Intersectional Environmentalism

© Beatrice cosner

A movement for the environment and for social justice

by Beatrice cosner

“ Intersectional Environmentalism is an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both the protection of people and the planet.” - intersectionalenvironmentalist.com

Intersectional environmentalism is about bringing injustices done to the communities and the Earth to the forefront, pointing out how they are interconnected.

It all started in the US with Leah Thomas. While studying environmentalism in college, she thought that social justice had to be entangled with this movement, but it wasn’t. At the same time, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory appeared on mainstream media: intersectional theory. Crenshaw coined the term more than 30 years ago as a “lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects”. Intersectionality want to focus attention to situations and social patterns where social justices issues overlap, creating unique situations, that are often overlooked. With an intersectional view we are able to address cases where our system failed to recognize prejudice happening at the intersection of gender and race of black women. We can be able to recognize power dynamics and the “blind spots” that perpetuate injustices.

On May 2020 following the death of George Floyd and the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement, Thomas noticed the silence on social media of the environmental community. She was annoyed by this. Racism is one of the essential points when it comes to environmental justice. Black people and the discriminated groups of people are those who are most affected by climate change and natural catastrophe. Unfortunately, in a white-narrative of environmentalism there’s only a little space for non-white people. So Leah Thomas post this graphic that read “Enviromentalists for Black Lives Matter” and it went viral. On the back of this momentum, inspired by Crenshaw’s theory, she and a couple of friends created the Intersectional Environmentalist (IE) platform.

Intersectional Environmentalism is about to listen and amplify silenced voices, to create space in the society and share it with invisibilized people. It is about recognizing privileges and injustices and how these are connected to the environment. It is about recognizing when skin color, income, other types of diversity and environmental issues overlap.

Environmentalists are people who fight for the rights for a healthy ecosystem where to live, for them and the next generations. They fight for sustainability.

If you look at the meaning of sustainability it comes to you that it focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

So why are institutions and organizations only looking at white straight temporarily able men?

How environmental justice become and exclusive thing?

White environmentalists are not used to think about discriminated categories of people, which often are the less responsible for climate change but the most affected. Communities of color and of low-income are most exposed to environmental conditions like poor air quality, bad water quality, food deserts. Gender inequalities are exaggerated by climated-related hazards; women are the most affected. Trans, non-binary, queer people and women are invisibilized by patrarchy, but they are active participants in the fight. When it comes to Indigenous people, those who preserve the 80% of biodiversity, almost no environmentalist community ask them some advice. You never see one of those categories in television talking about environment. On an institutional level, these themes are discussed by white straight temporarily able men for white straight temporarily able men.

However, from India to Ethiopia to California, local communities are raising their voices and their needs and they’re creating local movement and taking actions while governments around the world are knocking them down with laws promoting free trade, GMOs and so on.

It’s important for us, as environmentalists, to raise our voices but also, as privileged people, to amplify their voices and don’t ignore them or speak for them. Let them speak. Everyone can see in their city or their country people who are discriminated or who suffer injustices. The struggle of an environmentalist is that one for the protection and improvement of the natural environment.

Human beings are part of it and no one can be excluded.