I was very fortunate to attend tonight’s talk about justice and equality as it relates to climate change. The impacts of climate change are not far off in the future; they are here right now in the form of extreme weather, failing infrastructure, increasing wildfires, dilution of the planet’s micronutrients, and more. One thing that stuck with me was the way the speakers talked about the urgency of climate change action. I appreciated their wording that to avoid global warming, our last best chance is now and that we need to create policies for survival. One speaker referenced the statistic that to avoid irreversible global warming, we must prevent the average temperature of the planet from rising beyond 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius more than pre-industrial times. Even though it sounds like a very small number, a 1.5-degree rise in temperature will lead to a doubling of global crop failures, which will affect the most vulnerable communities. I think this context is something many people are not aware of and is essential for getting people to care about this issue.

This talk was very informative and helped me understand the intersectionality of environmental and social justice. One thing that impacted me greatly was that the technological challenge of decarbonizing manufacturing and transportation pales in comparison to helping people who bear the brunt of climate change. More often than not, it is the people who have contributed very little to climate change who experience the most consequences of it. This social inequity is partially rooted in inequities in the distribution of land and of resources like clean water. The speakers referenced America’s racist agricultural model as a source of this inequity in terms of lack of access to technology and rich land. Historically, land was taken away from African-Americans, Latinx farmers, and Native American tribes. In modern times, minoritized communities experience inequities like food deserts as a result of continual systemic racism. The statistics were eye-opening to me. For example, low-income neighborhoods are 5 to 12 degrees hotter than high-income neighborhoods because of a lack of resources like fewer trees. Furthermore, 11% of white people are food insecure in America compared to 22% of BIPOC; this disparity in food insecurity is indicative of environmental and social injustice.

Overall, I think one speaker put it best when they posed the question “How do we improve the human condition?” While the answer is multi-faceted and involves the intersection of many fields, I think it is a great way to contextualize the problem of climate change and the need for action in terms of improving people’s lives. I appreciated the speakers’ honesty when they talked about hope since they could not do their work if they weren’t at least a little bit optimistic about the future. I hope we are able to mitigate the problems of climate change, for our sake and the sake of future generations.