Many of those with the largest megaphones about the importance of mitigating climate change are white: Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Greta Thunberg, Al Gore, and more recently, Jeff Bezos, to name few.
But the effects of climate change often hit people of color the hardest.
CNBC Make It talked to a handful of notable Black climate leaders who have been doing remarkable work in the fight against climate change and its dangerous repercussions for decades. Here’s what they have to say about why diversity and inclusion in the field of climate change science is so critical.
Adrienne L. Hollis, climate justice and health scientist
Hollis’ work: Hollis oversees the development and implementation of programs to measure and track the health impacts of climate change on communities of color and other “traditionally disenfranchised” groups at the Union of Concerned Scientists, according to the organization’s website. She is developing new research to understand how climate change affects health and makes policy recommendations “to foster inclusiveness and greater benefits to underserved communities.” (Read more here.)
Adrienne Hollis, Senior Climate Justice and Health Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists
Photo courtesy Adrienne Hollis
The diversity she has observed in her career: Hollis began her research on “issues related to health effects from ozone exposure” more than 30 years ago, she says. “During that time, there was very little or no diversity in related industries or companies, and very little in academic studies in general.”
But Hollis herself chose to work with advocacy groups that included “Black, Brown and Indigenous people,” she says. “In my experience, they are and were the first to engage around climate issues. I was not working with large advocacy groups – conservation organizations for example – that were not diverse at all.”
Why Black people must be part of climate change work: In Mobile, Alabama, where Hollis grew up, “as I drive around my old neighborhood, I see the results of … chronic flooding, homes boarded up and abandoned because of damage from severe weather events and contaminated environments that have caused cancers and other illnesses, and faulty infrastructure. I see the results of economic oppression, where people do not have the financial means to keep rebuilding or to move to an area that does not flood,” she says.
“We have to be active. We have to step up and claim our space,” Hollis says. “We have to fight to protect ourselves and each other. Or nothing will be done to stop the practices that place us at risk – at risk from extreme heat for example, like lack of access to greenspace like parks or to cooling centers. Or the effects that climate change has on agriculture, on the availability of healthy foods or access to food.”
“It is literally a matter of life or death,” Hollis says.
Warren Washington, atmospheric climate scientist
Warren Washington, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
Photo courtesy Warren Washington
The diversity he has observed in his career: “We didn’t have very many people [of color] — African Americans, Hispanics and the Native Americans — in atmospheric and climate research,” says Washington, who received his PhD in meteorology from Penn State in 1964.
“I personally, and a few others, actually visited many historically Black colleges in the South, including Howard University in Washington D.C., and over the years we added to the population of scientists involved in atmospheric research. We made some progress,” he says.
Washington says at annual American Meteorological Society meetings, he spends time getting to know new and younger members. “Things are improving,” he says. “But we have a long way to go.”
Why Black people must be part of climate change work: ”For a healthy society we ought to use all of our talents and different backgrounds and different schooling to contribute to some of our biggest problems,” Washington says. “Diversity is a thing to always be worried about in a society — we ought to always have people coming in with different different views and different priorities.”
Jasmine Sanders, executive director of Our Climate
Sanders’ work: Sanders leads Our Climate, a Washington DC-based youth advocacy organization. Previously, she was a manager at HIAS, a Jewish American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees, and she wrote legislative briefs for the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee. She is a former fellow at the DC-based lobbying firm Terpstra Associates, where she advocated for agricultural and environmental issues. (Read more here.)
Jasmine Sanders, executive director of Our Climate, a Washington DC-based youth advocacy organization.
Photo courtesy Jasmine Sanders
The diversity she has observed in her career: “I have been a climate justice advocate for over a decade,” says Sanders. “Witnessing Hurricane Katrina as a Black woman in Louisiana woke up something in my soul. But it wasn’t until a few years later that I realized my gift was my voice and my purpose was to use it to raise awareness to the intersecting effects of climate change that disproportionately impact communities of color and other frontline communities.”
A “concerted effort around diversity in companies, advocacy organizations and academics” has only really happened in the past three to five years, she says. “It’s not that diverse individuals weren’t around, but rather that we have been passed on, used and burnt out and/or not acknowledged.”
Why Black people must be part of climate change work: “We are the most disproportionately impacted by climate change. You see climate risks don’t just include the environmental and economical impacts, but they also comprise of health, racial, migration, food and security, housing, mental, socio-cultural. Black people experience unfair inequities in each of these impacts alone. Climate change only exacerbates the existing stressors of these inequities,” says Sanders.
Dr. Robert D. Bullard, professor, author
Robert D. Bullard, referred to as “the father of environmental justice,” is the former Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University and now is a professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy there.
Photo courtesy Robert Bullard
The diversity he has observed in his career: Since the late ’70s, Bullard, now 74, has seen incremental change, he says. But ”frontline communities near polluting industries still find themselves on a unlevel playing field,” he says. “Race is still the most potent predictor, more powerful than income, of who get polluted and who get help.”
As for environmental groups, which Bullard says are largely still white, “some baby steps have been made in diversifying their boards and staffs in recent years. However, less progress has been made in diversifying the green dollars that flow to people of color environmental and climate justice organizations, networks and consortia that serve the most impacted populations and communities,” he says.
Why Black people must be part of climate change work: The modern civil rights movement and the environmental justice movement “were both birthed in Southern United States with strong Black-led organizations,” Bullard says.
“Black people must step up and lead on this important quest for justice as we always have,” he says. ”Our Black youth and students must also lead as they have done in every social movement that’s been successful in the country.”
“The principle of environmental justice dictates that those most impacted by climate change must be in the room and at the table when plans, decisions and solutions are being developed,” he says.
Rue Mapp, founder of Outdoor Afro
Mapp’s work: Mapp is the founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, a national not-for-profit organization which “celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature,” according to its website. She oversees the selection and training of 90 volunteers in 42 cities who lead outdoor events. Mapp was appointed to the California State Parks Commission in 2014 and in 2010, she was invited to the Obama White House to participate in the America’s Great Outdoors Conference. (Read more here.)
Rue Mapp is the Founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro.
Photo courtesy Rue Mapp
Why Black people must be part of climate change work: “We need all hands on deck” when it comes to the harm climate change is causing, says Mapp.
And some of the “most pressing environmental conditions impact places where Black people live, such as sea level rise for coastal communities, poorer air quality caused by disproportionate exposure to emissions in cities, and droughts conditions that compromise access to clean water,” she says.
Gregory Jenkins, professor, climate and atmospheric air chemistry scientist
Professor of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, Geography, and African Studies.
Photo courtesy Gregory Jenkins
The diversity he has observed in his career: As a young man, Jenkins, now 57, became interested in what was causing drought in West Africa and studied climate in graduate school. During that time the world of climate change was “largely white and male,” and it was often isolating, he says (though Warren Washington was his mentor).
And while things like conferences have become more diverse in recent years, “the Universities have been very slow to respond with woefully low representation in the climate sciences, geosciences, and STEM in general,” he says. “We need more young people of color to pursue research that can be used for policy and to serve as role models.”
Why Black people must be part of climate change work: Jenkins says there are many people of color who are ready to tackle climate change, but “we need to provide the space for them to run, learn and research climate change…. Bring me the students who want to learn, and I will download all of my knowledge to them,” he says.
People of color also need to “be in our communities talking about how we can all offset the climate crisis through individual and community actions,” he says, including solutions like developing urban gardens, promoting green technologies and jobs, recycling and consuming less.
See also:
How Bill Gates’ company TerraPower is building next-generation nuclear power
IBM is one of 20 companies joining The Climate Pledge, Amazon and Jeff Bezos’ carbon commitment
‘Green’ jobs in Biden’s infrastructure bill: What they could pay and how to be eligible