Intersectionality in Environmentalism

By Keetra Bippus

Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw (pictured below) in her 1989 essay “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”. Intersectionality examines how different forms of oppression (classism, racism, sexism, etc.) overlap and express themselves. While the term was first applied to feminism, intersectionality has been applied to many social movements—including environmentalism.

The mainstream environmental movement focuses on preserving nature, the environment, and species. Unfortunately, this ignores the unique challenges that marginalized groups face due to the climate crisis. Those living in the poorest countries in the world feel the most impact from climate change—despite a study by Oxfam finding that the top 10% richest people contribute to 50% of individual-consumption-based fossil fuel emissions, while the poorest 50% contribute only 10%. This means that those who contribute the least to humanity’s carbon footprint feel the biggest impacts from it. The study concluded that “climate change and economic inequality are inextricably linked.”

In the United States, race is a bigger indicator than class as to where toxic facilities are located (black people are 1.5 times more likely than white people to live in polluted places). Other environmental inequalities, like access to healthy and nutritional foods, is tied to race as well. If the environmental movement doesn’t create intersectional solutions, then these injustices will continue to go unresolved.

There are many ways to make sure you apply the principle of intersectionality to your own environmentalism!

• Step up, and step back!

Make your voice heard about issues you care about! But make sure others, especially those with perspectives that lack representation, have the opportunity to speak up as well! Be mindful of the space you occupy.

• Research!

There’s always more to learn! Climate activists like @browngirl_green and @intersectionalenvironmentalist on Instagram talk about the social side of the climate crisis, along with many others! Try to find climate activists and writing from new perspectives.

More resources:

There is actually a website called Intersectional Environmentalist! It was created by Leah Thomas, an environmental activist who took inspiration from Crenshaw’s intersectional feminism. The website is “a platform for resources, information, and action steps to support intersectional environmentalism and dismantle systems of oppression in the environmental movement” (IE).

Climate organizations committed to environmental justice (list by Leah Thomas).

• Alternatives for Community & Environment (Roxbury, MA)

• Center for Diversity & the Environment

• Center for Health, Environment & Justice

• Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment

• Coal River Mountain Watch (WV, Appalachia)

• Communities for a Better Environment (CBE, CA)

• East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (East Los Angeles, CA)

• Green for All

• Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

• Groundswell (Mid-Atlantic states)

• Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (Chicago, IL)

• Louisiana Bucket Brigade

• Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (Southwest uranium-impacted communities)

• Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC, WV)

• Sierra Club’s Equity, Inclusion, and Justice

Sources:

• https://assembly.malala.org/stories/climate-activist-leah-thomas-on-intersectional-environmentalism

• https://www.intersectionalenvironmentalist.com/

• https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/08/10/race-the-environment/

• https://e360.yale.edu/features/unequal-impact-the-deep-links-between-inequality-and-climate-change

• https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/why-race-matters-when-we-talk-about-the-environment/#:~:text=Race%20trumps%20class%20when%20it,pollution%2C%20including%20the%20Latino%20population.

• https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2017/05/intersectional-activism-in-the-age-of-trump-kimberle-crenshaw-and-eve-ensler

• https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/the-worlds-richest-people-also-emit-the-most-carbon

• https://naacp.org/issues/environmental-justice/

Written by Keetra Bippus