Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour and Mobilization

Sisters on the Road to Climate Justice!

September – November 2009

What is This Road Tour and Mobilization About?

Women of Color United is embarking on an 8-week, 15+ state journey–called the Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour and Mobilization– to hear the views and experiences of U.S. women of color in this pivotal era of climate change. We will meet women in states such as West Virginia, D.C., Florida, New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Alabama, Washington, Arizona, California and Alaska. The Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour aims to:

Build awareness around climate change having a disproportionate impact on communities of color–particularly women of color–and poor communities
Involve more women of color in the environmental justice movement
Educate U.S. policymakers about the devastating impacts of climate change on communities of color and push for environmental policies and practices that protect all people.

Why do this Road Tour and Mobilization now?

Research shows that unless we all drastically diminish the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, climate changes will worsen and will cause irreversible damage, destroy multiple species and deeply change our way of life. Research also indicates, that negative affects of climate change, like severe weather events or harmful practices in alternative energy efforts, such as toxin emitting ”clean coal” power plants, exacerbate the existing disparities in communities of color, low-income communities, and the rest of the country.

The perspectives of women of color and low-income communities are largely absent from the discussion on the immense challenges of climate change. It’s time for everyone affected by global warming to be included in the conversation and the problem solving, particularly the most vulnerable among us.

“Women make up approximately 70% of those living in poverty, and low-income women, women of color, and immigrants will be most impacted by the severe weather events, heat waves, and increases in disease rates that will characterize Earth’s changing climate.”

–Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice

The Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour and Mobilization is a national, awareness-raising and movement building campaign will give insight into how climate change is impacting the lives of women of color and their communities. In each city, women of color will describe the changes and challenges they face, as well as actions of community resistance and local self-reliance.

The Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour and Mobilization is happening now because communities of color are the United States’ canary in a coal mine–the ravages of global-warming is inflicting intense damage here and now and not just in a foreign land. Women of color and low-income communities in the Global North intimately experience negative impacts of climate change, as do many women in the Global South. A Latina woman in Michigan developing a rare form of cancer due to exposure to toxins from a steel processing plant and a refinery, a Native American/American Indian woman in Arizona whose sacred land is violated by people extracting water due to a diminishing water supply, an Inuit woman in Alaska whose community is facing forced migration due to intensifying river flow and melting permafrost, and the approximately 56,000 African American pregnant women disrupted by lack of safe water, healthcare, proper sanitation or adequate shelter after Hurricane Katrina, all share the harmful impacts of the tacit neglect of policy makers when it comes to decision making that is in the interest of the wellbeing of women of color and their communities. This is climate injustice plain and simple. Neither our nation, nor, our world can survive this imbalance.

“No community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other. Unfortunately, race and class are extremely reliable indicators as to where one might find the good stuff, like parks and trees; or where one will find the bad stuff like power plants and waste facilities.”

–Majora Carter

More information:

Guiding principles for the Road Tour

Climate Justice Readings and Resources