00:00Hurricane Harvey has caused catastrophic damage in the greater Houston area, with at least
00:09five people reported dead, more than a dozen injured, and an estimated 30,000 displaced.
00:15Here to talk about how natural disasters like this specifically affect black and brown communities
00:20is Christina Coleman, Essence.com senior news and culture editor.
00:24Christina, welcome to the show.
00:25Thank you for having me.
00:26It's a pleasure.
00:26Now, we hear the term climate change quite a bit, but some folks may not understand what that is.
00:31Can you explain what climate change is?
00:32Yeah, and, you know, the most simpler, simplest terms, it just means that it's the change of historic weather, right?
00:40So the weather we have in place is changing.
00:42The problem is that we as humans are doing things like driving cars and burning gas and oil and heating up our homes.
00:48And in turn, we're putting that gas into the air and we are heating up our planet.
00:52And so it's doing so at a rapid pace, a more intensified pace.
00:56And what that does is change the weather.
00:59And we look at Hurricane Harvey, which turned into a tropical storm.
01:02It is climate change.
01:04It is climate change.
01:04When we look at Harvey, that is climate change.
01:06Now, how does climate change specifically affect black and brown communities?
01:11This one, you know, before we even go there, I think we should talk about the shame that surrounded Houston and people not evacuating.
01:18And I think when we look at that, we can look at how floods and this unprecedented weather we're experiencing affects black and brown people.
01:26People were wondering, well, why didn't you get out?
01:28Well, that's a good question.
01:29Why didn't you get out?
01:31What is that shame?
01:31Why don't people evacuate?
01:32Because they don't have the finances to do so.
01:34And so when we talk about these storms that they knew Houston was coming, they knew that a hurricane like Harvey or a tropical storm like Harvey would hit Houston at some point.
01:43It's a 500, it's the third 500 year flood to hit Houston, right?
01:46And what happens is that policymakers and lawmakers, they know this.
01:52Areas that are hit the hardest by climate change, like Louisiana and Houston, have large, large populations of black and brown people.
02:00And the lawmakers in those areas refuse to acknowledge climate change.
02:04And in turn, they hurt communities of color.
02:07I'm so glad you brought that up.
02:08Yeah, carry on.
02:08No, go ahead.
02:09Black people, brown people, poor people are the ones that are hit the hardest by that because they can't get out.
02:14And it's really a shame that the policymakers who are living or representing these states and these areas can't believe in climate change enough to save their people.
02:22Well, let's stay there for a second.
02:23Let's talk about those policymakers because we've heard our President Trump refer to it as a Chinese hoax, right?
02:29I know.
02:29Sigh.
02:30Big sigh.
02:31So as he's referring to that, as top leaders and politicians that may not believe in climate change, what can we do as just regular citizens to affect change?
02:39Yeah, so it'd be interesting to know.
02:41I don't know what the percentage of black and brown people, if they even believe in climate change, but I think we need to look at environmental racism when we talk about climate change.
02:48That's just one aspect of it.
02:50It's the reason why one in six African-American children have asthma.
02:53It's the reason why I think it's 40 percent of African-Americans are breathing more dioxide than our white counterparts or why there are more refineries or truck depots and things that affect our health in areas where we live.
03:11Wow.
03:12That's incredible.
03:12That's what it means that in those areas, there's deposits of environmental stuff that's in our neighborhoods that's causing our children to get sick.
03:19I mean, look at Flint.
03:20When we talk about environmental racism, we're also talking about Flint and the water in Flint.
03:27How is this affecting black and brown people?
03:30And so we have to start looking at the sanctioned violence against us.
03:33It's not just police brutality or not just the systemic racism that keeps us out of schools and out of housing, but it also makes us sick.
03:41It's the environmental racism component as well.
03:44Now, let's switch gears.
03:45Let's talk about the Paris Climate Agreement, right, which President Trump, 45, pulled us out of.
03:49What does that mean for us as a country, though?
03:52Because we read about it, but it's like, what does it mean for me?
03:54You know, it's hard to say.
03:56So the Paris Climate Accord was supposed to help us reduce carbon pollution globally.
04:05Trump pulled us out of that.
04:06I'm not sure what it's going to mean for America, but I know what it's going to mean for black and brown people, because we are the ones to stand to be affected by that the most.
04:16But he has shown time and time again that he doesn't care about our communities.
04:19His reasoning for doing that was to put America first.
04:23Oh, my gosh.
04:24Right?
04:24But we know what Americans he's talking about when he says put America first.
04:28Right.
04:28So closing out, we have to talk about those people that are like, you know what, I have bread and butter issues.
04:34I have educational issues.
04:35I have, you know, I have other issues.
04:37I don't really view the environment as a priority.
04:39What would you say to them?
04:43It's important.
04:44It is.
04:44I think it's almost obvious that it's important.
04:48It's our health is important.
04:51And when you look at what we face as black and brown people, whether that's the diseases that we're more prone to having, it's because of what we're exposed to.
05:01It's because we've been pushed to these areas and we don't have the resources to get out.
05:05And we don't have the people lobbying for us and protecting us in those policy areas.
05:10And so it needs to be a top priority as we resist.
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