Solving climate is the answer — and frontline communities hold the solutions.
This moment is calling for a new paradigm that centers the people closest to the problems
While growing up Black and poor, my family never talked about water or energy conservation, but we were already in the practice of it. My mom and grandmother would always tell us: Don’t let the water run when you brush your teeth. Turn the lights off if you’re not in the room. Don’t wash clothes until you have enough to fill the washer. We never talked about the environment, but re-used grocery bags, and hand-me-down clothes that I shared with my cousins. They instilled values in my siblings and I about the importance of community, sharing with others, and helping our neighbors. It was normal to go across the street to ask for eggs or sugar, or carpool with a neighbor or family member to the grocery store. When you live in a community that is under resourced, the only resources you have are each other.
These two women were teaching me the importance of sharing, conserving and being responsible with my resources — all tenets of a climate conscious, sustainable life. And they didn’t even know it. Being conscious of water bills, electricity, and sharing what we had with family and neighbors — this was all part of our reality. We were conservationists out of necessity, and unknowingly pioneers in sustainable living. But we didn’t have the luxury to think about climate change. When you’re too busy trying to survive the structural inequities you’re immersed in from day to day, climate change is not at the forefront of your mind.
Today, it seems like we are all in survival mode. Over 6 million acres have been burned from wildfires in 2020 alone. We’re in the midst of a record-breaking hurricane season, and a historic heat wave in the west. Over 210,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, to date. An estimated 30–40 million people are living on the edge of eviction. Black people are being killed in their very homes, while state violence continues to go unchecked. The challenges we face are all-consuming, and the need for change is palpable.
This moment is calling for a paradigm shift, away from a system that values profit over people. For too long, we have been existing with the expectation that we must produce and consume at all costs, even if it means sacrificing people, our land, resources, and the planet. It is an illusion, that one can’t exist without the others being expendable. And the result has been extraction, exploitation, oppression, and violence. Even our democracy is being threatened.
It is a hard truth to face, that we are in a perfect storm of our own making. But what if we actually transformed our structures to center the people closest to the problems?
I believe the leaders we need right now are the very people who have been living in (and through) crisis for generations. Their solutions point the way for all of us.
For nearly two decades, I have been a community organizer, working with families like mine — Black and Brown people who are not only closest to the problems, but have been living them, from being denied access to quality food and medical treatment, to enduring the physiological stress of intergenerational racial terror. Our communities have also been dying — both from the bullet or knee of an officer sworn to protect us, and from unbreathable air by living in historically disinvested areas intentionally designed to be pollution hot spots. A 2018 EPA study showed that race, not poverty, was found to be the strongest predictor of exposure to one of the most harmful types of air pollution. Black people in the United States are nearly two times more likely to be exposed, causing preterm births and infant mortality, heart and lung disease, and premature death. Another study from the University of Minnesota found that all over the country, even in the most rural areas and the cleanest of cities, communities of color are more exposed to pollution than whites. The threats faced come from every direction.
But here is the remarkable thing: despite these pressing realities, we are rejecting a system that doesn’t serve us, and creating a new way. We are producing our own solutions in the most innovative and resourceful ways. We are building power, voice, and civic engagement. We are countering our extractive, individualistic culture, by showing up for each other in mutuality, community, sustainability, respect and care — just like my family did. And by living at the intersections, we take an integrated approach to the work we’re doing to improve our lives. We know, through experience, that our problems are interconnected — and so are our answers.
Imagine what we could achieve if we strengthened the capacity of local communities to solve the problems that everyone is now facing.
We, at The Solutions Project, fortify and invest in this movement, led by Black, Indigenous, Immigrant and other people of color who have been creating climate solutions from the ground up. We move money to the people most impacted, and amplify the innovative work that’s happening. And I’ve seen the impact first-hand. Thanks to the efforts of local communities and grassroots organizations across the country, 1 in 3 people in the US now live in a place committed to 100% renewable energy. Through advocacy and voter mobilization efforts in Los Angeles, a new funding initiative will generate $300 million annually for water infrastructure projects, creating thousands of new family-supporting, career-track jobs for residents. More people know that Buffalo is the third poorest city in the United States than they know that it is also New York state’s first community solar project, which offers safe, affordable homes and discounted energy entirely to low-income subscribers.
The climate crisis is the opportunity to create the paradigm shift that this moment is calling for, because it can be the umbrella that allows us to create a new, equitable economy. But policy reform isn’t enough; we need transformation.
The climate movement is deeply intersectional. It’s about labor and workers; it’s about corporate accountability, it’s about agriculture, water, and transit; it’s about public health and housing. Racial equity cannot simply be an add-on — it’s an essential element. By tackling these issues together, we can create new modes of production and energy systems that will push us towards a more sustainable future, for everyone.
Activist and author Mia Birdsong once said, “What if we recognized that what’s working is the people and what’s broken is our approach?” The systems that got us here will not save us. But in this perfect storm, solutions are being made every day. If we want to get through this, we’ve got to, finally, support and uplift the work that people living in communities at the frontlines of crisis have been doing for generations. Together, we can create the future we want. The people are calling for it. The planet is calling for it. It’s time for us to level up, and rise to the occasion.
Gloria Walton is the President and CEO of The Solutions Project, which works to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy and equitable access to healthy air, water, and land by supporting climate justice organizations, especially those led by women of color. Learn more @100isNow and thesolutionsproject.org
