Jeremy Williams

A short sharp look at the history of climate change and race Both in its cause and in its effect, climate change reflects racial inequalities. It is disproportionately caused by the majority white citizens of the global North, while the damage it unleashes falls first and foremost on people of color. The climate crisis reflects racial inequalities of the past, and reinforces them into the future. In this eye-opening book, the first book to explore these connections for a popular audience, writer and environmental activist Jeremy Williams uses a wide range of sources and voices to tell this story through the people and places most affected on our planet. Rooted in his experiences of environmental activism, a childhood spent in Kenya and Madagascar and adulthood in Britain, Williams explores the need for intersectional activism - a reckoning of where white privilege and climate change overlap - and for each of us to find our place in the global struggle for justice.

Race, Privilege and the Struggle for Climate Justice

Is Climate Change Racist?

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Howard Winant writes: 'racism must be understood in terms of its consequences, not as a matter of intentions or beliefs'

Almost two thirds of global warming since 1888 caused by 90 companies (Climatic Change, 2017)

The language of environmentalisn often reaches for inclusive terms in a well-meaning attempt at solidarity, aiming to create a global consciousness or unity of purpose. But campaigners should take care not to accidentally rewrite history in ways that serve a privileged minority. Unity and solidarity are vital, but they are impossible without recognising that some parts of the world bear much greater responsibility for the climate emergency than others.

…the largest effects are often disconnected from the cause.

…many of the worst impacts of the climate crisis are unobserved. Those with the highest footprints don't see the damage in their own lives, and they might not see it in others’ lives either…If people are unaware of the damage climate change is doing, is it any wonder that they struggle to believe that it is serious, or even happenig at all?

Analysis of the ‘blast zones' either side of railway tracks reveals an unequal distribution of risk. Take Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for example. Its population is 86 per cent White, but if you look at residents living within the blast zone, 38 per cent are people of colour.

Many indigenous people groups have understood the importance of being 'good ancestors, but the English-speaking world has lacked the political language for this kind of thinking.

“We love to tell ourselves that it all started with the Industrial Revolution,” writes climate justice essayist Mary Annaise Heglar. “But we're telling ourselves a lie. It started with conquest, genocides, slavery and colonialism. That is the moment when White men's relationship with living things became extractive and disharmonious. Everything was for the taking; everything was for sale.

If you have thought of climate change as something that will affec the future, that's a sign of climate privilege: for many it is right here and right now.

From The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

He [Amitav Ghosh] argues that the debate around climate change is too Eurocentric. lt has focused on the WS of Europe and the nations settled by Europeans, and he encourages his readers to ‘look at the climate crisis through the prism of empire.’

Is Climate Change Racist? quotes

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