Fight against pesticides in communities of color.

Environmental justice activists continue to fight to keep poisonous and fatal pesticides like Roundup out of their communities, though the federal government approves them. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to permit 85 pesticides that have been banned or are in transition in China, Europe, and Brazil; the other three nations use the highest amounts of pesticides (Environmental Health). There have also been recent lawsuits against companies that manufacture these pesticides, including Bayer, which have settled claims of $10 billion (Succesful Farming).

It's Thursday! Weeks go by much faster when we're not awaiting election results, am I right? Today we're diving back into our ongoing series on environmental justice. Renée joins us to unpack how pesticides are common in communities of color, and what we can do to take action. With yet another lawsuit against chlorpyrifos and the ongoing EPA rollbacks, I felt this is particularly relevant right now.

This is the Anti-Racism Daily, a daily newsletter with tangible ways to dismantle racism and white supremacy. You can support our work by making a one-time contribution on our website or PayPal, or giving monthly on Patreon. You can also Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). To subscribe, go to antiracismdaily.com.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Urge your local representatives to support a ban on chlorpyrifos (U.S. residents only).
Have you considered pesticide usage in your community? Do you feel safe taking your child(ren) to playgrounds, public spaces, and zoos? Consider how privilege may influence whether or not you think about the air you breathe daily.
After reading this piece, consider: how can you take action in protecting farmworkers who are responsible for ensuring you have food daily?
Listen to and advocate for communities of color in your area that voice their concerns about contaminated water and air.

GET EDUCATED

By Renée Cherez (she/her)

Pesticides have a long history in communities of color in America, and like most issues that affect these communities, it is rooted in institutional racism.

A pesticide is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered pests (NIH). When we think of pesticides, our minds may wander off to rural farmlands; however, toxic pesticides and herbicides are being used in major cities today, directly harming low-income Black and Brown communities. This past January, a disturbing report by The Black Institute discovered that of the 50 Manhattan parks treated with Roundup in 2018, 42 were in Harlem (The Black Institute). The same study also revealed that Brooklyn, with an 89% native Black population, is the most heavily sprayed borough in the entire state (The Black Institute).

Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, is the most widely used herbicide to kill weeds and is classified as a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization (Planet Watch). More infuriating, in 2017, Roy Wilkins Recreation Center in Queens, NY, located in a majority Black neighborhood, was treated with 100% glyphosate concentration (The Black Institute).

Not only are these toxins affecting the lives of Black and Brown families in these communities, but they also affect the employees responsible for applying them daily. Of the 203 NYC Parks Department staff members, 112 are Black or Latino (The Black Institute). This furthers the point that environmental racism is happening in real-time. Black and Brown communities bear the brunt of the exploitation of air and water by corporations and the federal government.

The spraying of these toxins on public grounds should be considered an act of terror similar to the spraying of Agent Orange in the American-Vietnam war. Most vulnerable to the life-altering health effects of pesticides are children and pregnant women, which can cause learning disabilities, congenital disabilities, asthma, increased rates of childhood leukemia, and autism (Philadelphia Inquirer). Editor’s note: This study has been questioned for its accuracy.

As the largest agricultural state, with over 700,000 farmworkers, California is unique in its fight for environmental justice against pesticides (Planet Watch). A key finding in a 2015 report found that more than half of the glyphosate used in California (54%) was applied in 8 of its most impoverished counties in the Southern Valley, including Tulare, Fresno, Merced, Del Norte, Madera, Lake, Imperial, and Kern (Center for Biological Diversity). The racial breakdown: 53% of residents in the eight counties identified as Latino or Hispanic, compared to 38% in the entire state (Center for Biological Diversity). Also worth noting, Hispanic children are 46% more likely to attend school nears pesticide dumping grounds than white children (The Black Institute).

Chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxin that kills insects by attacking their nervous systems, has widely affected the health of farm and migrant workers in California (Grist). After a two-day meeting with the EPA about banning the insecticide, groups representing farmworkers were censored, further proving environmental racism against the people responsible for getting food to the tables of Americans every day (ThinkProgress).

Because of the federal government’s lack of action, cities like Philadelphia are taking matters into their own hands by introducing bills that ban the use of toxic herbicides on all city or used public grounds (Philadelphia Inquirer). Earlier this year, California officially prohibited the selling and usage of Chlorpyrifos, which not only attacks the nervous system of those exposed but is also linked to brain damage in children (NPR).

How do communities of color withstand COVID-19, a respiratory virus, and bear the brunt of poisoned air? What consequence will pregnant Latina women farmworkers pay after daily pesticide exposure? What will it take for mainstream, white environmental organizations to make their work intersectional, including the needs of communities of color who carry the heaviest burden?

Effective environmental justice must safeguard communities as places where all people can live, work, and play without fear of exposure to toxic materials and conditions (The Black Institute). Clean air and water are not for the privileged but are a fundamental human right. The burden lies on white residents of communities to advocate for communities of color who continue to be silenced about the real harm they are experiencing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, is the most widely used herbicide and is classified as a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization.
Hispanic children are 46% more likely to attend school nears pesticide dumping grounds than white children.
Exposure to the most common pesticides can cause adverse health effects.

10/11/2020 | Support climate justice.

9/29/2020 | Learn about climate migration.

7/25/2020 | Study Hall! How to be a better ally, petitions, and plastics.

7/24/2020 | Reduce your plastic consumption.

7/12/2020 | Learn how air pollution exacerbates COVID-19.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.

Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza

Nicole Cardoza 10/11/20 Nicole Cardoza 10/11/20

Support climate justice.

Happy Sunday! The environment has been a popular topic in this newsletter, and as we unpack the racial disparities of global warming and environmental disasters, it's important that we have shared language on making an impact equitably. Today, Jami outlines what climate justice means beyond the hashtag, and encourages each of us to take our eco-friendly initiatives a step further.

Thank you for your contributions! Your support helps us grow. To support you can give on our website, PayPal, Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe monthly on Patreon.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Join or support climate justice organizations, such as PODER (@poder.sf), the Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint, or the Center for Earth Energy and Democracy.
Read about Just Transition, the transformative framework for change promoted by many climate justice organizations.
Hold your local environmental organizations accountable. Who is on the board? What communities do they center? Who do they exclude?

GET EDUCATED

By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)

In our recent newsletter on climate migration, we briefly mentioned the climate justice movement. Though climate change comes up frequently in the news, in election campaigns, and political debates, we hear about climate justice much more rarely. As a reminder: it is a movement that centers marginalized communities and those affected by racial and socioeconomic inequities, while also pushing for larger-scale change than most policies currently address (NAACP). (The terms climate justice and environmental justice are sometimes used interchangeably, while other times climate justice is used to refer to the effects of climate change specifically.)

“I represent the third-poorest congressional district in the country, and folks in my district can tell you that we have been in a crisis mode far before Covid-19 showed up. Folks in my district can also tell you that the climate crisis we are experiencing is one that they have been fighting to address for decades.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, US House District 13 (Facebook via Central Florida Climate Action).

Climate justice developed partially in opposition to mainstream environmental activism (like the conservation and preservation movements) that did not look at intersections of race and class at all. Instead, those groups were (and usually still are) white-led and white-run, and viewed the environment through a narrow lens (Environment and Society). Such environmentalism is directly descended from the colonialism and white supremacist ideals of Teddy Roosevelt-era conservationists. As environmental law scholar Jedidiah Purdy writes in a history of conservation’s racism, “For these conservationists, who prized the expert governance of resources, it was an unsettlingly short step from managing forests to managing the human gene pool” (New Yorker).

Even in 2014, a study of 293 leading environmental organizations, foundations, and government agencies found that ethnic/racial minorities occupied less than 12% of leadership positions, and very rarely in the highest positions (Diversity in Environmental Organizations). It also found that “few of the organizations studied collaborate with ethnic minority or low-income institutions or groups.” As an example: usually, the people included in disaster relief planning (on the local to global level) are not from the communities who will actually receive the disaster relief; affected people in disadvantaged communities often do not have a voice at the table (Minority Rights Group International).

The study’s author, Dorceta Taylor, also conducted research on white and BIPOC students studying environmental courses, and discovered that the two groups had virtually identical GPAs and course loads, even though the people getting hired by environmental groups are predominantly white males (Yale Environmental 360). Again--we cannot blame the pipeline, as we covered in a recent newsletter. [link when it’s up on the archive]

Recently— and largely as a response to Black Lives Matter— green groups have begun to examine their complicity in racism (National Geographic). They have made public commitments to diversify; they have renounced some of their founders, like John Muir. Yet it’s too soon to know how much of this is performative and how much will result in lasting change. When the rot goes so deep, can one or two token minorities on a board truly make a difference?

Climate justice, on the other hand, is rooted in anti-racism, in centering the communities ignored by mainstream environmentalism. “Advocacy and scholarship about protecting communities of color are rarely called environmentalism because those communities are still largely not considered places worthy of protection by environmentalists,” explains Danielle Purifoy, one of the only Black Ph.D. students in her environmental studies program (Inside Higher Ed).

Importantly, climate justice is a grassroots movement. Climate Justice Alliance, for example, comprises frontline organizations. Engagement centered in the communities— not top-down policies created by disengaged congressmen—is necessary. But for BIPOC activists, it can also be dangerous. Jayce Chiblow, a leader at the Canadian organization Indigenous Climate Actions, noted that while ‘Youth are leading us and taking on frontline activity,” many of them experienced violence and were arrested and removed as a result of their activism (Resilience.org). Read some profiles of Indigenous activists here.

What was most eye-opening for me was realizing how entangled all economic and environmental and social and racial issues are. Climate justice encompasses many other justice issues that we often think of as separate from environmental concerns, like workers’ rights and Indigenous sovereignty. Right now, our government tries to attack each problem piecemeal, ignoring the holistic view. On the other hand, the Just Transition plan from the Climate Justice Alliance implements a different framework for change than Biden’s deal or even the Green New Deal:

“We must build [a] visionary economy that is very different... This requires stopping the bad while at the same time as building the new. We must change the rules to redistribute resources and power to local communities... Shifting from dirty energy to energy democracy… from gentrification to community land rights… and from rampant destructive development to ecosystem restoration. Core to a just transition is deep democracy in which workers and communities have control over the decisions that affect their daily lives.”
Just Transition framework from Climate Justice Alliance

Climate justice—and this framework in particular—presents a different, more expansive vision, one that is so holistic and far-reaching that at first glance, it can seem impossible. Implement a regenerative economy here? How? But I suggest reading through the plan slowly, a little bit each day. It is a framework that can, like “Abolish the police,” guide our goals and shape what we should ultimately be working towards: transformative, structural change.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A 2014 study found that 88% of leadership positions in environmental groups were held by white people (Dorceta Taylor/Diversity in Environmental Organizations)
The mainstream conservation and environmental movements descend from colonialism and white supremacy (New Yorker)
Climate justice is a grassroots movement that centers BIPOC and those most affected by climate change, communities historically ignored by environmentalism.
Climate justice promotes transformative, far-reaching change— a shift from our current extractive economy to a regenerative economy (Climate Justice Alliance)

7/24/2020 | Reduce your plastic consumption.

7/12/2020 | Learn how air pollution exacerbates COVID-19.

7/5/2020 | Support the Navajo Nation through COVID-19.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 9/29/20 Nicole Cardoza 9/29/20

Learn about climate migration.

It's Tuesday and the world is still on fire. For many of us, global warming has never felt so urgent as it does now. And as we think about how to save the future, we can't forget that millions already impacted by environmental disasters are still in need. Today, Jami introduces the concept of climate migration to the newsletter. She explains how the vulnerable communities on the frontlines of environmental crisis need to be at the center of our path forward.

Some of you received incorrect key takeaways in yesterday's article on tax inequity. My mistake.You can find them updated on our archives.

Thank you for all your support! If you enjoy this newsletter, consider giving one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.

– Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Support people and organizations fighting for climate justice, not just against climate change. Check out Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (@gcclp) and your local members of the Climate Justice Alliance (@cjaourpower).
Hold corporations--and the governmental bodies that enable them-- accountable for their actions. Companies benefit when we only focus on our individual actions (recycling, shopping, etc.) instead of corporate culpability.
Investigate the politicians on your ballot. What are their positions on the Green New Deal? On immigration? On social justice? These issues all affect climate migration.
Read more about international climate migration and American climate migration in ProPublica.

GET EDUCATED

By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)

The wildfires blazing across the West Coast have brought climate migration back to the forefront of many American’s minds. This year, almost 8000 fires have burned over 3.6 million acres of land in California alone (Cal Fire), and many residents are wondering whether they can stay (CNN). Whether they should stay. Or whether they should pick up and move away from their families and communities, joining the ever-growing climate migration across the globe.

Climate migration refers to the movement of people due to climate change-induced environmental stressors, including heat, drought, and natural disasters. This is already happening globally; in 2018 alone, 17.2 million people were recorded as internally displaced (within their own countries) by environmental disasters (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre). But according to researchers, almost 162 million Americans will experience a “decline in their environment, namely, more heat and less water” within their lifetimes (NY Times). Another study predicts that 1 in 12 Americans in the South will have to move within 45 years due to environmental factors (Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists). While such migration will eventually affect everyone on earth, it matters to anti-racism work because of what communities are most affected. Climate change disproportionately affects communities of color, developing countries, and low-income and underserved populations (NAACP).

“It is important to acknowledge that those impacted the most by the climate crisis are victims to decades and centuries of norms, values, regulations, behaviors, and policies that have made it this way today,” wrote Chanté Harris in a previous newsletter on climate change. Hurricane Katrina is an excellent and terrible example. In the New Orleans area alone, 272,000 Black people were displaced, comprising 73% of the parish’s total displaced population (Congressional Research Service). Across the Gulf South, a lack of affordable housing has made it impossible for many former residents to return to the area.

In 2015, a decade after the disaster, there was only one-third as many public housing apartments in New Orleans as before the disaster, while housing costs in general New Orleans rose 40% (AmnestyUSA). The same year, a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation/NPR showed that white residents and Black residents had had very different experiences after the crisis. 70% of white residents were able to return to their homes within a year, while less than half of Black residents were able to. Additionally, around half of both the Black and low-income populations did not believe recovery efforts had helped them. In contrast, about two-thirds of both the white and high-income populations thought that recovery efforts had helped them. (Kaiser Family Foundation). Read more about how climate migration will reshape America in New York Times Magazine.

After such disasters, people— especially people of color and those below the poverty line—have to pick between two terrible choices: to remain in their homes and communities (places that will likely be struck by disaster again, with governments that choose not to prioritize their recovery), or to leave. Internationally the situation is even more dire. In India, 600 million people are already facing a water crisis, whether because of drought or degradation of water quality (National Geographic). Each year, runoff declines and water becomes scarcer (Climate Institute). Such events are leading to mass climate migration across the globe at the same time as nationalistic immigration policies rise in the West (ProPublica). Here, yet again, the climate crisis goes head-to-head with America’s racist, xenophobic laws. Read ProPublica’s report and model of climate migration across international borders.

"
Our cities and our communities are not prepared. In fact, our economic system and our social systems are only prepared to make profit off of people who migrate. This will cause rounds of climate gentrification, and it will also penalize the movement of people, usually through exploited labor and usually through criminalization.

Colette Pichon Battle, founder of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, an organization that “advances structural shifts toward ecological equity and climate justice in Gulf South communities of color.” Watch the rest of her TED Talk here.

Climate migration shows the necessity of climate justice, a movement that focuses specifically on addressing racial and socioeconomic inequities and transitioning away from our current toxic, exploitative economy. (Later, we’ll do a deeper dive into climate justice, but for now, check out the Just Transition Framework for Change from the Climate Justice Alliance.)

Issues like climate change can feel insurmountable for us individuals to deal with. We don’t always know what to do in response. And indeed, many well-meaning initiatives (like banning plastic straws) can shift the focus onto individual culpability instead of corporate accountability, while having their own unintended side effects (NPR). But what I do know is: there is power in community action. We cannot rely on our government or on a top-down plan of action. Look at the member list at Climate Justice Alliance for organizations in your area. Support them—by volunteering your time, money, or social media feed. And when you think or talk about climate change or climate migration, make sure you remember the ways that racism impacts the climate crisis.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Because of climate change, many areas are becoming uninhabitable for humans. The shifting environment is leading to climate migration across the globe.
In 2018 alone, at least 17.2 million people were displaced by environmental disasters (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre).
Climate change disproportionately affects communities of color, developing countries, and low-income and underserved populations (NAACP).

7/24/2020 | Reduce your plastic consumption.

7/12/2020 | Learn how air pollution exacerbates COVID-19.

7/5/2020 | Support the Navajo Nation through COVID-19.

ARCHIVES

Fight against pesticides in communities of color.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

KEY TAKEAWAYS

RELATED ISSUES

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Support climate justice.

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GET EDUCATED

KEY TAKEAWAYS

RELATED ISSUES

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Learn about climate migration.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

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RELATED ISSUES

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