Taking Climate Action

Today’s world is faced with immense problems regarding sustainability and climate change, unfortunately these issues are also directly linked to racial justice as well. And even more unfortunate is that most people don’t correlate the two, creating a wider gap and greater challenges for finding equitable solutions. In hopes to create more awareness and spread the word around this issue, on this week’s Biophilic Solutions Podcast, we spoke with Jacqui Patterson, the Senior Director of the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program, about why we cannot separate our fight for planetary health from the fight for racial justice.

In Jacqui’s interview, hosts Monica Olsen and Jennifer Walsh address questions such as: why is race, even more so than socioeconomic status, the single biggest indicator for placement of toxic facilities in the United States? Why do we silo issues like public health, race, and climate, when they are so closely related? Why is campaign finance reform surprisingly essential as we move toward a greener and more equitable planet?

Jacqui helps answer these questions, highlighting points from her essay titled, A Just Planet with “20 Things We Can Do to Advance a Just and Sustainable Planet”.  She explains the state of our climate and environmental injustice crisis as, “profit driven development and reckless extraction and processing of fossil fuels, coupled with rampant consumerism, we are seeing more and more toxic communities, increased heat waves, wild fires, super storms and drought driven shifts in agricultural yields.” These words are pointed and deep, hopefully hitting home for a lot of people who aren’t aware of how serious these issues are for our future as a society and individuals. But don’t fret, because Jacqui also shares actions we can take to be a part of a growing movement to “educate and engage our communities, reclaim our voice and influence in decision making stations, grow local economies, and ensure that all have access to basic needs and upholding of all civil and human rights.” Because it isn’t just recycling, composting or stopping the use of plastic. Saving our planet will take much more. Read below for big and small actions to take towards a more just planet. Because you don’t have to do everything, you just need to do something.