By Maya Ghanem
As California residents, we’ve experienced the adverse impacts of climate change. Across the state, we’ve seen rising temperatures, droughts, and fires. We’ve become too familiar with the smell of smog or smoke filling grey, ashy skies. Many of us have had to evacuate or lost our homes.
Watch Maya deliver her words of wisdom in a local Tedx event discussing human rights in relation to the environment.
Today, I want to note that certain populations in California are disproportionately affected by the fires and other climate disasters. Due to gentrification and redlining policies, populations of black, indigenous, and people of color, or BiPOC populations, live in areas that are more likely to be exposed to fires, petrochemical plants, fossil fuel operations, and other forms of air pollution. In fact, Black and Hispanic communities are 50% more vulnerable and Native Americans are 6 times more vulnerable to fires than white communities in California.
Additionally farm workers were forced to work in the hazardous fire conditions for hours at a time. Given the harsh, cramped conditions, and the fact that the coronavirus more easily transmits in polluted air, these fieldworkers, many who are Latinx, are three to four times more likely to get sick with the virus.
The disproportionate experiences of BiPOC and marginalized populations are a clear example of environmental injustice. While everyone witnesses the adverse effects of climate change, these communities have (1) significantly less protection from environmental and health hazards and (2) do not have equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.
The thing is, environmental injustice in California started long before the fires. Fossil fuel operations, oil drilling, extractions, refineries, and petrochemical plants have historically been located in low-income, marginalized BiPOC communities. By being exposed to the emissions and pollution from the operations, marginalized peoples are at higher risk of cancer, respiratory illnesses, and other health problems. For example, the Exide Technologies battery plant emitted lead into the atmosphere in Vernon California near a predominantly working-class, Latinx population. Even though the plant closed in 2015, the toxic lead levels have still not been cleaned up.
Why are BiPOC communities disproportionately impacted by pollution and climate change? This is a consequence of the centuries of systemic racism and classism. Due to segregation, redlining, and gentrification, among other racist practices, marginalized populations are denied opportunities to live in clean, healthy communities, often protesting against corporations who forcibly build industrial plants in nearby areas. Wealthier and predominantly white communities hold the economic capital to assert that they don’t want industrial plants in their backyards, leaving BiPOC people to deal with them instead.
We have to understand that climate change is not only about rising sea levels, or melting ice caps, it’s about tangible human impacts on populations all around the world. In order to acknowledge and work to stop these impacts, we must incorporate environmental justice into mainstream environmentalism. By creating a more inclusive space in our climate conversations and activism we open the doors to more perspectives and voices, voices that can create real change. The people who are most impacted by climate change, primarily Black People, Indigenous People, or People of Color should have the biggest seat at the table in the fight for environmental justice and against climate change.
I also add that environmental injustice is a global struggle, a struggle with consequences that extend far beyond the borders of California. I witnessed this myself across the Atlantic ocean, in my home country, Lebanon.
The root of the climate crisis in Lebanon is corruption. Although the inadequacy of the Lebanese government was revealed to the international community after the Beirut explosions in August, government corruption began much longer before these tragic events.
In fact, I had visited Lebanon during the height of the Garbage Politics scandal. The government was so ineffective at waste management, they decided to burn their trash, releasing an enormous amount of pollution and greenhouse gases into the air.
And it was the people who experienced the results of the government inadequacy. Trash not yet burned was piled along our coast line, intoxicating our air and our beaches.
The tipping point occurred for us after the Beirut explosions this August. In addition to the tragic direct casualties, the pollution from the explosion still contaminates the air, devastating human and environmental health in the region for many years to come.
The Lebanese people are beautiful, and I met some of the most kind and inspiring individuals during my time there. But the issue is that the everyday Lebanese resident is disproportionately impacted by climate change and air pollution due to the corruption of a rich, elite government propped up by foreign interests. And let’s be clear, the long legacy of imperialism and colonialism, as well as the presence of foreign corporations, sustained a corrupt government and led to the political failure and subsequent environmental consequences Lebanon faces today.
I want to point out that the Middle East and North Africa as a whole is devastated by the consequences of air pollution and climate change. 1 in 10 people in the Middle East die due to air pollution. Ahwaz, Iran is the most polluted city in the world. Yemen faces extreme water shortages due to droughts, which Saudi Arabia weaponizes in their war in Yemen, all while sitting on the board of US lobbies that fund climate change denial.
.And that’s where the US comes in. The United States and other developed countries must recognize that, being responsible for the global system that perpetuates these social inequities, they are also responsible for the environmental injustices faced by marginalized communities, countries, and identities all around the world. While we all encounter the impacts of climate change, marginalized peoples, not only in the US and the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, and South America, face the worst of it.
So what can we do? We have to center BiPOC and non-American perspectives in environmentalism. Even though the conventional narrative of rising sea levels and temperatures is very valuable, it can feel too abstract and distant. Emphasizing the perspectives of people who have long experienced the consequences of environmental misuse will make the crisis feel more tangible, bringing more people to take action.
It will also help us dispel the idea that the mainstream environmental movement is for white, elite Americans who have the resources and time to think about climate science. We are all in this fight, as social movements and environmental movements are really closely embedded. If we truly want to stop climate change, we must also advocate for Black lives, Native American rights, the LatinX and immigrant community, as well as an end to the Yemeni crisis and the genocide against Uyghur Muslims. This is true justice. We must unite together by acknowledging and addressing the effects that race, gender, nationality, and class have on environmental experiences.
So, I ask that we always seek to make connections between social and environmental injustice. I also ask that we interact with environmental justice groups in our area, and with the growing network of environmental activists around the world. By no means am I saying that I am perfect at this, or that I’ve done all the work I need to do, but I’d like to share a list of some great environmental activists I’ve found from a variety of backgrounds