What is Climate Change?
Most of us have heard about global warming, the long-term warming of Earth due to holes in the ozone layer. It’s something we’ve learned about since we were young and strong evidence shows that global warming is true.
Much of the conversation has since shifted to climate change, which refers to broader changes happening to our planet, such as changes in weather, rising sea levels, melting ice caps, and more. Minnesotans know that our winters can typically be long and cold, but winters have been warmer with the impact of global warming. Because of global warming, things like polar vortex are happening and bringing larger shifts in Minnesota’s weather, from hot to cold.
What is Environmental Racism?
The impact of climate change currently disproportionately affects communities of color and poorer communities. Environmental racism uploads currently institutional structures, regulations, policies, government, and/or corporate decisions to allocate undesirable land uses to marginalized communities.
One very prominent example is the Standing Rock situation and the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest.
A private oil company, Energy Transfer Partners, financed a proposed oil pipeline to run through four states in the midwest: North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois, cutting through a Native American reservation, Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The Sioux tribe raised concerns about the oil pipeline leaking and affect their water supply. However, their concerns went unheeded and the conversation escalated into a land occupation, arrests and injuries, to protest this pipeline and have gained media attention.
The pipeline was initially proposed to run 11 miles away from Bismark, North Dakota but that particular route was rejected due to the concern that the pipeline would leak and affect the oil supply — the very same concern that the Sioux tribe at Standing Rock had.
The pipeline has been completed today due to the 45th President’s Executive Order.
An example of environmental racism within Minnesota is the story of the construction of I-94 in St. Paul. I-94, one of the major highways in the state and has created a more direct path from Minneapolis to St. Paul and vice versa, was built on top of a thriving neighborhood.
In the 1910s and 1920s, the Rondo neighborhood was a thriving African cultural center. A predominantly black community, it was Rondo where the St. Paul chapter of NAACP was established, where schools experienced high levels of literacy, and local businesses began and grew.
I-94 was proposed with much local opposition in the 1930s. This continued until 1956, when the Federal Highway Act provided funding for this highway, cutting the Rondo neighborhood in half, destroying local businesses, and displacing 1 in 8 African Americans.
A more recent example dates back to 2009, when the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), located in Minneapolis, sought a 20% increase in trash they would be able to burn.
The incinerator emits toxic pollutants including dioxin, mercury, lead, fine particles, carbon monoxide, and other heavy metals — all of which disproportionately affected poorer residents in Minneapolis, especially North Minneapolis.
According to Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC), no longer active, a majority of residents interviewed stated that they had or know someone who has asthma.
The fight against the incinerator continues even now.
3 Ways to Get Involved
- Tell your story: There are many other issues that affect our local community — some of which many are not aware of. These issues are important and there needs to be visibility. Tell your story so others can listen. This is especially important because there may be others who also experience similar issues or concerns. After that…
- Organize: Once you find others who share similar stories and are ready to organize for change, do so. Gather your community, create a plan — what is the next step? What is needed to make sure your community can breathe clean air?
- Join the movement: There are local organizations within the state who do advocacy and education work around environmental justice. One in particular is MN350, whose mission is to unite Minnesotans as part of a global movement to end the pollution damaging our climate, speed the transition to clean energy, and create a just and healthy future for all.
What are other ways that you can think of to get involved?
Resources
http://ceed.org/twin-cities-environmental-justice-mapping-tool-released/
http://libguides.mnhs.org/rondo
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/rondo-neighborhood-gets-apologies-for-i-94/105454642
Things to Check Out
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/us/a-question-of-environmental-racism-in-flint.html
http://greenaction.org/?page_id=420
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/529137/environmental-racism-is-the-new-jim-crow/