In the UK, The Independent ran an article by Magid Magid entitled “The coronavirus and climate change crises are completely intertwined. We have to tackle them both”
In part, he says this about the coronavirus pandemic:
Those who may have considered the scale of global crises to be indiscriminate have seen a stark magnification of affliction tearing through already-neglected sections of society – such as the elderly, those in care and ethnic minority communities.
Magid Magid
Back in June, the website AL — Alabama Local news — ran an article by Kyle Whitmire, “COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter aren’t competing stories. They’re the same story.”
Racism kills in many ways. It kills through police brutality. It kills through lack of health care. It kills with bullets. It kills with toxins, pathogens and disease.
It smothers its victims until they can’t breathe, either by a knee on their necks or a virus in their lungs.
Kyle Whitmire
Can we add climate injustice to that mix? I think we can.
In June, Mark Hertsgaard wrote, for the Columbia Journalism Review, “Just like COVID-19, racial justice is also a climate story”, which says, among other things:
The poor, people of color, and women suffer first and worst from the heat waves, droughts, and storms unleashed by global warming, though they did little to cause that warming. The rich, the white, and the comfortable, whose investments and lifestyles drive global warming, are often shielded from its impacts. The same social systems that drive the climate crisis also perpetuate the racism that killed George Floyd and countless other people of color, and it is those systems that need replacing.
Mark Hertsgaard
Don’t be fooled into thinking all resources need to be funneled into solving a part of the problem. No part will be solved until they’re all solved. Because they’re all one problem, and it’s everybody’s problem.
A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Three things that seem separate are actually deeply entwined.
MA
acflory
November 13, 2020 at 3:42pmI agree with all of this, but what really struck a chord with me was this: ‘…whose investments and lifestyles drive global warming..’
Why do we never hold /shareholders/ to account for the destruction their investments cause?
I have no idea how much money the Kardashians have squirreled away, but I’m pretty sure their investments are clean and green. Yet no one asks much less cares. Millions of people aspire to be like the Kardashians, and they/we validate the system that makes them.
Why aren’t we using the enormous power of social stigma to force these so-called ‘icons’ to move their shares? If enough of them did, the corporations would be forced to make changes. Sadly NONE of them do.
We enable the very things that are killing us all.
Marian Allen
November 13, 2020 at 4:08pmCodePink encourages people and institutions to be mindful about their investments. My mother left me a few small investments, like mutual funds or something, and I actually read what the money was invested in. I moved it all to green and sustainable companies. It’s a tiny drop in the bucket, but it was my contribution to the movement!
acflory
November 13, 2020 at 4:12pmKnowing you, I’m not at all surprised. 🙂 I wish all investors, large and small, were as diligent.
acflory
November 13, 2020 at 3:43pmGrrr….’their investments AREN’T clean and green. Sorry, not enough caffeine yet.