The interconnection of climate justice and social justice

Climate justice and social justice are inextricably linked. We cannot fight for climate justice without also fighting for equality and justice for all marginalized communities, including Blacks, Indigenous, People of Color, poor communities, and women. 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. If all life, including human, animal and plant life, are considered equally worthy of good food, clean water, and clean air, the less normalized it will be to destroy natural habitats and pollute the land.

Below is some recent coverage on the intersection of climate justice and social justice:

The New Climate, "Fossil Fuel Companies Are Killing Black People"

"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)."

"Extinction Rebellion, racism and the climate crisis"

"It is easy, and actively reductive, to simply point the finger at governments and corporations and demand action on the climate while failing to identify the methods that enable the destruction of the planet. The primary method I speak of is the harnessing of racist narratives that permit the extraction of natural resources in the global south...In the language of the sociologist Edward Said, we all-too-easily think of those in the distant lands of Africa, Latin America and Asia as the ‘other’. People whose cultures and values are so very different from ours that we can’t, and don’t relate to them. In the course of this ‘othering’, we fail to relate to their struggles too.

We must issue a unifying call for solidarity across races that implicates those who use racial division to further the prosperity of the global elite and to destroy the lives of people and the planet."

Huffington Post, "We Don’t Have To Halt Climate Action To Fight Racism"

"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.”