In July 2017, I co-founded , a global, youth-led climate justice organization mobilizing for a livable planet while working to dismantle the systems of oppression at the root of the climate crisis: colonialism, capitalism, racism and patriarchy. In the summer before my first semester at Brown, launched a movement for youth-led climate justice around the world, which later helped to strike outside the Swedish Parliament and found . While the COVID-19 pandemic climate justice activism around the world, even fracturing organizing efforts here on Brown鈥檚 campus, our movement grows ever-stronger today. Throughout the turmoil, the 鈥� a whole-of-government approach to tackling climate change 鈥� became an in the 2020 presidential election and may prove to be a litmus test for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections. Mass mobilization for the Green New Deal gives us our best chance to ensure a habitable, just planet for future generations.听
The is a Congressional resolution that recognizes that the United States has historically been responsible for a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions and thus resolves that it is the federal government鈥檚 responsibility to make a number of emissions reductions measures law. If it were to become a federal program, the Green New Deal would aim to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions on track with limiting warming to above pre-industrial levels and create . Furthermore, it would commit to clean air and water, climate and community resilience, healthy food, access to nature and a sustainable environment for future generations.听
Climate justice recognizes that marginalized groups 鈥� for example, Black, brown and Indigenous communities, people with disabilities and low-income people 鈥� are more impacted by climate change. Certain marginalized groups high exposure to contaminated air and water, while also being more likely to be by climate disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, monsoons and heat waves. The Green New Deal how identity intersects with climate change, vowing to 鈥減romote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future and repairing historic oppression of Indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities and youth.鈥� In short, the Green New Deal is serious about climate justice.
Opponents have called it , but there should be nothing radical about eliminating greenhouse gas emissions to ensure a habitable planet for future generations, creating union jobs and combating structural inequities perpetuated by climate change. A number of social and environmental organizations, including Zero Hour, the Sunrise Movement, and , have thus called on members of Congress and congressional candidates to become Green New Deal 鈥溾�� by co-sponsoring bills that would encode the Green New Deal into law.听
For the first time, we have a that have been introduced in Congress that would tangibly establish the vision of a Green New Deal if passed. For decades, the environmental movement has , and we now have an established group of elected leaders who are committed to climate justice and have the power to negotiate policy in the halls of Congress. But we cannot just entrust this work to elected officials: To secure a habitable planet, we all must engage in politics in a way that we never have before. Achieving a to renewable energy will take all of us. It is not enough to be a passive supporter of climate science and climate action. The movement needs you to get involved. Call your representatives, mobilize in the streets, register your peers to , sign petitions and learn and talk about climate change and sustainability. Climate change is , and its impacts are all around us.听
Persistent 鈥� the idea that many citizens are unwilling to accept the sacrifices that come with addressing climate change 鈥� underscores the importance of popular involvement in climate justice activism. In March 2022, I joined the to join a global team of climate leaders and witness the effects of the climate crisis firsthand. During our voyage along the Antarctic Peninsula in western Antarctica, we received news of the and the that swept across the eastern side of the continent. But despite evidence of climate change all around the world, Congress continues to using upwards of $20 billion in tax money annually. These subsidies are especially egregious considering the industry鈥檚 continued of Indigenous sovereignty and the staggering profits that companies have enjoyed recently. And amid the worldwide spike in gas prices, members of Congress fossil fuel executives to increase production in a congressional hearing about earlier this month. Rather than holding the industry accountable for profiteering or calling for the rapid rollout of renewable energy and increased federal subsidies for electric vehicles, members of Congress are helping perpetuate fossil fuel extraction.听聽
Even President Joe Biden has failed to address climate change using . Despite promising , he allowed the largest fossil fuel lease sale in U.S. history to move forward in the Gulf of Mexico before a federal judge intervened to , citing climate concerns. Biden is continuing to allow pipelines such as the Enbridge and pipelines to transport tar sands oil, as well as the Dakota Access Pipeline shutdown despite strong opposition from Indigenous peoples and the climate movement.听
Now is the time to challenge Big Oil, complicit elected leaders, businesses continuing to pursue profit over people and planet and major financial institutions that bankroll fossil fuel expansion. Climate change is a systemic problem that requires systemic solutions. Although institutions and deeply rooted systems of oppression are to blame, we as individuals cannot afford to be bystanders in this fight for a livable planet. Your voice and your vote are powerful, so use them. Together, we can elect , mobilize private industry toward a and finally win climate justice for marginalized communities that have been on the receiving end of systems of oppression for generations. I鈥檓 ready to mobilize with you.听
Zanagee Artis 鈥�22 can be reached at zanagee_artis@brown.edu. Artis is the co-founder, executive director and policy director of . He is also the co-author of 鈥�鈥� and a co-host of 鈥�.鈥� Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.听
