I've got to start by admitting that in many ways me giving a talk about how climate action can help Black communities is surprising. I grew up poor and Black with a single mother in Tottenham, one of the most deprived areas in London, in the 1970s and '80s. Climate change was the last thing on my mind. And representing Tottenham as its member of Parliament for the past 20 years, my focus has been on trying to reduce the deprivation I grew up around.
我必须首先承认,在许多方面, 由我来谈论气候行动如何帮助 黑人社区很令人惊讶。 我在托特纳姆长大, 又穷又黑,有位单亲妈妈, 托特纳姆是 20 世纪 70 和 80 年代 伦敦最贫困的地区之一。 气候变化曾是我最不会去考虑的事, 在过去的 20 年里, 我作为议员代表托特纳姆。 我一直致力于
In the past, the climate crisis never featured at the forefront of my politics
努力减少我成长环境中的贫困。
because it was never one of the most immediate challenges my constituents were facing, or at least it didn't feel like it. Rising sea levels feel unimportant when your bank balance is falling. Global warming is not your concern when you can't pay the heating bills. And you're not thinking about pollution when you're being stopped by the police. And so perhaps this is why as the Black Lives Matter movement roared across the world, there's been so little mention of saving Black lives from the climate emergency.
在过去,气候危机从来没有 出现在我的政治生涯前沿, 因为它从来不是我的选民 所面临的最紧迫挑战之一, 或者至少感觉不到气候危机。 当你的银行存款余额减少时, 海平面上升就没那么重要了。 当你付不起暖气费时, 全球变暖就不是你关心的问题了。 当你被警察拦下时, 你就不会去考虑污染问题。 因此,也许这就是为什么, 随着 “黑人的命也是命” 运动 在世界各地兴起, 却很少有人会提到从气候紧急情况中 去拯救黑人。
For too long, those of us who cared about racial justice treated environmental justice as though it was elitist. And at the same time, the leaders who did focus on climate change were usually white and rarely bothered to enlist the support of Black voices in their work. Even progressive allies sometimes took our votes for granted and assumed that our community didn't care or wouldn't understand.
长久以来,我们这些关心种族正义的人, 对待环境正义 就好像它属于精英主义一样。 与此同时, 那些的确在关注气候变化的领导人 通常是白人, 很少费心在工作中 争取获得黑人的支持。 即使是进步的盟友, 有时也认为我们的投票理所当然, 并认为我们的社区不关心或不会理解,
The truth is the opposite is true. Black people breathe in the most toxic air relative to the general population. We are more likely to suffer from respiratory diseases like asthma. And it is people of color who are more likely to suffer in the climate crisis. This is no coincidence. The cheapest housing tends to be next to the busiest roads, and many of the lowest paid jobs are in the most polluting industries. People of color consistently lie at the bottom of the housing, educational and employment ladders. This story connects Black communities across the world, from London to Lagos to LA. Black Americans are exposed to 56 percent more pollution than they cause. White Americans breathe 17 percent less air pollution than they produce. It gives a whole new meaning to the Black Lives Matter slogan "I can't breathe."
而事实恰恰相反。 黑人们所呼吸的空气中的有害物 远远大于普通民众。 我们更容易患哮喘等呼吸道疾病。 在气候危机中, 有色人种更有可能经受痛苦, 而这并不是巧合。 最便宜的住宅 往往位于最繁忙的道路旁边, 许多收入最低的工作 都在污染最严重的行业。 有色人种一直处于住房、 教育和就业阶梯的最底层。 这个故事连接了世界各地的黑人社区, 从伦敦到拉各斯到洛杉矶。 美国黑人受到的污染 比他们所造成的要多出 56% 。 美国白人呼吸的空气污染 比他们产生的要少 17%。 这给 “黑人的命也是命” 的口号 赋予了全新的含义, “我无法呼吸。”
We all rightly know the name of George Floyd, who was murdered by the police. But we should also know the name of Ella Kissi-Debrah. Ella, a nine-year-old mixed-race girl from South East London, was killed by a fatal asthma attack. Evidence suggests this was caused partly by the unlawful levels of air pollution near her home.
我们都知道警察 杀害的乔治·弗洛伊德 (George Floyd)。 但我们也应该要知道艾拉·基西-黛博拉 (Ella Kissi-Debrah)。 艾拉,一位来自伦敦 东南部的 9 岁混血女孩 死于致命的哮喘发作。 有证据表明,部分原因是 由于她家附近超标的空气污染。
And it's not only urban areas where Black lives are disproportionately under threat from climate change. My parents' home country of Guyana is one of the most vulnerable countries on Earth to the effects of climate change. So far, Guyana has contributed relatively little to the climate emergency, but it's one of the countries facing the most serious threats from it. While the annual carbon dioxide emissions per head in the United States is a staggering 16.5 metric tons, in Guyana it's just 2.6. It is a pattern repeated across the globe. Those countries that have contributed least to the climate breakdown, mainly in the global south, will suffer the most from floods, droughts, and rising temperatures. This is a pattern of suffering with a long history.
黑人生活受到气候变化威胁的 不仅仅是在城市地区。 我父母的祖国圭亚那是地球上 最容易受到气候变化影响的国家之一。 到目前为止,圭亚那 对气候紧急情况的贡献相对较小, 但它是面临最严重威胁的国家之一。 美国每年人均二氧化碳排放量 高达 16.5 公吨, 而圭亚那仅为 2.6 公吨。 这是一种在全球不断重演的模式。 那些对气候恶化影响最小的国家, 主要是全球南部国家, 将遭受最严重的洪水、 干旱和气温上升。
The exploitation of our planet's natural resources has always been tied to the exploitation of people of color. The logic of colonization was to extract valuable resources from our planet through force, paying no attention to its secondary effects. The climate crisis is in a way colonialism's natural conclusion.
这是一种历史悠久的苦难模式。 对我们地球自然资源的开发 一直与剥削有色人种息息相关。 殖民化的逻辑是通过武力 从我们的地球上提取宝贵的资源, 而不考虑其次要影响。 在某种程度上,
The solution is to build a new coalition made up of all the groups most affected by this emergency: Black people in American cities who are already protesting that they cannot breathe; people of color in Guyana watching sea levels rise to the point where many of their homes become uninhabitable; young people in places like Tottenham, London, afraid of the world that they will grow old in; and progressive allies from all nations, of all races, religions, creeds and ages on their side, all demanding recognition that climate justice is linked to racial justice, social justice and intergenerational justice too. And let me say something about how we build this new movement and what it must look like.
气候危机是殖民主义的自然后果。 解决办法是建立一个新的联盟, 由所有受这次紧急事件 影响最大的群体组成: 美国城市中已经抗议说 他们无法呼吸的黑人, 在圭亚那看着海平面上升 以至于他们的许多家园 无法居住的有色人种; 像在伦敦托特纳姆害怕 他们将来要面对的世界的年轻人, 以及来自所有国家、 所有种族、宗教、 信仰和年龄的进步盟友, 他们都要求承认气候正义 与种族正义、社会正义和 代际正义相关。 让我谈谈我们如何建立 这个新的运动,以及它应该是什么样子。
First, we need a recognition that the climate movement is not only about protecting the planet. It is primarily about caring for the people who live on the planet. Globally as well as nationally, we need to recognize structural imbalances and inequalities. A radical green recovery plan should provide jobs to the people who've been disenfranchised for centuries, new jobs planting trees, insulating buildings and working on green technologies. We cannot tackle the climate crisis without addressing racial inequalities. And we cannot solve racial inequalities without fixing the economic system. The new deal the economy needs is not only green, it's green and Black.
首先,我们需要认识到气候变化 不仅仅是为了保护地球。 它主要是为了关心 生活在地球上的人们。 无论是在全球还是在国内, 我们都需要认识到 结构性失衡和不平等。 一个激进的绿色恢复计划 应该为那些几个世纪以来 受到权利剥夺的人提供 种植树木、隔热建筑 和开发绿色技术的新工作。 不解决种族不平等问题, 我们就无法应对气候危机。 如果不改革经济体系, 我们就无法解决种族不平等问题。 经济需要的新政不仅是绿色的, 而是绿色和黑色的。
Second, we need more Black leaders. It cannot be right in 2020 that almost all the leading climate change activists we recognize are white. At Davos this year, five young female members of the Fridays for Future movement came together to give a press conference at the World Economic Forum. This is a picture the Associated Press put out. Here is the original image. As the Ugandan activist, Vanessa Nakate, herself put it afterwards, "You didn't just erase a photo, you erased a continent." We need to look at who is being cropped out of leadership positions in environmental organizations too.
第二,我们需要更多的黑人领袖。 在 2020 年, 几乎所有我们熟知的 主要气候变化活动家都是白人, 而这是不对的。 在今年的达沃斯论坛, 五名 “星期五为未来” 运动的 年轻女性成员聚集在一起, 在世界经济论坛上举行新闻发布会。 这是美联社发布的一张照片, 而这张是原图。 正如乌干达活动家 凡妮莎·纳卡特(Vanessa Nakate) 后来自己所说的, “你不仅抹去了一张照片, 你还抹去了一个大陆。” 我们也需要看看谁从 环境组织中的领导职位被裁掉了。
People of color makeup around 40 percent of the United States population. So why is it a University of Michigan study found that the percentage of minorities in leadership positions in US environmental organizations is less than 12 percent? Global organizations should consider moving their headquarters to the global south and urban areas that are most affected by the climate emergency. There should be new scholarships and bursaries in environmental science for people of color. Educate yourself. Join great movements that recognize the links between climate and race. To name a few, the Black Environment Network and Wretched of the Earth.
有色人群约占美国人口的 40% 。 那么,为什么密歇根大学的 一项研究发现, 美国环境组织中 担任领导职务的少数人种 比例不到 12% ? 全球性组织应考虑 将其总部迁至受气候紧急情况影响 最大的全球南部和城市地区。 环境科学应该有新的奖学金和助学金 提供给有色人种。 让自己获得教育, 加入认识到气候和 种族之间联系的伟大运动。 比如,黑人环境网络 (Black Environment Network)
And finally, racial injustice and climate injustice are both rooted in the evil notion that some lives are more important than others. If you march to say Black Lives Matter in Minneapolis, London or Sydney, please also march for the Black lives on the Caribbean island of Haiti as its children are displaced by storms. Please also march for the Black lives being lost in Darfur, the first climate change conflict. And please also march for the Indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest, as Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro weakens its protections.
和悲惨地球(Wretched of the Earth)。 最后,种族不公正和气候不公正 都源于一种邪恶的观念, 即有些生命比其他生命更重要。 如果你在明尼阿波利斯、 伦敦或悉尼的游行中说, 黑人的命也是命, 也请为加勒比海, 海地岛的黑人生命游行, 因为那里的儿童因风暴而流离失所。 也请为达尔富尔 第一次气候变化冲突中 丧生的黑人游行。 也请为亚马逊雨林的土著人民游行, 因为巴西总统贾尔·博尔索纳罗 (Jair Bolsonaro) 放松了对他们的保护。
If we are serious about protecting Black lives in the Global South as well as the north, we need to strengthen international laws. We need a way to apply international criminal laws, like war crimes or crimes against humanity, to the planet. We need a new international law of ecocide to criminalize the willful and widespread destruction of the environment, a law that criminalizes the most severe crimes against nature itself, even for acts don't involve direct human suffering.
如果我们认真保护 全球南部和北部的黑人生命, 我们就需要加强国际法。 我们需要一种方法,将战争罪 或反人类罪等国际刑法适用于全球。 我们需要一部新的国际生态灭绝法 来将蓄意和大规模 破坏环境的行为定为犯罪, 一部将最严重的危害自然罪 定为犯罪的法律,
Economics, race and class are at the center of today's political struggles. The Black Lives Matter movement needs to wake up to climate injustices just as the climate movement must make every effort to include the reality of people of color.
即使这些行为不影响人类。 经济、种族和阶级 是当今政治斗争的中心。 “黑人的命也是命” 运动 需要意识到气候的不公正, 正如气候运动必须
Young Black boys growing up in single-parent households in Tottenham won't have the opportunities I had in a world ravaged by climate chaos. My distant cousins and relatives growing up in Guyana won't have a future if their homes are drowning under water.
尽一切努力实现 将有色人种包括在内。 在托特纳姆单亲家庭 长大的年轻黑人男孩。 在一个被气候混乱蹂躏的世界里, 将不会再拥有我一样的机会。 我在圭亚那长大的远房表亲和亲戚, 如果他们的家 被淹没在水下,就不会有未来。
Now is the time for Black and climate movements to come together unequivocally and say, "We can't breathe."
现在是时候让黑人和气候运动走到一起, 坚定地说,“我们不能呼吸”。
Thank you very much.
谢谢大家。