President Joe Biden is breaking the status quo: He has pledged to write a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change. Unlike any other president, he has outlined specific and aggressive targets to reduce carbon emissions and has backed them up with a $2 trillion plan to fight climate change.
In the meantime, our climate continues to change rapidly and dramatically, raising the ever more urgent question: Will the politics of climate change shift in time to curb its worst effects?
We think it will.
First, low-income people of color are leading a growing movement for environmental justice.
Communities along Georgia's coast, including Tybee Island, Brunswick and Savannah, are feeling the ravages of climate change — from wildfires to high energy prices to coastal erosion — and residents are agitating for change. Fortunately, Georgia enjoys significant wind potential off its coast, according to a new study by Environment Georgia. Offshore wind power is renewable and can curb climate change, and Biden fully supports it.
Wind energy also promises to help communities in "sacrifice zones" — areas with poor air and water quality or economic disinvestment, often through unwanted land use. Without it, communities like those in Albany, which are overburdened by toxic facilities, will continue to suffer from poor air quality. Asthma rates are higher there than the national average.
To protect Albany residents and others sacrifice zones, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced it would spend more than $2 million on four environmental initiatives in Georgia, including a $300,000 project in Albany to assess and clean up contained and abandoned industrial and commercial properties.
Second, and as important, youth activism is on the rise in Georgia and around the world. Historically known for their low turnout at the ballot box, young people are increasingly demanding political and social change — and to good effect.
Last fall, Georgia backed a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time in nearly three decades, playing a critical role in ousting our former climate-denier-in-chief and sending a climate justice president to the White House.
Young Georgians played an outsize role in the outcome, casting the largest percentage of any state's "youth votes" (tying with Virginia). Young voters of color were especially pivotal; a stunning 90 percent of Black youth in the Peach State voted for Biden. Thanks in large part to youth activists, Georgia's U.S. Senate seats also flipped, allowing Democrats supporting climate action to control the White House and Congress.
Major implications for Georgia
These twin phenomena have major implications for our state, our nation, and our world.
Climate change is affecting thousands of communities across the country, as documented by a recently relaunched website hosted by EPA. The website shows that heat waves are growing more frequent and sea levels are rising, particularly on the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. These pose dire risks for hot coastal states like Georgia.
Many Georgians are aware of climate change and the need for clean energy policies and programs. Some 77% of Georgia voters believe in the science of global warming, and 87% want to build more solar power facilities, according to a recent survey by the University of Georgia.
Environmental advocates are also prioritizing the impact of climate change on low-income communities of color, who shoulder disproportionate harm from our reliance on fossil fuels. Nationwide, more than four in 10 people live in polluted areas, according to a recent report by the American Lung Association (ALA). But more than six in 10 people of color do so.
The ALA gave Atlanta, the second-largest majority-Black metro area in the country and the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, an "F" for exposure to pollution. The climate injustice is clear: It's in the air we breathe.
People of color are in fact disproportionately exposed to pollution from every source: industry, agriculture, vehicle, construction, and residential, according to a new study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Its findings are consistent with concerns long voiced by communities of color in sacrifice zones in Georgia and across the United States.
Environmental justice advocates and youth activists — especially those of color — are raising their voice for change. They're having an effect, and they offer hope for the rest of us.
If climate politics in the once deep-red state of Georgia can shift so rapidly and substantially, then they can shift nationally too. We may finally be turning the page to a new chapter in America's leadership in climate change.
Editor's note: Co-author Alina Gonzalez is from Savannah, Georgia.
Showing 2,821 results
Alina Gonzalez, Minor Sinclair | July 15, 2021
President Joe Biden is breaking the status quo: He has pledged to write a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change. Unlike any other president, he has outlined specific and aggressive targets to reduce carbon emissions and has backed them up with a $2 trillion plan to fight climate change. In the meantime, our climate continues to change rapidly and dramatically, raising the ever more urgent question: Will the politics of climate change shift in time to curb its worst effects, including in states like Georgia? We think it will.
Karen Sokol | July 13, 2021
"When you are at the verge of the abyss, you must be very careful about your next step, because if the next step is in the wrong direction, you will fall." So warned United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in a recent interview on NBC Nightly News. He was calling on the world's wealthiest nations to meet their obligations under the Paris climate accords to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and to help developing countries to transition and to adapt to threats that can no longer be averted. Wealthy nations simply must meet these obligations to achieve the Paris goal of holding global temperature rise to a sustainable level.
Minor Sinclair | July 8, 2021
Executive Director Minor Sinclair welcomes three new board members to the Center for Progressive Reform and highlights their diverse, critical voices and perspectives.
Darya Minovi, David Flores | July 7, 2021
Four years ago, Hurricane Harvey slammed into the coast of Texas, causing severe flooding in the Houston area and leading to a loss of electrical power throughout the region. During the blackout, a local chemical plant lost its ability to keep volatile chemicals stored onsite cool, and a secondary disaster ensued: A series of explosions endangered the lives of workers and first responders and spurred mass evacuations of nearby residents. This infamous incident was a classic "double disaster" — a natural disaster, like a storm or earthquake, followed by a technical disaster, like a chemical release or explosion. These events pose a severe and growing threat to public and environmental health — and to workers in particular, who are hurt "first and worst." Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been injured, killed, or forced to shelter in place or evacuate in the wake of such disasters in recent decades, and countless others have been needlessly exposed to toxic pollution. Today, the Center for Progressive Reform published a policy brief with Earthjustice and the Union of Concerned Scientists, which contains recommendations to EPA on how to address this problem.
Dan Rohlf | July 6, 2021
While most people around the country were enjoying summer, residents of the Pacific Northwest used to joke about "Junuary" -- the cloudy and often rainy June days before the sun made its relatively brief appearance in the region after the Fourth of July. But as I wrote this post last week in Portland, Oregon -- a city set in a temperate rainforest ecosystem of towering trees and ferns -- it was 116 degrees outside, the third consecutive day over 100 degrees and the second in excess of 110. The only time I've personally experienced a comparable temperature was nearly two decades ago when I visited Death Valley National Park with my family. Now Death Valley had come to me.
James Goodwin | July 6, 2021
The White House is asking for input on how the federal government can advance equity and better support underserved groups. As a policy analyst who has studied the federal regulatory system for more than a dozen years, I have some answers -- and I submitted them on July 6. My recommendations focus on the White House rulemaking process and offer the Biden administration a comprehensive blueprint for promoting racial justice and equity through agencies’ regulatory decision-making.
Maggie Dewane | July 2, 2021
How do we declare our independence from fossil fuels? While there isn't a single silver bullet, there are plenty of legislative and federal actions the United States government can, and should, take.
Daniel Farber | July 1, 2021
For the last century, the Supreme Court has tried to operationalize the idea that a government regulation can be so burdensome that it amounts to a seizure of property. In the process, it has created a house of mirrors, a maze in which nothing is as it seems. Rules that appear crisp and clear turn out to be mushy and murky. Judicial rulings that seem to expand the rights of property owners turn out to undermine those rights. The Court's decision last week in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid illustrates both points.
Alina Gonzalez | June 28, 2021
Environmental justice advocate Sharon Lavigne has won the world's largest prize for environmental advocacy for blocking a chemical giant from building a roughly $1.3 billion plastic manufacturing plant in St. James Parish, Louisiana, a majority-Black community.