Opinion: Love, Justice And Climate Change, A Conversation with Isioma

Last week, through the wonders of Zoom, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Isioma, a Black woman in Lagos, Nigeria.  She told me that the rains that traditionally fall reliably at this time of year in her country are not falling and that disaster looms for farmers and cattle herders.  She said that because of drought many grazing lands have been exhausted. Conflicts are arising as herders seeking dwindling reserves of pasture clash with farmers and each other.  She shared her sadness that so many Nigerians have been made homeless by the effects climate change.  She called them “refugees within their own country.”

Nigeria And The U.S.
I’ve read about these things in news reports, but it was a new experience for me to be sitting in comfort in my home in the United States developing a friendship with this woman, while she was in Nigeria experiencing climate disaster firsthand.  I began to think about the fact that my country, the United States, has played a big role in causing the suffering being experienced around her.  Cumulatively the U.S. has emitted more climate-change-causing greenhouse gases than any other nation.

Just as I was pondering the responsibility of the U.S., she said to me, “I don’t think we can stop climate change without doing something about racism.  The wealthy white nations don’t care what happens to us.  It’s racism that makes them not care.”  Even though I’ve made similar statements myself, it cut right to my core to hear it directly from her. I’m still shaken by it.

Local Decisions, Climate Change, And Racism
Earlier that week I had read in my local paper that my town has budgeted $1.7 million to purchase new vehicles for the town in the next year.  This includes a new school bus, trucks for the Department of Public Works, some vans, etc.  The town does not have a policy requiring the purchase of electric vehicles (EV’s).  Apparently town officials are planning to buy gas and diesel-powered vehicles.  These vehicles will emit greenhouse gases for the next 10 or 15 years, worsening the effects of climate change, including the effects on my new acquaintance in Nigeria and her community.  And they won’t be good for local air quality either.

The impact of my town’s decisions, of course, is tiny in the overall global climate change situation, but the decisions made by towns, and cities, and corporations, and larger government entities have all added up to create an existential crisis.  I’m sure that the decisions in my town are being made by good people who aren’t thinking about how their choices are worsening a global crisis and magnifying the disproportionately racist impact of climate change.  But isn’t that the problem–not thinking about the impact decisions will have on climate change or on people of color in frontline nations all over the world?

Carbon Budget
Scientists have calculated the total amount of greenhouse gases that humanity can emit without causing extreme climate disaster.  This is known as our carbon budget.  It’s not an annual amount; it’s the total we can emit for the next century and maybe for all of history.  At our current rate of emissions we will use it all up within the next 10 years.

Given the limited carbon budget of the planet, decisions at every level matter – from our personal habits and expenditures to policies that move billions of dollars.  Policies that affect large expenditures and decisions are especially important.  The $1.7 million in my town has led me to start contacting public officials and connecting with other climate advocates to try to get a town policy requiring purchasing EV’s whenever they are available in the category of vehicle being purchased.

Action Step
I invite you to find out what decisions are being made in your municipality that have implications for climate change and for systemic racism.  Who could you join with to try to affect those decisions? You don’t have to be an expert to insist that climate change and the effects on marginalized peoples be considered.  People all over the world will continue to be affected by decisions made here in the U.S.  We can make a difference.

Russ Vernon-Jones was the Principal of Fort River Elementary School from 1990 to 2008.  He is a co-facilitator of the Coming Together Anti-Racism Project in the Amherst area.  He chairs the Racism, White Supremacy, and Climate Justice working group of Climate Action Now of Western Mass., and blogs regularly on climate justice at www.RussVernonJones.org.