Annotated Table of Contents
Diversifying Power Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy By Jennie C. Stephens Foreword by Ted Landsmark
Foreword By Ted Landsmark Ted Landsmark, a distinguished professor and lawyer, provides historical context for this book from the perspective of a black man who grew up in the 1950s in East Harlem’s housing projects. He describes how early environmentalists made little impression on his communities, but how perceptions of social justice and connections with the environment, climate and energy have evolved. Acknowledging that diverse leaders who understand the interconnectedness of different public policies are essential, he applauds the timeliness of this book. Preface The author describes why she wrote this book and how her experience as a white women trained in science and engineering has informed her call for a new kind of climate and energy leadership that is committed to social, economic and racial justice. She describes her own feminist, antiracist journey and how, as a student, she was originally blind to how race, gender and structural power dynamics influenced leadership on climate and energy. She was inspired to write the book because of the optimism she feels from diverse, creative and innovative leaders who are pushing for transformative change. This optimism does not come from the leadership of scientists or engineers, but from the leadership of social activists and political movements. She
explains that the book celebrates the power and impact of multiracial coalitions of diverse emerging leaders that are effectively connecting their commitment to racial justice and gender equity with climate action and renewable energy.
Chapter 1 – Growing the Squad This introductory chapter makes the case that the key to effectively addressing the climate crisis is to diversify leadership and redistribute wealth and power by ensuring that antiracist, feminist principles are prioritized. To illustrate how diverse leadership results in innovative policies that are centered on social justice, a handful of diverse leaders, including the Squad – the four junior congresswomen who have been targeted by Trump’s racist misogyny, are introduced. The author introduces the concept of “climate isolationism” – the common, yet ineffective, framing of climate change as a narrow isolated discrete problem that needs a technological solution. An alternative to the narrow lens of climate isolationism is energy democracy, a growing social movement that envisions a fossil-fuel-free future in which individuals, households and communities rely on a regionally appropriate diverse mix of renewable energy with distributed local ownership, local control and distributed local benefits. Recognizing that now “all politics is climate politics”, she makes the case that all policies must integrate climate and energy. This level of policy integration will only be possible through diverse leadership and multiracial, multiethnic, gender-balanced coalitions mobilizing a broad-based movement to support transformative change. A people-first approach and the principles of antiracist, feminist leadership are explained. Growing the Squad involves supporting bold and diverse leaders who bring their experiences to resist legacy power structures while also reclaiming and restructuring practices and systems to advance a just, equitable, and sustainable future.
Chapter 2 – Resisting the Polluter Elite This chapter focuses on why diverse leadership is needed to resist the male-dominated status quo that continues to concentrate wealth and power and promote insufficient technical fixes to the climate crisis. Multiracial, gender-balanced coalitions of leaders are essential to resist the power of the “polluter elite,” a term researcher Dario Kenner coined to refer to a select group of influential decision makers, including wealthy shareholders and executives at large multinational oil, gas, and coal companies, as well as other high-net-worth individuals who are profiting from continued fossil-fuel reliance. The impact of strategic investments to promote climate denialism is linked to
fossil fuel subsidies and efforts to reduce public trust in government. Examples of diverse leaders who are resisting the power of fossil fuel interests and the expansive influence of the Koch family are provided. Leadership focused on elevating public trust and exposing the exploitative racial implications of the polluter elite’s influence are described.
Chapter 3 - Jobs and Economic Justice This chapter focuses on the growing momentum of innovative leaders who are responding to expanding economic disparities and a growing sense of precarity, a term that describes the instability and vulnerabilities of living with unpredictable low-wage work. By focusing on the widespread need for higher wages and more stable jobs, these leaders are reclaiming the power of workers by strategically connecting job creation and economic justice with ambitious climate and energy action. By prioritizing investments in good jobs for all, quality education for all, and job training as we transition to a renewable economy, these leaders are advocating for a restructuring of society for a future of inclusive prosperity. New coalitions of leadership promoting the Green New Deal, a plan to connect climate and energy with economic justice, are demonstrating how jobs and economic justice are essential to a just and sustainable future.
Chapter 4 – Health, Well-Being, and Nutritious Food for All This chapter focuses on innovative leadership integrating health, nutrition, and wellbeing with climate and energy. Leaders responding to growing health disparities, unequal access to nutrition, and decline in well-being are reclaiming public health priorities by connecting with climate action and the renewable energy transformation. Leaders who recognize that public health investments to prepare for the spread of new infectious diseases such as the novel coronavirus COVID-19, are critical to climate resilience are now leveraging powerful synergies to justify a major restructuring of public health investments.
Chapter 5 – Clean Transportation for All This chapter highlights initiatives to promote clean transportation for all, showcasing how leaders reclaiming the need for equity in transportation services are connecting with diversifying non-fossil-fuel-reliant transit options. Diversifying leadership in
transportation is elevating a transformative social justice lens and a shift to prioritizing more climate-friendly transit systems.
Chapter 6 – Housing for All This chapter gives examples of diverse leadership linking housing, buildings, and homelessness with climate and energy. Beyond the technical potential of zero-emissions buildings, leaders and activists are reclaiming the right to housing for all and linking that issue to investments in climate-resilient housing and buildings. Such links can leverage the transformative potential of restructuring investments in public housing, building retrofits, and cooperatively owned housing.
Chapter 7 – Conclusion: Collective Power The final chapter includes suggestions for action we can all take to harness our collective recovery from the pandemic to build a more sustainable and just future. Anyone can advance antiracist, feminist leadership and become part of the transformation toward a more just, sustainable, and regenerative future. Joining a local activist group in your own community, getting involved in efforts to unlearn racism and sexism, advocating for local renewable energy for low-income neighborhoods in your city or town, and focusing on systemic change rather than individual change are among the specific actionable ideas. This chapter ends by acknowledging that the Squad is growing. At every level—from neighborhood leaders, to school leaders, to business leaders, to faith-based leaders, to community activists, to state and federal representatives, to international leaders—antiracist, feminist leadership is bringing people together. Coalitions are aligning around a people-first approach to resist, reclaim and restructure. The broad-based movement for transformative change is getting stronger every day. Although the pandemic limits our capacity to convene in-person, individuals, communities, and organizations of all kinds are organizing virtually, speaking out, and getting involved. As the status quo is being challenged, a new transformative politics is gaining strength.