THE GLOBAL CLIMATE DISTRESS
Countries across the US and the Caribbean are still reeling from months plagued by wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. The traditional public response is an outpouring of solidarity statements, humanitarian aid, and international investments. Unfortunately, collective empathy has been missing in recent weeks. Disturbing images depicting Haitians seeking asylum being physically assaulted by US border guards have been circulating online. There is no circumstance that merits state-sponsored violence, abusing, and deporting families seeking refuge from political unrest as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes and tropical storms.
The silence from climate justice and emergency preparedness sectors regarding this recent human rights crisis has been deafening. The reticence to stand in solidarity with people (including a preponderance of children) seeking refuge from a national crisis exacerbated by earthquakes and tropical storms reeks of the racism that has long prevented climate and emergency preparedness practitioners and advocates from actualising their principles and reaching their full potential.
CLIMATE, RACIAL, AND REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
Emergency preparedness (defined as “a continuous cycle of planning, organising, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action in an effort to ensure effective coordination during incident response”) and planning principles are often committed to address the 3 E's—economy, environment, and equity—but often neglect the environment and equity components. People of colour, particularly women and children, often find themselves in a world where economy is prioritised above all else, ultimately contributing to Black people experiencing increased vulnerability to climate-based disasters.
The National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC) and its partners within the Reproductive Justice movement know that reproductive justice and climate justice are inextricably linked. Reproductive Justice is “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities”. Birthing and parenting children in “safe and sustainable communities” includes preventing and mitigating exposure to weather-related disasters and environmental degradation. Communities of colour continue to face the harshest environmental exposures, though these communities bear the least responsibility for the consumption driving climate change.
Climate justice IS reproductive justice. Black people carry the disproportionate burdens of climate change and its resulting maternal and child health inequities, including maternal and infant mortality. For example, increased exposure to temperature extremes negatively impacts birth outcomes including preterm birth, birth weight, stillbirth, and neonatal stress. Additionally, projected increases in maternal heat exposure may lead to increased congenital heart defects. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires not only cause physical damage and threaten communities’ safety, but they also cause long-term psychological distress.
The toxic stress from these events has been shown to negatively impact maternal child health as demonstrated in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The extreme weather associated with climate change also impacts availability and affordability of healthful foods and housing, which are known factors in maternal and child health and chronic disease prevention and treatment.
A CALL TO ACTION
Addressing these deeply entrenched, systemic failings requires drastic shifts in power, including a redistribution of wealth. All climate scientists and planning experts, especially those involved in disaster preparedness and mitigation, must openly acknowledge intersectional oppressions and center community knowledge as the path forward. Holistically addressing the climate crisis necessitates breaking the silos between environmental advocacy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, centering those most affected yet forgotten during weather related disasters—Black women and other women of colour.
Bell hooks said in belonging: a culture of place, that we cannot afford to “see ecology and the struggle to end racism as competing concerns. Recalling the legacy of our ancestors who knew that the way we regard land and nature will determine the level of our self-regard, black people must reclaim a spiritual legacy where we connect our well-being to the well-being of the earth. This is a necessary dimension of healing”.
As Black maternal health experts, we know the Black maternal health crisis will not cease and our healing cannot manifest without climate solutions and emergency preparedness mechanisms that prioritize increasing research, advocacy, and direct funding for pregnant and parenting families. As hooks suggests, communities of color have ancestral ways of connecting with and protecting the environment. Our perspectives and expertise are essential for creating dynamic climate solutions, before, during, and after disasters.