Earth Day 2021: Accountability, Action, Justice

This past year has been eye-opening for so many reasons. We saw the starkest forms of burnout, rising stress across all generations, and blurred lines between work and home life. Activities, trips, and hugs have been put on pause. We were fed a “nature is healing” narrative, practically bamboozling ourselves into believing we could save our planet without the government and corporations leading the charge on enacting change.

Instead, we are faced with the blatant realities of a broken system. Four interconnected issues— climate change, racial injustice, a global pandemic, and economic recession— take center stage with mainstream coverage and presidential attention, but still little tangible action. We saw report after report, article after article, illuminate the very real effects of environmental racism (e.g., fossil fuels as the “silent killer,” “fossil fuel racism”). We saw companies step up to the plate and express positive sentiment toward ESG initiatives— yet skepticism still looms in the air, much like the pollution disproportionately affecting the lungs of communities of color.

Will a 2030 goal be a far enough distraction for our overburdened minds and bodies to forget that we have less than seven months globally to get climate ambition targets in order or else we’ll continue to face irreversible environmental damage? Many companies missed their climate targets this past year or still do not have emission targets in place and face little to no repercussions.

Earth Day is the largest global secular holiday, but why does it feel like it’s frequently the most overlooked? Why do companies expect praise when their very presence has sacrificed our lands and communities in the first place? And why are its roots often replaced with images that people often touted as being emotionally disconnected (e.g., polar bears on a melting ice cap are not enough to move the needle on climate justice).

To move forward, we must acknowledge and reflect on our past actions. Thinking back to its origins, the 1970s marked a time when massive coast-to-coast rallies called for government climate action. What is often left out of environmental history, however, is how people of color influenced change.

While civil rights leaders in the 1960s were advocating for political and social change, they were also fighting for other basic human rights -- environmental and public health issues that flooded their rivers, homes, and lungs. The civil rights movement paved the way for the environmental movement, which adopted its tactics of marching, protesting, petitioning, and grassroots action.

In the years that followed, the conversation gradually shifted away from the people it disproportionately impacted and toward animals, plants, and water. With little racial awareness or inclusion of intersectional considerations, the fight against climate change grew more exclusive— and primarily white. Though the conversation around environmental justice has become more thoughtful in its inclusion of people of all backgrounds, we still have a long way to go in order to dismantle the racism and privilege inherent in the environmental movement. (If you’re not seeing the impacts of environmental degradation in your backyard, then you are fortunately privileged. This isn’t a bad thing, but I encourage you to read more here and here.)

Last Earth Day, I reflected on individual and collective action. This year I am unapologetically frustrated by the cycle of “onus on the consumer” messaging. I shouldn’t have to contribute to the highly polluted fashion industry so that a company will possibly plant a single tree or donate 0.001% of their profits to an organization of their choice. We shouldn’t be made to feel bad about our own carbon footprint, when 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. No corporate spin on “human energy” will ever be enough to convince me that we don’t need to divest from the fossil fuel industry, full stop. We need greater attention, awareness, accountability.

People often say we’re ahead of the time— that it’s the next generation that will really be the movers and shakers demanding a more equitable planet. I think it’s quite the opposite. Over half of Americans see the effects of climate change in their own communities. We’re at the tipping point. The days of deep-pocketed fossil fuel relationships are fading fast. The market value of fossil fuels companies is tanking, with some analysts calling this the beginning of the end for big oil. We’re shining a light on companies that have purposefully been deceiving the public for decades, and next they’re coming for the advisers that have often hid behind the curtain.

It’s tough to close a piece as tumultuous as climate change. I’m hopeful of the current administration’s attention (e.g., rejoining the Paris Agreement, allocating funds to climate justice in the Infrastructure Plan, pressuring financial agencies to combat climate-related financial risks); however, I’ll remain relentlessly skeptical until globally we can move past communication and intent and into impact proof solutions.