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Britain's Scramble for Africa's Resources

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Britain's Scramble for Africa's Resources

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Image: Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Image: Elizabethwarren.com

Lead astray & environmental racism

Environmental racism is a planet-wide problem

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What is Environmental Racism And How Can We Fight It?

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Read on to know what is environmental racism and how can we fight it. From toxic tap water to oil pipelines on native land to waste dumps in the global south, here's how structural disadvantages play out in the environment.

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The Messy Challenge of Environmental Justice in the UK

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The Messy Challenge of Environmental Justice in the UK

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The Messy Challenge of Environmental Justice in the UK- Evolution status and prospects

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Environmental Racism: Why Does is Still Exist

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Environmental Racism: Why Does is Still Exist

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A black man in the British Countryside

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Environmental Racism: Why Does It Still Exist?

For the past two months, it's been near impossible not to be thinking about race. After the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, protests erupted in cities around the world; and across news and social media, people have been trying to engage critically with racism in our societies. Ideas like police and prison abolition, and the atrocities of Europe's colonial past, have been put squarely into the public discourse. But an issue that seems sorely missing from the conversation is that of environmental racism.

Being Black in the British Countryside

I spoke to Julian Agyeman, a Black British professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, hoping to gain a better understanding. Professor Agyeman was one of the first voices against environmental injustice in the UK, originally highlighting the problem of access to the countryside for BAME Britons.

Professor Agyeman studied geography and botany at Durham University, graduating in 1980. After becoming a geography teacher at a secondary school in Carlisle, it was school trips to the country that started his thinking about environmental injustice.
"Taking kids out in the Lake District, as a black teacher in front of a bunch of white kids, I was getting stared at. It made me wonder, why? I was wearing all the right gear, why were people staring? This brought up one of my first interests, 'being black in the British countryside'. I was the first person to really talk about that, but I found many people had had similar experiences."
The experience of social exclusion from natural spaces in the UK is something I'm personally familiar with. For each of our 12th birthdays, my granny bought my siblings and me National Trust life memberships. I remember on one occasion, my older brother was questioned at the entrance, being told "you can't use other people's memberships". It's not hard to guess why it was assumed that a mixed-race kid couldn't be the actual owner of the membership.

Race, Class, and Research

This same report though, states that research into injustice related to race has been lacking in the UK:
"Inequality with respect to ethnicity appears to exist in the UK, but rather little work has been done, and there is a limited understanding of the extent to which the few UK environment-ethnicity observations are mediated by income."
Professor Agyeman felt the same, saying "there is good environmental justice research going on in the UK, but it's not explicitly around race, it's more about socio-economic conditions."

Despite this class focus, the issues of racial inequality cannot be escaped. As Professor Agyeman said to me, "socio-economic status is a proxy for race", which is due to the glaring intersection between class and race in British society.

According to the UK government, 58% of Asian households and 62% of Black households fall into the bottom two income categories, compared with just 38% of white households. Considering the other side, just 26% of Asian households and 22% of Black households fall into the top two income categories, while 42% of white households falling into this category . So even if environmental injustice is primarily an issue of class and income, when BAME Britons are disproportionately low income, this is still environmental racism.

One Size (Won't) Fit All

In my conversation with Professor Agyeman, it was clear he felt that to address these issues of environmental racism, it would take a big shift in our discourse, telling me that "the need is for a holistic look".

This means accounting for the way that race and income intersect in the UK, but also broader issues that may not seem immediately related. For example, the fact that just 9.6% of professors in the UK are BAME while making up almost 13% of the population ; and how this could contribute to the lack of academic research into the problems faced by BAME Britons. We can also consider how environmental racism relates to the greater health risks often faced by BAME communities. COVID-19, for example, has been found to kill black men at twice the rates of white men .

The most important thing I took from my conversation with Professor Agyeman though, was the need for social movements to be mass movements, operated from the ground up; including the movement for environmental justice.

The idea that environmental justice must be approached from the perspective of grassroots organization and engagement is extremely prevalent in modern literature, but it also has a history in environmentalism.

Ecologist and political activist Murray Bookchin emphasized this idea, particularly in his 1964 essay Ecology and Revolutionary Thought . He argues that centralized and top-down governance harms not just individuals and their communities, but also inflicts massive damage to our environment.

While Bookchin himself wasn't considering issues of environmental injustice, it's not hard to see how his ideas are applicable. There's no "one size fits all" solution to environmental injustice, every community is different, and so will need to take different steps to ensure that all its members have equal access to the environment.

Taking Environmental Justice

Professor Agyeman coined the term just sustainability to refer to environmental justice. In the same way that classical sustainability requires an intimate understanding of the local environment, just sustainability requires an intimate understanding of the local community. So, if we're to solve the issues of environmental racism in the UK, and the broader concerns of environmental justice, it must be from the perspective of local organization and empowerment.

Fortunately, there are activists and campaigners working to address environmental racism in the UK, and they're recognising the need for local engagement.

Maria Adebowale-Schwarte founded the Living Space Project (LSP), a think tank focusing on urban placemaking and green space. The LSP has supported initiatives like the Academy for Greener Jobs and Skills , aiming to facilitate green jobs across Greater London. There was an emphasis on working with communities and industries often excluded from the green economy. For example, they partnered with the London College of Beauty Therapy to help make the local beauty industry more sustainable.

Neither Adebowale-Schwarte nor Adoo-Kissi-Debrah talks explicitly about environmental racism. But, by fighting environmental issues in urban, working-class communities, they're addressing exactly that.

The struggle against environmental racism is still far from being won, but it's only through continual local action that we can create an environment that works for all. In the words of Professor Agyeman, "Social justice never simply happens." We have to take it. "The Man' isn't going to deliver us environmental justice."
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed here by Impakter.com contributors are their own, not those of Impakter.com

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Environmental Racism: Why Does It Still Exist? - Impakter

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For the past two months, it's been near impossible not to be thinking about race. After the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, protests erupted in cities around the world; and across news and social media, people have been trying to engage critically with racism in our societies.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:19 - 73.4MB) | Embed

The BBC's Springwatch is a cultural institution in the UK, showcasing the extraordinary but often overlooked wildlife of these crumbling isles with warts 'n all realism (i.e. lots of baby Blue Tits getting munched).

Biologist Gillian Burke has for three years been at the heart of the show's presenting team, earning the nation's affection for her passion and powers of communication as much as for her unblinking resolve in the face of uncooperative protagonists and innuendo-tastic co-presenters.

Gillian is also a Black woman in an industry - conservation, nature TV and the environment movement as a whole - notable for its woeful lack of representation of people of colour.

In a longer-than-usual episode, we hear Gillian's reflections on why those banging on about the planet - the Babble very much included - present so little ethnic diversity, and on the extraordinary Spring of 2020, a period that will surely be remembered for the elevation of racial injustice laid bare by George Floyd's killing and the Black Lives Matter protests, and when millions took solace in the natural world as the global pandemic raged.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore - @ dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell. Ecoguff read out by Arabella.

Love the babble? Bung us a few pennies at www.patreon.com/sustainababble.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @ thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

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#183: Gillian Burke meets Sustainababble

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:19 - 73.4MB) | Embed The BBC's Springwatch is a cultural institution in the UK, showcasing the extraordinary but often overlooked wildlife of these crumbling isles with warts 'n all realism (i.e. lots of baby Blue Tits getting munched).

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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Recently, there has been a greater push for people to embrace ethical consumption. From suggestions such as buying food that avoids cruelty to animals, or buying clothing that is better for the environment, nearly everyone is talking about making more informed and sustainable choices. Instagram is filled with stores that boast the use of ethically sourced items, Netflix constantly releases documentaries that encourage people to go vegan, or minimalist, or avoid fast fashion.

Even large chain stores like Walmart and H&M occasionally roll out campaigns that emphasise how they are taking steps to reduce their harmful impact on the environment. However, a lot of these conversations are led by white people and they tend to only focus on the end products of ethical consumption without regarding the people who might be hurt in the production of these goods.

When conversations around ethical and sustainable consumption come up, the people who wholeheartedly support such causes are quick to bring up stats. "It takes less energy for the earth to sustain plants than animals, so switch to a plant-based diet," or, "fast fashion is destroying the environment ", they'll say. And while these things are true, there seems to be some ignorance on the part of white people when they talk about these issues, especially when they gloss over the way marginalised communities are affected by these issues.

"Grocery stores can say that their food is organic, but they have no reason to disclose the working conditions under which the food was produced"

Because ethical consumption has an effect on the environment, one of the biggest pushes, is for people to change their diets. Changing the way you eat , is one of the easiest ways to reduce your impact on the environment. From reducing your consumption of meat to preferring organic produce , there are many dietary decisions one can make to help the environment. But when these decisions are pushed in a capitalist system, marginalised communities are often hurt and ignored. Black and brown people, especially women and migrants, are usually responsible for farm work due to the inexpensive nature of their labour.

When they work, they are exposed to toxic chemicals, couped up in terrible living conditions, forced to work long hours for very little pay and without sufficient rest. They are sometimes sexually and/or physically abused, and they often have no one to report to. As little as their pay is, they are usually cheated by their bosses and get even less pay which reduces their standard of life. The stories of farm workers are often ignored, and documentaries on ethical consumption either do not address these issues at all, or they gloss over this information giving them very little attention. While there are advocacy groups that talk about and highlight these issues, there is not enough pressure from the consumers to change these inequalities. Grocery stores, for example, can say that their food is organic, but they have no reason to disclose the working conditions under which the food was produced.

"The push for ethical consumption has to be one that pushes transparency in every area of production, or else, there will only be a surface level approach"

But it doesn't just stop at the food industry, even with the production of clothing and shoes, most of the work is outsourced to poor brown and black people in the global south. The clothing industry is just as bad as the food industry. Workers can be constantly exposed to harmful chemicals, work for many hours with little to no breaks, in places that go against many health code violations and in many cases, are not allowed holidays. And while brands may label themselves as ethical, there are no laws that say their "ethical" label must consider workers rights.

With time and increased activism from fair-worker groups, companies have reduced outsourcing their work to immigrant communities, and many have turned to prisons for cheap labour . In addition to the fact that going to jail can hurt your chances of having a better life, they are forced to work for wages that are sometimes lower than workers in developing countries. For the most part, people who find themselves in prisons are marginalised people, eg. aboriginal women, black women, black men, immigrants , and repeat offenders.

The push for ethical consumption has to be one that pushes transparency in every area of production, or else, there will only be a surface level approach. For the most part, people who suffer under "non-ethical" consumption, are the same people who suffer from ethical consumption because of the surface level approach to ethical consumption. And a surface level approach ignores how the production process affects the lives of brown and black people negatively, and by ignoring them it aids to their subjugation. It leaves poor brown and black people, who are usually women and/or immigrants, suffering in the background. If ethical consumption can only be achieved at the expense of marginalised groups, then can it truly be considered ethical?

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Ethical consumption can't come at the cost of marginalised communities | gal-dem

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Recently, there has been a greater push for people to embrace ethical consumption. From suggestions such as buying food that avoids cruelty to animals, or buying clothing that is better for the environment, nearly everyone is talking about making more informed and sustainable choices.

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Mikaela Loach: Distinguishing ecofascism and dismantling white supremacy in environmentalism

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Mikaela Loach: Distinguishing ecofascism and dismantling white supremacy in environmentalism

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Mikaela Loach (Instagram: @mikaelaloach; Twitter: @mikaelaloach) is a climate justice activist, co-host of The Yikes Podcast (Instagram: @TheYikesPodcast; Patreon: The Yikes Podcast), and medical student based in Edinburgh.

Her work focuses on making activism spaces more inclusive and accessible, and as a Black woman, she is especially passionate about the importance of anti-racism work in the climate and sustainability movements.

In this podcast episode, Mikaela sheds light on the dangers of what can happen when white supremacy seeps into environmental activism, thus perpetuating 'ecofascism'; how narratives framing global population growth as environmental harms can perpetuate racism and economic injustice while overlooking the actual roots of our ecological breakdown; and more.

To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Mikaela and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.

"I've seen a lot of comments on Black Lives Matter content [from environmental organizations or brands] saying, 'Don't make it political'. Everything they were doing before was also political- it's just that it didn't make them uncomfortable.
What people want to comment is, 'Don't make me uncomfortable'. That's what they mean when they say, 'don't make this political.'"
"A lot of ecofascism arguments make claims that the cause of the current climate crisis is with vulnerable and marginalized people rather than with those who have power.

For example, with the overpopulation argument, they'll often cite countries in the Global South and say: "Because they have high population growth rates, they're the cause of the climate crisis. And what we need is have their populations' growth slow down or decrease because too many humans is the problem."

But when you look at the per capita emissions, people in these less industrialized nations contribute so much less to the climate crisis. It's actually the footprint of people in the Global North-countries like the U.K. or the U.S.-that contribute significantly more emissions to the climate crisis as a whole.

[...] Rather than talking about overpopulation, I wonder, 'Why can't we talk about the fact that capitalism is responsible for so many of these issues? Why can't we talk about overconsumption?'

The obsession of a lot of-often white, male-scholars with overpopulation as an argument is just this idea of wanting to point the finger outwards. I also think this argument is inherently racist.

Knowing how the overpopulation argument can be used to harm people, it makes me very weary of it, and I think there are so many other things we can talk about.
We all have a limited amount of energy and time on this Earth-let's think about how we're using that and what sort of things we're giving breath and air to."
"We don't all have to be a Dr. King or an Angela Davis. There are so many individuals in all of these struggles that you will never know the names of, and they were equally as important as the ones who you do know the names of.
Be involved, and know that your involvement matters."

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Mikaela Loach: Distinguishing ecofascism and dismantling white supremacy in environmentalism - GREEN DREAMER

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In this podcast episode, Mikaela sheds light on the dangers of what can happen when white supremacy seeps into environmental activism, thus perpetuating 'ecofascism'; how narratives framing global population growth as environmental harms can perpetuate racism and economic injustice while overlooking

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The environmental movements in the Global North in all their guises and with all their intricacies have been hard to ignore in the past year. Whether it's school kids striking, campaigns to reduce plastic waste, new energy being pumped into the campaign for Green New Deals or Extinction Rebellion's highly-contested belief that getting as many people arrested as possible will motivate governments to take action on climate change; the environmental movement has had a busy 18 months.

Historically, in the UK, the movement has been white, middle class and frankly full of the type of racism and classism that marginalised people might expect from such a space. The understanding of climate change in these spaces has largely been framed around the idea that the climate crisis is on the horizon, awaiting future generations. However, many of us with heritage in the Global South know about and have witnessed the impact climate change is already having on our communities around the world.

"Movements in the Global South and indigenous North have been doing the most to halt catastrophic climate change"

People of colour have been involved in tackling environmental issues for decades, from fighting against incinerators, protecting our homelands and water sources, to devising solutions to end poverty or achieve food justice. We have been at the forefront of the struggle for climate justice for decades. Groups and movements in the Global South and indigenous North have been doing the most to halt catastrophic climate change caused by centuries of colonial exploitation of the planet's finite resources. Honouring and remembering the work that has been done in the past is so important. Those who have done and given so much in decades gone have ultimately created the foundations which allow us to do the environmental work happening today, whether that's educating the masses or running community projects to demonstrate the solutions.

Who are some of these people and what are the lessons we can learn from them?

Nim Ralph

Nim Ralph (photo courtesy Nim Ralph)

Nim Ralph, a trans rights activist and freelance strategist and facilitator, joined the first climate camp as a student in Edinburgh. Nim's work over the past decade since that camp has involved, as they describe, envisaging "new ways of being in new worlds", and moving away from a politics of fear which breeds urgency, and in turn oppression. As we sit down, they tell me that "imagination is radical weapon". They speak from experience: what started out as feeling a sense of community when they first got involved in climate justice organising, quickly progressed into feelings of isolation. During this time, Nim was also learning more about race, class, gender and disability - gaining knowledge that would eventually lead them to leave the movement and focus their energy elsewhere.

Nim went from shutting down nuclear power stations to raising questions about the impact their actions were having on the local community. Each time they did an action, the power station workers would express anger towards the group, but the activists would go away feeling self-righteous. The resistance work was inaccessible and short-term; activists would turn up for a week of the year, then leave forgetting about the people in the community who were impacted every day by environmental degradation. There was a distinct lack of collaborative working, which prevented long-term change. When Nim raised this in the group's meetings, they were shouted at for being "difficult". The urgency of the issue and the egos of those activists were apparently more important than the lives of the people in those communities.

"Nim couldn't understand why activists put so much energy into judging people who were simply making choices based on limited resources"

Back in the movement spaces, Nim saw moralism becoming a dominating force, with comments being made about how "we don't shop there" or "we don't buy that product". Nim couldn't understand why activists put so much energy into judging people who were simply making choices based on the limited resources available to them. They also noticed fellow activists judging people for having flat screen TVs, and then going home to their parents' oversized houses with numerous flat-screen TVs, or treating their belongings like laptops with little care, knowing that if they broke or lost them, their parents would just buy them another one.

Things came to a head when people started expressing their problematic opinions on race or class. Nim found it terrifying and began to feel disillusioned. They knew they needed to leave the movement when, after having major surgery, none of their friends turned up to support them. They remember receiving a meagre text message from one friend a week later. These were supposed to be some of their best friends, who they had lived with for several years, and had carried out some intense direct actions alongside.

Nim went onto co-found and run So We Stand, a group which organised with frontline communities to challenge environmental injustices. Nim credits the group for bringing to the fore the need to centre racial and class justice when talking about any environmental justice issue. After So We Stand, Nim worked on a range of social justice work around the country and today, they train activists and organisers.

"In words of Angela Davis, 'you have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world'"

Nim goes on to tell me that we need to "hold space for each other's trauma. We are all trying to survive - we need to be compassionate with each other, accepting people as their whole selves is part of that. We need a deeply compassionate culture and we need to end cancel culture within our spaces". Nim urges activists to learn what it truly means to "organise" and to not just critique but actively build. As we part ways, they leave me with the words of Angela Davis, "you have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time."

Yvonne Field

Yvonne Field (photo courtesy Jannat Hossein)

Much of Yvonne Field 's work is about bringing people together to create the solutions, communities and cultures they need in the here and now. In her own words, she is "a bit of a social justice warrior", and she believes you can facilitate pockets of social justice in communities. That, she tells me, is what she loves about what she does; the knowledge that she has the power to make change is what gets her up in the morning, and to work on a Saturday. Yvonne is extraordinarily fearless - and the world needs brave people like her to do the work.

Yvonne has spent the last 40 years undertaking different types of work to bring about social change and now runs Ubele, an African diaspora-led intergenerational organisation which seeks to build more sustainable communities across the UK. Ubele co-runs Wolves Lane, a community led growing space in North London. Wolves Lane is open every Sunday for visitors to meet the volunteers, take a tour of the site, and enjoy tea with new friends (I highly recommend checking out the Palm House!). Through Wolves Lane, Yvonne is supporting the establishment of Black Rootz, a group of extraordinary black growers who are establishing their own growing space and practice. Collective organising isn't always easy, but Yvonne places great value on the process, telling me an old adage which has served her well: "if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together".

"At 13, Yvonne found herself with little to do outside of school so decided to start a youth club in her local area"

Yvonne is the youngest daughter of 10 children, born to working class parents who are part of the Windrush generation. At 13, Yvonne found herself with little to do outside of school so decided to start a youth club in her local area. She used the local church hall on a Friday night, and so many young people from the neighbourhood began turning up that the local authority assigned them a youth worker. At university, Yvonne worked with women's groups to bring people together. After graduating, she worked at the now-defunct Lambeth Girls' Project, working with young girls to challenge sexism and racism. She then moved on to develop one of the first accredited youth work and play training mentoring programmes in the UK.

Yvonne spent her late 20s working across the Caribbean, training community development workers and advising governments on youth policy issues. As a young black British woman, she found working in the hierarchical established and systems dominated by men a challenge, and so started her own consultancy. She later worked in the UK and South Africa with Reos Partners, a social enterprise which supports people to develop systemic change projects. This work led her to ask questions about how community-led efforts to tackle some of the social and economic challenges facing the black community in the UK were (or weren't) being supported, and the thinking this provoked gave birth to what is now Ubele.

Yvonne wants younger social change makers to learn to create solid, meaningful partnerships. She encourages people to find others with similar interests and passions, and explains: "the skills you need to do the work will come to you. Collaborate, share out the work and always deliver". Reflecting on the support she's received over the years, Yvonne also talks a lot about the importance of being generous, of doing things without expecting anything back. Her maxim seems to be: what you give will come back to you in other ways. What's important is that you sow the seeds with your own generosity.

Shilpa Shah

Shilpa Shah (photo courtesy Shilpa Shah)

"We can't relate to each other in healthy ways until we relate to ourselves in healthy ways" explains Shilpa Shah, who has been on a long journey for the last 15 years. After university, she volunteered at a grassroots women's empowerment organisation in Gujarat, India, where her family is from. In Gujarat, she saw people on the margins supporting each other, building each other up and using creative methods which saw everyone have ownership of the work.

She came back to the UK and started the Akashi Project in her hometown of Cambridge, alongside Ro Randall and Andy Brown, founders of Cambridge Carbon Footprint, an organisation which supports people to move to low carbon living. The Akashi Project seeks to facilitate community discussions and action on climate change which goes beyond guilt, shame and inactivity. Her work in Cambridge included speaking in schools, mosques and gurdwaras, where she says she learned more than she taught; organising a festival for 400 people, focused on taking action for climate justice and hosting climate change mehndi parties with Bengali schoolgirls.

In 2008, Shilpa left the Akashi Project in her mum's capable hands and went to work at Friends of the Earth (FOE), where she worked to support communities worst affected by environmental injustice to use the law to fight against it. She found herself facilitating groups who were trying to shift their organisation's strategy - thinking about how decisions were made and power was shared, the theory of change they employed, and how FOE's local groups could be strengthened. However, constantly pushing FOE to get serious about understanding and tackling racism, misogyny and classism eventually burned her out and she left.

"Shilpa explains:

'Taking care of our whole selves is part of the decolonising process'"

Shilpa then began running singing workshops for activists, quickly realising that a lot of the people coming along had experienced trauma. For Shilpa and the singers, accessing breathing work and using their voices in a non-judgemental space was immensely valuable and the workshops spun off into a group called My Heart Sings, which still meets today. "We should always remember to respect the body, the heart and the spirit," Shilpa explains. "Colonialism stripped all that away to give value to the brain, intellect and productivity. Taking care of our whole selves is part of the decolonising process".

Shilpa's advice to younger activists is to follow your heart and also be intentional about setting up your communities of support; she tells me that "working in a group with others and being together is much more effective than going it alone". Shilpa also urges activists and organisers of all ages to proactively create thoughtful, intergenerational and intersectional spaces for honest conversation - to share learning and appreciation for each other and find ways to disagree safely and productively. Conflict handled well, Shilpa stresses, can bring about transformation.

While Extinction Rebellion are hitting the headlines, less is known about the organisers of colour who have worked to support others to think about what a just society could look like, and the kinds of movements we need to help us get there. The new work of climate justice organisers necessarily stands on their shoulders - budding activists risk making the same mistakes again if new movements aren't plugged into the skills, knowledge and learnings which come before them. As we look towards a coming general election in the UK, where political parties will be competing for votes on environmental issues, we can feel reassured that environmental justice organising has long preceded and will long continue beyond 12 December. We should have immense gratitude for the firm foundations provided by organisers like Nim, Yvonne and Shilpa, which stand our movements in good stead for the steep road ahead.

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Who are the climate justice organisers reshaping a very white movement? | gal-dem

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The environmental movements in the Global North in all their guises and with all their intricacies have been hard to ignore in the past year.

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Extinction Rebellion are out in full force again. The brand of the protests of summer 2019 were the colossal, road-blocking pink boats, stationed at major junctions and marked with bold words: "Tell the truth." This time round it's the hundreds of tents pitched up in and around Westminster, with a bold, unwritten message: We're not going anywhere. Between both sets of protests, however, there is a consistency: the overwhelmingly white crowds, some of whom are now martyring themselves to police arrest, and others, like XR spokesperson Rupert Read blaming "large-scale immigration" as a cause of "dangerous climate change."

Extinction Rebellion is future-focused; those getting arrested are telling the police that they are "doing this for their [the police force's'] children" too. But treating climate change as a future problem invalidates the experiences of those living with the impacts of climate change as a now-problem. And, communities of colour are the vast majority of those bearing the brunt of climate unpredictability as we speak.

Communities of colour in the Global South are experiencing ever-warmer climates that will continue to heat up as global temperatures rise - India and Pakistan reached a record-breaking 51 degrees Celsius in 2018. China and India have been identified by economists as being the most prone to collapse; cities such as Beijing and Kolkata are already recording unlivable levels of smog pollution, due to ever-increasing demand from mostly Western economies for cheap goods. As collective consciousness of our environmental impact increases, these trade practices are likely to evolve into something even more nefarious: what sociologist Doreen Martinez has labelled "climate colonialism". For example, energy derived from solar panels in Morocco could end up being rerouted to Europe, at the expense of local prosperity.

"Treating climate change as a future problem invalidates the experiences of those living with the impacts of climate change as a now-problem"

"Think of some of the largest cities in the world and where they are," says Asad Rehman, Executive Director of War on Want, "Rio, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Shanghai - to realise what sea level rises will mean." Not only will coastal erosion naturally wear these densely packed, urban communities away, but locals will be living in increasingly precarious conditions, a strain that can have dire impacts on bodily and mental health. It is difficult to put a tangible figure on economic loss after a climate disaster due to the widespread impacts of loss of life, community and business. However, the fact that just one tropical storm that hit Dominica in 2015 pushed back "development" gains by approximately 20 years gives us an indication of the severe battering these communities are facing.

But communities of the Global South have not been silent. In South America, citizens have taken to the streets in Brazil and Bolivia to protest water restrictions - the retraction of a fundamental human right for private interests. The famous Chipko Movement - meaning "Stick to it" - in India was a 1970s eco-feminist movement which saw women in rural areas literally embracing trees to prevent their destruction. These communities are acutely aware of their relationship to the land and its resources, many relying on it to feed themselves and participate in the global food trade. But these economies often do not have the resources to rebuild broken communities, and they often live in politically fraught contexts where their protests are rarely taken into consideration. This slow pace of change, combined with increased precariousness, compels people to move from spaces that they call home in order to feel safe and secure.

Meanwhile, in the Global North, communities of colour are also arguably in crisis. In the UK, people of colour are clustered in major cities such as London, Manchester and Leeds, all of which have recorded some of the worst smog levels in the country. Smaller communities of colour have formed in factory towns: Blackburn's minority population is at 31% and Burnley's stands at 12% in comparison to the Lancashire average of 8%, and Derby has a sizeable Pakistani community. Living in a factory town exposes communities to gas emissions which have significant health impacts. In my ward of Edmonton, North London, a community that is 80% made up of people of colour, a new waste incinerator is in the works, alongside talk of clearing nature reserves for a new landfill site.

In the United States, four of the states facing a water crisis are also home to the highest proportion of minority populations: California, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas. The US government has been deeply criticised for a lack of response to Hurricane Katrina, a tragedy which struck in 2005, disproportionately impacting and now continuing to haunt the black community. Clare Morganelli of the Climate and Clean Energy Programme notes how the housing market in Miami has become a case-study for "climate gentrification"; properties at higher elevations have risen in value, thus phasing out low-income, often minority, communities.

A striking example of environmental racism in the US is the Love Canal tragedy, in which a New York neighbourhood, largely home to low-income and minority populations, became a dumping ground for Hooker Chemical Company. The fumes emitted by the waste were causing abnormal births and miscarriages. Speaking to Dr Elizabeth Blum, a professor who studied the Love Canal disaster, highlights the importance of seeing climate change as an "intersectional issue": "[Love Canal] reveals a lot about race, class and gender," she says. Similar to the Miami housing market, when landfill sites become part of a local area, the land value decreases, she tells me.

"The single-minded focus on the technicalities of climate change ignores the capitalist and racist tendencies that have led global warming to become the disaster it has"

Research suggests that there is an action-concern gap in communities of colour when it comes to climate change. Adam R Pearson reported, in a 2017 paper on climate change communication, that people of colour were "least equipped to respond to climate change". These academics came to the conclusion that part of the issue was "minorities' [lack of] environmental engagement, which may be particularly salient among historically disenfranchised groups and immigrant groups who have emigrated from regions with high levels of government corruption".

However, when communities of colour have tried to exercise their right to protest, they have been met with unspeakable forms of backlash. Natasha Josette reported that in a 2015 climate march led by decolonial climate justice group Wretched of the Earth, was hijacked by a group of people in animal headgear attempting to make the group's message appear more palatable and positive. Police officers and associated brutality have been deployed whenever Indigenous communities have protested pipelines or drilling in the USA and Canada. If communities of colour are told implicitly that their political voices, and their lives, do not matter in comparison to their white counterparts, it becomes futile for them to spend time and resources protesting.

Not only are communities of colour in the West unable to push for environmental policy change in their hometowns, but they are also tied to these increasingly unsafe areas, often for economic reasons: employment is easy to find in manufacturing towns or urban areas. More horrifyingly, migrants and low-wage workers are often found in pollutant, dangerous professions. Eric Schlosser reveals how the American meatpacking industry is essentially run by Latinx immigrants in his book Fast Food Nation. This community then suffers the dire health implications of working in such an environment. For these people, voluntary migration is a distant dream.

Extinction Rebellion are enthralled by the science of the climate crisis, which is an undeniable piece of the puzzle. However, the single-minded focus on the technicalities of climate change ignores the capitalist and racist tendencies that have led global warming to become the disaster it has become today. As Wretched of the Earth writes, "When you focus on the science... you look past our histories of struggle, dignity, victory and resilience... In order to survive, communities in the Global South continue to lead the visioning and building of new worlds free of the violence of capitalism".

Britain is one of the biggest contributors to global warming; its historic use of coal has contributed hugely to the many ozone holes hanging over other nations today. The UN has taken this "historical responsibility" into consideration to ensure equitable negotiations, but Britain must take a more active role in supporting those who are now facing the consequences of its historic greed.

Britain must learn to build mutually beneficial, sustainable partnerships with other nations. It must provide homes for those who have lost them, and deal with the social fragmentation that will inevitably arise from it. It must acknowledge the arbitrary nature of its borders, recognising that everybody and everything is at the mercy of climate change.

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Extinction Rebellion need to focus on the fact that climate displacement will largely impact communities of colour | gal-dem

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Extinction Rebellion are out in full force again. The brand of the protests of summer 2019 were the colossal, road-blocking pink boats, stationed at major junctions and marked with bold words: "Tell the truth." This time round it's the hundreds of tents pitched up in and around Westminster, with a bold, unwritten message: We're not going anywhere.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:48 - 36.4MB) | Embed

Asad is, according to his twitter bio, a "general activist against all bad things". And then some.

Currently the Executive Director of anti poverty charity War on Want, for 10 years Asad led Friends of the Earth's international climate work, putting justice and the voices of the global South at the heart of civil society's demands during UN climate talks.

We chat to Asad about his decades of anti-racism activism, the failings of the environment movement and what can be done about it, and why a Green New Deal for America won't cut the mustard.

Sustainababble is your friendly environment podcast, out weekly. Theme music by the legendary Dicky Moore - @ dickymoo. Sustainababble logo by the splendid Arthur Stovell.

MERCH: sustainababble.teemill.com

Available on iTunes, Spotify, Acast & all those types of things, or at sustainababble.fish. Visit us at @ thebabblewagon and at Facebook.com/sustainababble. Email us at hello@sustainababble.fish.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:48 - 36.4MB) | Embed Asad is, according to his twitter bio, a "general activist against all bad things". And then some.

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Polluting the poor - Gordon Walker and Karen Bikerstaff

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Racism in the environment sector: why we must change and how we can do it

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Observing art can help us relate to environmental issues and move us emotionally, but what happens when we take the next step and begin creating art? In this episode, we look at the multi-level potential for art to help us engage in climate commitment. 4:00 - Patrick Chandler 24:30 - Jill Pelto

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Listen to this episode from In This Climate on Spotify. Observing art can help us relate to environmental issues and move us emotionally, but what happens when we take the next step and begin creating art? In this episode, we look at the multi-level potential for art to help us engage in climate commitment.

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Hugh visits an illegal plastic recycling plant in Malaysia

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BBC One - War on Plastic with Hugh and Anita, Series 1, Episode 1, Hugh visits an illegal plastic recycling plant in Malaysia

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At a recently closed recycling plant in Malaysia, Hugh finds piles of abandoned plastic.

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Social & Environmental Justice in the UK

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Social & Environmental Justice in the UK

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This includes Case Studies from the UK

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Deprived groups may experience differential access to greenspaces and associated services, which may be detrimental to their well-being. In some cases, these deprived groups are exposed to environmental risks while they are also disproportionately more vulnerable to its effects.

Background

Social justice aims to give individuals and groups fair treatment and an impartial share of social, environmental and economic benefits. The concept promotes the fair distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society, regardless of background and status.

Environmental justice deals explicitly with the distribution of environmental benefits and the burdens people experience, at home, at work, or where they learn, play and spend leisure time. Environmental benefits include attractive and extensive greenspace, clean air and water, and investment in pollution abatement and landscape improvements. Environmental burdens include risks and hazards from industrial, transport-generated and municipal pollution.

Both social and environmental justice work are sensitive to power issues (who causes pollution; who suffers from pollution); focus on communities or groups rather than individuals; and tend to adopt a holistic approach to analysing and addressing problems and reforms. 'Environmental justice' is used here to include aspects of social justice - although sometimes social and environmental goals may be in conflict.

Environmental justice emerged as a movement in the USA in the 1970s and 1980s, when many environmental pressure groups formed to fight environmental injustice - the disproportionate bearing of environmental burdens by some of society (e.g. the Love Canal disaster in New York State). Nowadays environmental justice, or environmental equality, is more widely accepted as a fundamental concept and goal of many environmental policies, including improving public access to environmental data and information, improving quality of life through access to environmental goods, and preserving resources for future generations. This perspective incorporates the emphasis on well-being expressed in the UK Government's Sustainable Development Strategy.

Environmental justice has been particularly relevant for urban greenspace in four areas:

The siting of industrial facilities and their impacts on local residents

Access to environmental benefits and services in socially and/or economically disadvantaged areas

Restoration of contaminated and industrial land

Inclusion of local residents' and stakeholders' views in planning and development issues.

Current situation

Environmental justice is a significant issue in the UK, particularly in highly active, declining or derelict industrial areas, and housing developments on environmentally threatened or polluted land (e.g. from flooding, past industrial activity or poor housing materials and standards). Environmental inequalities are more commonly found in deprived communities and socially excluded groups.

'Environmental equality' is a UK Framework Indicator and part of the UK Government's Sustainable Development Strategy, Securing the Future (2005). Indicators at international, regional and local levels have also been established.

Practical considerations

Environmental justice is an accepted and useful perspective for studying environmental conditions and how they affect people's lives. Adopting an environmental justice framework suggests looking beyond the health effects of environmental problems to consider the wide range of impacts environmental burdens exert on the daily lives of those exposed to them. Many government departments, quasi-governmental organisations and NGOs are increasingly taking a more positive and proactive stance on improving availability and access to environmental benefits and increasing people's well-being across all sectors of society. With issues of direct and indirect discrimination being a considerable policy concern, and addressed in various discrimination laws, environmental equality forms a significant part of a range of social and environmental policies and research on links between ecosystems and human well-being.

Environmental justice work usually requires attention to the historical context of an emerging problem, and to local experiences or concerns about environmental issues. It requires constructing the historical context of a problem and obtaining first-hand accounts in addition to scientific and technical studies to elicit and quantify specific aspects. It is important to consider whether the affected parties have the resources to engage in planning/review processes and to make their voices heard. Conducting social research may be the only, or the most effective, way to bring people's concerns into view.

The right of access to relevant information, and participation in decision-making by interested and affected parties, are considered key components of environmental justice at all levels (local, national and international) and are enshrined in the Aarhus Convention as well as various national laws and international agreements.

There is no clear-cut solution to environmental injustice problems. This perspective requires careful examination of the context of existing environmental problems or planned project developments, and estimation of their impacts on the affected (and wider) communities. In terms of future development proposals, project managers need to assess carefully which areas are to be developed, and whether disadvantaged areas can benefit from the improvement or development of greenspaces.

Case study

Environmental concerns of disadvantaged groups

Research on the environmental concerns of disadvantaged groups was carried out by Burningham and Thrush (2001) for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, pioneers in recognising the fact that disadvantaged groups are often the most affected by environmental problems. The methodology included a literature review and qualitative research among deprived groups (including minority ethnic groups, people on low incomes, low-income single parents, the unemployed, pensioners and disabled people) in four different locations:

Possilpark in North Glasgow - an urban neighbourhood affected by land contamination and high unemployment after the decline of local industries

Cefn Mawr in North Wales - an area where residents live next to a chemical factory

Bromley-by-Bow in East London - where people live next to a busy road

The Peak District - an idyllic rural setting, but with pockets of deprived social groups.

Focus group discussions in each location were analysed, suggesting that environmental concerns voiced often focus on what appear to be relatively minor issues (so-called front-door issues) such as littering, dog-fouling, graffiti and vandalism. However, these are often regarded as indicators of wider social problems.

The authors put forward several implications for policy-making regarding disadvantaged groups, including:

Local interest is likely to be associated to environmental policies with a strong local focus, rather than those that rely on a global consciousness

The well-being of disadvantaged groups can benefit from solving small environmental problems, but sustainable long-term solutions require measures tackling the underlying social problems

The main tenet of environmental justice - that disadvantaged people tend to live in degraded environments - may be perceived locally as patronising and unhelpful.

The research showed differences between the data from the Peak District and the three urban/industrial case-study areas. Overall, the research highlighted the links between environmental, social and economic issues, demonstrating the need to focus on sustainability. The report highlights the need for careful evaluation of the social equity implications of planning, transport and environmental policy.

Services

The Social and Economic Research Group at Forest Research carries out research on a spectrum of social, economic and environmental issues across the urban-rural continuum.

The Land Regeneration and Urban Greening group provides advice to the Forestry Commission and other national and international agencies on environmental, social and economic issues related to woodlands and greenspaces. Guidelines and tools have been developed for decision-making on brownfield remediation and restoration, participatory approaches to planning and management, and setting up schemes that increase environmental justice and social inclusion. The group has also developed several methods to assess social concerns for the management and restoration of contaminated land.

Further information

Lucas, K., Walker, G., Eames, M., Fay, H. and Poustie, M. (2004). Environment and Social Justice: rapid research and evidence review (PDF-870K). Sustainable Development Research Network, London.

ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme (2001). Environmental Justice: Rights and means to a healthy environment for all (PDF-973K). Special Briefing No. 7. University of Sussex, Brighton.

Burningham, K. and Thrush, D. (2001) 'Rainforests are a long way from here': The environmental concerns of disadvantaged groups (PDF-234K). Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.

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Deprived groups may experience differential access to greenspaces and associated services, which may be detrimental to their well-being. In some cases, these deprived groups are exposed to environmental risks while they are also disproportionately more vulnerable to its effects. Social justice aims to give individuals and groups fair treatment and an impartial share of social, environmental and economic benefits.