How White Supremacy Created the Climate Crisis (And What We Can Do About It)

From Colonization to Carbon | Tracing Environmental Racism's Global Impact

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

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Writing Tips

Lead poisoning rates doubled among Flint children following the water supply change, with Black residents suffering disproportionate harm (CDC, 2016). Yet Flint represents merely one chapter in a centuries-long story connecting racial oppression with environmental collapse.

For generations, many have viewed climate change as a purely scientific phenomenon - rising temperatures, melting ice caps, and extreme weather. Few recognize how white supremacist power structures engineered our current crisis through deliberate choices privileging profit over people, and extraction over sustainability.

The evidence appears undeniable when examining global patterns: Indigenous territories face resource extraction despite containing 80% of global biodiversity; Black communities endure toxic contamination at rates far exceeding white neighborhoods; multinational corporations devastate ecosystems across Africa, Latin America, and Asia with impunity.

These represent symptoms of a deeper disease -white supremacy valuing certain lives above others while enabling environmental destruction.

The connection between racial injustice exists throughout history: Indigenous land theft destroyed natural ecosystems, environmental racism poisoned communities of color, and multinational corporations devastated regions across the Global South.

Indigenous Land Theft and Environmental Destruction

Historical Context

European colonization displaced millions of Indigenous peoples from their ancestral territories, replacing sustainable land stewardship with resource extraction. The doctrine of discovery, manifest destiny, and forced removals -all served to separate Native communities from land they protected for generations.

Modern Impact

Indigenous territories currently hold 80% of world biodiversity despite comprising less than 22% of land area (World Bank, 2023). Corporations continue exploiting these regions for mining, logging, and oil drilling without consent or concern for ecological consequences.

The Dakota Access Pipeline represents a modern continuation of land theft, threatening water sources while violating tribal sovereignty (Indigenous Environmental Network, 2022). Deforestation accelerates climate change while dispossessing Indigenous communities from ancestral lands—forcing them to bear climate impacts without historical responsibility for creating them.

"Land theft exists beyond taking land; land theft represents profound alteration through extraction rather than relationship." —Patty Krawec, author of Becoming Kin (Indigenous Climate Action, 2023)

Environmental Racism in the US: The Flint Water Crisis

How The Crisis Began

Cost-cutting measures prompted Michigan officials to switch Flint's water supply from Detroit's system to the Flint River in 2014. Officials failed to treat water properly, exposing nearly 100,000 residents—predominantly Black—to dangerous lead levels (Natural Resources Defense Council, 2022).

White Supremacy's Role

Government neglect allowed contamination to persist for 18 months despite resident complaints about watercolor, smell, tand aste. Studies show race remains the strongest predictor for placement of toxic facilities across America—Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities endure polluted air, and contaminated water at far higher rates than white communities (United Church of Christ, 2021).

Key Statistics

Lead exposure affected nearly 100,000 residents. Children's blood lead levels doubled following the switch, causing irreversible developmental damage (American Journal of Public Health, 2019).

"You pay three times more for poison water than I pay... for clean water." —Bernie Sanders during Flint town hall (CNN, 2016)

Big Oil's Destruction of the Global South

Colonialism and Extractive Industries

Western corporations extract resources from Africa, Latin America, and Asia while exporting environmental damage. Colonial power structures continue through economic arrangements favoring multinational companies over local communities.

Real-World Examples

Oil drilling devastates the Amazon rainforest across Ecuador, and Peru, displacing Indigenous peoples while contaminating vital water sources (Amazon Watch, 2023).

Shell operations spilled millions of gallons of oil throughout Nigeria's Niger Delta, destroying fishing grounds, farmland, and drinking water for the Ogoni people (Amnesty International, 2022).

Venezuela's Orinoco Mining Arc project caused massive deforestation, mercury contamination, and violence against Indigenous communities (Mongabay, 2023).

Key Statistics

Indigenous populations living near oil extraction sites experience cancer rates 30% higher than national averages, alongside elevated birth defects, and respiratory ailments (American Journal of Public Health, 2021).

Why Climate Justice Equals Racial Justice

The Link Between Race and Climate Destruction

Communities of color face climate impacts first, worst, and longest—from Hurricane Katrina to Pacific island nations drowning under rising seas. Meanwhile, wealthy nations producing the most carbon emissions remain the least vulnerable to immediate consequences.

The top 10% of the wealthiest people produce 50% of global carbon emissions while the bottom 50% produce merely 10% (Oxfam, 2023).

Dismantling White Supremacy for True Climate Action

Climate solutions must center Indigenous knowledge, repair historical harms, and redistribute power. Market-based approaches failing to address core injustice perpetuate harm through carbon offsets, and "green" extraction.

Land back movements, reparations, and sovereignty recognition represent essential components of genuine climate justice—reconnecting sustainable land management with those who practiced care for millennia.

What Can Be Done?

Action Steps

Support Indigenous-led conservation efforts through direct funding, political advocacy, and treaty rights defense (Cultural Survival, 2023).

Advocate climate policies centering environmental justice: clean energy transitions prioritizing frontline communities, pollution cleanup, and reparations for climate debt (Climate Justice Alliance, 2023).

Hold corporations accountable through divestment campaigns, legal challenges, and consumer pressure to end extractive practices (Corporate Accountability, 2023).

Ending white supremacy represents more than human rights - saving our planet depends upon dismantling systems valuing some lives above others, reconnecting humanity with sustainable earth relationship practices developed by cultures white supremacy attempted to erase.

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