, from a moral standpoint, climate change is at a critical turning point and we must take meaningful action, not a half-way approach. Nothing less than the future of our planet depends on it.
*First names are used to protect participants’ identities.
