In recent years, environmental and community-based organizations have taken steps to better understand climate views in communities of color and support them to advocate for solutions that increase their resilience as they also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Read our summary of recent polling and community based research.)
We asked experts to share their insights on how communities of color are experiencing climate change, and some approaches that can help climate leaders better understand the views, needs and ideas of these communities. Here’s what they had to say:
Dani Ledezma, Interim Executive Director
Coalition of Communities of Color
1. What are some of the most important things you’ve learned about how communities of color feel about climate change, fossil fuels and solutions that are being proposed to address them?
· Our communities support and vote for environmental and climate action above and beyond the rates of white counterparts.
· Natural resource extraction/destruction and racial injustice are formed through the same forces — the concentration of wealth and power at the expense of land and labor. All of the racial justice issues our members work on can be connected to the climate crisis.
· Solutions should be easy to understand and articulate; support falters when even senior staff cannot articulate a proposed policy solution.
· Affordable housing and anti-displacement strategies are key climate resilience strategies for our communities. Our communities can build green infrastructure, renewable energy and sustainable communities, but there is no point if we are continually displaced to the outskirts of cities with little access to transit, parks, employment and services. Further, many members of our communities are literal climate refugees and others being displaced by “Climate gentrification” (i.e. those with means relocating to the green and relatively temperate PNW).
2. How has polling or focus groups helped deepen our understanding of what frontline communities are feeling and facing, and where is it falling short?
· Focus groups have allowed us to understand deeper cultural connections to environment and environmental destruction. For (draft) examples of interviews see here and here. Most communications do not reflect these values and also target audiences with financial and political means.
3. How can groups that are interested in helping advance equitable climate solutions better understand the views, experiences, needs, and ideas of communities of color?
· Recognize the experiences and stories of our communities as data and expertise.
· Support the communications and community participatory research capacity of organizations of color via financial and in-kind support and technical assistance with knowledge transfer.
Learn more: Download the Coalition of Communities of Color’s REDEFINE climate justice principles and climate resilience plan.
Peggy M. Shepard, Executive Director
WE ACT for Environmental Justice
1. What are some of the most important things you’ve learned about how communities of color feel about climate change, fossil fuels and solutions that are being proposed to address them?
People of color feel they have the smallest role in creating climate change, yet stand to suffer the most from its impacts. Many frontline communities will only become more impoverished as climate changes make it more difficult to have affordable housing, reliable transportation, healthy food, and stable employment.
For environmental justice communities, reform to our existing economic and political systems is needed; we need better representation in government as well as greater access to material resources and financial capital.
2. How has polling or focus groups helped deepen our understanding of what frontline communities are feeling and facing, and where is it falling short?
Climate change is already and will continue to have an unequal impact on low-income people and communities of color. A community planning process, which engages in focus groups and polling, deepens understanding of local perception, concerns, and ways to improve upon existing socio-economic conditions as they relate to climate resilience.
3. How can groups that are interested in helping advance equitable climate solutions better understand the views, experiences, needs, and ideas of communities of color?
Groups interested in advocating for equitable climate solutions must draw necessary connections between climate change and social equality. We must ensure equity in our collective response to climate change — addressing fundamental issues affecting frontline communities such as poverty and racism.
Matt Cutler, Postdoctoral Associate
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
1. What are some of the most important things you’ve learned about how communities of color feel about climate change, fossil fuels and solutions that are being proposed to address them?
The most important takeaway from the survey was that Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S. are by far more engaged with the topic of global warming than non-Latinos. They are more convinced it’s happening and human-caused, they’re more worried about it and the harms it poses now and in the future, they perceive greater risks from the potential hazards linked to global warming, such as extreme weather and heat, and they’re more likely to support a variety of policy responses to address the issue. Perhaps the second most interesting and important lesson from the survey was that Spanish-language Hispanics and Latinos, that is those who chose to take the survey in Spanish rather than English, were even more engaged, concerned, and supportive of policy responses than English language Hispanic and Latino survey respondents. Finally, and perhaps most crucially for the advocacy community, we learned that while Hispanics and Latinos are willing to do more to address the issue themselves, about seven in ten (71%) say they’ve never been contacted by an organization working to address global warming and a similar percentage (73%) say that nobody has ever asked them to reach out to their elected officials about global warming.
2. How has polling or focus groups helped deepen our understanding of what frontline communities are feeling and facing, and where is it falling short?
We’re learning new things from surveys such Climate Change in the Latino Mind, but this kind of work needs to continue because there have not been many representative surveys of vulnerable communities and populations and we’re just starting to produce a baseline of understanding about what matters most and what predicts their attitudes and beliefs about this issue. Additionally, we still need to fully examine what factors help to predict and explain why or why not those on the “frontlines,” as you put it, are not more politically active on the issue, especially when it comes to the voting booth. Clearly, as we’ve seen in this survey, there is a strong desire to make changes happen among these communities, but what’s not as well understood is how best to help these communities become more active to support action on the issue.
3. How can groups that are interested in helping advance equitable climate solutions better understand the views, experiences, needs, and ideas of communities of color?
We’re still trying to unpack this question, but one clear lesson from the survey that bears repeating is that, at least according to our results on Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S., these communities are just not hearing from advocacy and non-profit organizations often enough. The critical first step here is to simply reach out and engage vulnerable communities and individuals. It is likely that the answer to your question may be best addressed by learning from individuals themselves in the field and on the ground, but one of the next steps we’re hoping to tackle with our data is to identify segments of the Hispanic and Latino population in the U.S. based on their views and determine how best to communicate with those individuals given their social, demographic, and behavioral characteristics. More to come, so stay tuned!
