New Black-Focused Climate Solutions Initiative Launches

The Black Hive, a new climate initiative focused on equitable climate solutions, launched Thursday. The initiative, launched by the Movement for Black Lives, aims to build upon the 2021 Red, Black, and Green New Deal.

“The climate crisis is happening because of corporate greed, government negligence, the divestment of solutions and the investment into the harmful institutions like the fossil fuel industry, that are harming our people,” Valencia Gunder, national co-lead of The Black Hive, told the AP. “It’s time for America to address the anti-Black racism that happens here.”

Structural racism, from the legacy of enslavement to redlining to present-day de facto segregation, makes Black communities far more likely to be harmed by climate change or located near polluting industries. The initiative’s launch is especially timely, organizers say, in light of the Supreme Court’s West Virginia v. EPA ruling and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which advocates have criticized over provisions supporting fossil fuel expansion.

“There’s no solution if Black (communities) and Indigenous nations, especially the Gulf South, have to suffer in order to have Band-Aid solutions for the wider public,” Alston-Toure′, a member of the Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative spanning several states, told the AP. “We want to be taken serious and know that our votes matter because this is a lynching of our communities, and we have to be heard.”

As reported by the AP:

The Movement for Black Lives is a national network of more than 150 leaders and organizations created to build a broad political home for Black people to organize across the country and within their communities. The movement has expanded beyond policing to include issues such as climate change and environmental justice. The collective is calling on people to take its Black climate and environmental justice pledge and commit to advancing The Black Hive’s Black Climate Mandate that’s expected to be updated this year.

The Black Hive leaders say they plan to offer resources, data and technology, communications and disaster response support to local communities and Black-led organizations. The initiative is focusing on several areas: water, energy, land, labor, economy and reparations, democracy, health, and global Black diaspora solidarity. Participants also plan to focus on grassroots organizing and community education to raise awareness.

For a deeper dive:

AP

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