When you think of Earth Day, what comes to mind?
Some think that Earth Day is just for beekeepers, tree-huggers, and seed-savers. The truth is that the planet in crisis is our business, because it’s shaping our politics, our economy, and our everyday life. The planet will have the last word about our legacy. Earth Day is the alarm clock that reminds us that now is the time to wake up and play our part in addressing the climate crisis.
America has celebrated Earth Day since April 22, 1970, as a purposeful and political act to raise awareness about the natural, cultural, and resource consequences of the climate crisis and the urgency for better care of the planet we all share. The crisis and collapse have expanded Earth Day to Earth Month.
Everything on Earth is connected to Black life, livelihoods, and history. Earth Day was first observed as a teach-in that pulled its energy from the 1960s civil rights struggle to establish a global movement.That campaign paved the way for laws to protect our air and water, and regulate the impact of booming business on human health and environment.
Black people are invested in, stewarding, and leading on the environment. You don’t have to be an expert to make the connections. Why? Because everything on Earth is giving or taking life. In America, almost everything has been made, built, bettered, and harvested through the genius and labor of Black peoples. We are owed a 400-year debt even as America redefines itself at 250 years.
The wins of environmental movements are too often portrayed through a lens of colonialism, takings, and white identity. Behind that image, Black people are living and dying in vulnerability and burdens from the climate crisis. Often, we feel it before we even leave our homes. Indoor air data tells us that gas stoves create the conditions for asthma in the lungs of six out of 10 of our children and that heart disease threatens stroke, heart attack, or hypertension in adults, in our homes, at the same rate. The call to get the gas out and make New York homes affordable came from our research, and supported demands to stop unnecessary deaths.
It gets worse: 20% of Black New Yorkers live in parts of the boroughs that are at risk of flooding from storms or from clogged stormwater drains. When it rains, the water rises faster than our streets, pipes, and evacuation plans can handle. The poorest of us can’t afford to relocate, so the harm lasts long after the storm. Residing in a city, even the greatest on Earth, often means there are more of us in every square block living in environmental threat.
Whether we are upstate, uptown, or downtown, the risks of environmental harm are close and compounding. The stakes can be seen in our energy bills, grocery and medical bills, and quality of life.
Where there is economic threat, the politics are tense. Earth Day is our opportunity to raise the issue of the political costs to our people and show our power in the fight for our planet.
NY waterways give us beaches, parks, and access — but they also mean that we are a state at risk in a nation in free fall. Our next elections will determine whether progress advances what we fought for or go backward in our lifetimes. Look to the City Council, mayor, and governor for their commitments to the New York Climate and Community Protection Act. Their commitment to implementation will either secure energy for New York that positions us for wins or fumble the opportunity with delays resulting in needless suffering and preventable losses.
It’s time for us to connect the dots and save our own lives. In case you missed it, over 50% of workers purged from the federal workforce are Black women, with estimates of at least 300,000– plus in related jobs. Every home where a woman is pushed out of the workforce undermines life and care plans for the future, whether it’s rent or retirement, a household or a neighborhood, a community depends on her resources. These federal-level attacks aim to reverse access, efficiencies, jobs, and resources that prove that equity and inclusion makes all work, work better, by increasing innovation, retention, and dollars in neighborhoods that make up our nation.
Earth requires our action and attention. It’s time for New Yorkers across the diaspora to see and seize our moment by making demands that help us now and prepare for what’s next. Reach out to us at Climate Critical and we can help you figure out how to take action.
Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, an expert environmentalist and climate strategist, is the founder of Climate Critical, a network intervention for the climate workforce, and CEO and president of the Environmental Grantmakers Association based in Harlem.