Fighting for the environment must focus on communities of color

All of these burdens are the consequence of structural and systemic choices that oppress marginalized communities that lack the resources to move to healthier places.

Disproportionate numbers of black and brown folks in our communities are becoming infected, hospitalized and dying of COVID-19

April 22 marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, founded in Wisconsin in 1970 by Sen. Gaylord Nelson. Nelson was one of many treasured environmentalists in Wisconsin’s history, which includes some of the nation’s premier conservation advocates: Increase Lapham, whose advocacy in Wisconsin influenced the likes of Henry David Thoreau; John Muir, who spent much his youth farming, leading to a deep appreciation of the land; Aldo Leopold, who created the famous Sand County Almanac; and such familiar Wisconsinites like Robert LaFollette, Charles Van Hise and John Nolen.

On this Earth Day 50 years later, we must not only acknowledge the dominant names, past and present, in advancing environmental movements and global icons like Greta Thunberg, but it is equally important to honor and recognize the true champions and standard bearers of our state and nation’s most valuable resources: advocates for clean water, wilderness protection, and the people responsible for measured conservation.

We also must recognize our indigenous communities across the state and nation. They’ve long been involved in conservation. We must remember the Menominee’s forest conservation in the 1800s, including their standing up against reckless logging and advocating for water quality, as demonstrated by opposition to the establishment of mining on ancestral land adjacent to the Menominee River.

It is imperative to center on communities of color in the acknowledgement of Earth Day, including their contributions to our collective understanding of the importance of caring for our environment, planet and its resources, and drawing attention to the intersection of deep-seeded racism and environmental injustice. As a result of structural and systemic racial inequity, the vulnerabilities in our black and brown communities have been laid bare in recent weeks in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disproportionate numbers of black and brown folks in our communities are becoming infected, hospitalized and dying. This is not the consequence of individual habits or choices, but rather the result of environmental injustice dating back centuries.

There’s been a disproportionate locating of transportation hubs in areas of color, polluting and contributing to higher rates of asthma in black and brown neighborhoods.

The attitude of NIMBY-ISM (not in my backyard) has guided the locating of polluting industries in communities of color, which cause an increase in asthma and exposure to carcinogens. Underserved communities have suffered disproportionally the harmful effects of of lead in paint and pipes.

Living in overcrowded and unclean low-income housing complexes that often the lack affordable healthy food (food deserts) has contributed to such underlying health conditions as diabetes and increased severity of infections.

All of these burdens are the consequence of structural and systemic choices that oppress marginalized communities that lack the resources to move to healthier places.

Current reports indicate that poorer neighborhoods of color in the Navajo Nation, Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles have higher rates of death due to higher levels of air pollution and environmental degradation.

Having a safe, clean environment in which to live is, in and of itself, a privilege that has been reserved for the majority white and economically secure parts of our society. Now more than ever, as we all seek the outdoors for clean air, open space and a break from the quarantine, we must acknowledge and reflect upon the critical presence of easy access to city, county and state parks as well as clean air and water — the basic foundations to community health.

Honoring Earth Day and its 50th anniversary with a laser focus on environmental justice is of paramount importance and critical to the well-being of communities of color. Characterizing the need to address environmental issues in our urban and rural communities, across this state and nation, is of crucial and urgent importance for those of us who are also advocating for racial and economic equity.

We cannot have environmental justice without racial justice — they are not separate issues. Just like Wisconsin made key contributions to environmental conservation in the past, it must make a key contribution now and focus on environmental justice with the same energy and activism that launched Earth Day 50 years ago.

This article first appeared on the website of Kids Forward.