Fossil Fuels, air pollution & environmental racism
Burning coal, oil, and “natural” gas produces air pollution that leads to premature deaths and creates or exacerbates health issues like asthma. Fossil fuel infrastructure is often built in communities of color communities, sacrificing the health, safety, and lives of residents.
The climate crisis and social justice are inextricably linked. We cannot fight for a healthy climate without also fighting for equality and justice for all marginalized communities, including Blacks, Indigenous, People of Color, and poor communities.
As long as we treat certain populations as disposable, inferior, or unimportant, the more it becomes acceptable to develop dangerous and polluting fossil fuel infrastructure in these communities.
Read a roundup of the headlines:
"The decimation of our planet’s ecosystems has always been about the extraction of wealth from living systems. And every day, this methodical deprivation of natural environments disproportionately impacts communities that are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)."
The New Climate, Fossil Fuel Companies Are Killing Black People
“From the electricity that lights our homes to the cars we drive to work, modern life was built on fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. But burning them creates climate change and releases pollutants that lead to early death, heart attacks, respiratory disorders, stroke, asthma, and absenteeism at school and work. It has also been linked to autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.”
Harvard, Fossil Fuels & Health
“Almost the entire global population (99%) breathes air that exceeds WHO air quality limits, and threatens their health. A record number of over 6000 cities in 117 countries are now monitoring air quality, but the people living in them are still breathing unhealthy levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, with people in low and middle-income countries suffering the highest exposures.
The findings have prompted the World Health Organization to highlight the importance of curbing fossil fuel use and taking other tangible steps to reduce air pollution levels.”
WHO, Billions of people still breathe unhealthy air
“[Communities of color] are in double jeopardy” from the climate crisis,” she says. “First, if you’re a person of color, particularly Black or Latino, you’re more likely to live near toxic facilities, like petrochemical companies here in Louisiana, producing toxins that shorten and impact quality of life. And then, [our communities] are on the front line of impacts from climate change, living in places where there could be more floods and a higher incidence of different [climate-related] diseases. For poor communities, there’s also not having access to health insurance or medical services. Communities of color are disproportionately affected by all of these things.”
Green America, People of Color Are on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis
“Researchers have suggested that economic disparity is the reason America’s racially and ethnically minoritized groups are exposed to disproportionately high levels of air pollution. A new study from researchers at the University of Washington suggests otherwise.
The study finds that, regardless of income, racially and ethnically minoritized groups are the people most exposed to pollutants across the U.S.”
Medical News Today, Air pollution exposure in the US: Systemic racism, not income, drives disparities
"This new commitment to Black people often seems to come with an assumption that the fight for climate justice has to halt. As a “Climate Person,” my social media feeds are awash in calls to pause climate activism for the sake of supporting Black people, as though the two are mutually exclusive. As a Black Climate Person, I can’t tell you how disorienting that is... It’s been documented again and again that climate change hurts Black people first and worst — both in the United States and globally. Moreover, Black people did the least to create the problem, and our systemic oppression runs directly parallel to the climate crisis.”
Huffington Post, "We Don’t Have To Halt Climate Action To Fight Racism"
“Climate change is a threat to everyone’s physical health, mental health, air, water, food and shelter, but some groups—socially and economically disadvantaged ones—face the greatest risks. This is because of where they live, their health, income, language barriers, and limited access to resources. In the U.S., these more vulnerable communities are largely the communities of color, immigrants, low-income communities and people for whom English is not their native language. As time goes on, they will suffer the worst impacts of climate change, unless we recognize that fighting climate change and environmental justice are inextricably linked.”
State of the Planet, Why Climate Change is an Environmental Justice Issue
More reading
Harvard, School of Public Health, Fossil fuel air pollution responsible for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide