We are weeks into a new administration, and it is abundantly clear that our nation is facing an existential threat to programs aimed at addressing the climate crisis.
First, there was the announcement that the administration would pull out of the Paris Agreement. Next, there was erasure of mentions of the climate crisis from government websites. Recently, it was bombshell reporting from The New York Times that 1100 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency received notices they could be fired.
As an organization committed to women, children and youth, we view all policy from the lens of how it will impact the communities we serve. We believe that we are all God’s children and therefore each of us is deserving of dignity, respect, safety and belonging.
With these values as guides, United Women in Faith is urging the administration to uphold the nation’s historic commitments to address the climate crisis. We also urge the administration and elected leaders everywhere to remember that what happens to one, impacts us all. In the same way that the fires in Los Angeles reverberated to other parts of the world, there isn’t a single community in the nation that isn’t impacted by the climate emergency.
Now is the Time to Lean In, Not Back Away
What is more, turning our backs on the climate crisis would leave already marginalized communities – women, children, youth, and future generations – to suffer disproportionately. More people will be displaced and more regions will be destabilized. The United States must embrace a different course. Our nation’s leaders must lean in not back away.
Those of us who have been tracking the impacts of the climate crisis know full well how global warming forces people to flee their homes in search of safety. The people most likely to be displaced are women, children and youth.
Each year dozens of millions of people are displaced by weather-related disasters around the world including in the US. Most are internally displaced, and some move to neighboring countries. Despite the fact that Global North countries, including the U.S., are among the highest Green House Gas emitters, the nation responds to the climate crisis by further militarizing their borders. The nation should be offering hospitality. We should be offering cohesive support to tackle the disasters caused by global warming.
Militaristic responses worsen the crisis, and ignore the root causes of migration. Harsh responses also perpetuate the inhumane treatment of migrants and refugees, all while also generating more emissions. Has anyone even calculated the societal toll of daily military planes deporting migrants?
Elected Leaders Must Do Their Part
It is imperative that elected leaders do their part to encourage the administration to choose a different path – one of compassion, justice, and recognition of our interconnectedness. Each of us benefits when our nation’s leaders embrace real, humane solutions that address the climate crisis at its roots, and uphold the dignity and worth of every individual.
Christian Duty
For our part, the United Methodist Church’s Social Principles commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting environmental justice. This is in part because we take seriously our responsibility to care for creation.
The social principles notes:
¶ 160. “We recognize the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable populations, including the poor, women, children, and indigenous communities.”
¶ 160. “We advocate for environmental justice and sustainability, recognizing the interconnectedness of human and environmental well-being.”
Regardless of where you are situated, it is imperative you understand that the climate crisis magnifies the social issues we have long worked on, including migration, human trafficking, and food insecurity.
Around 1.2 billion people are expected to be displaced by 2050 due to climate related disasters. However, there is no international law protecting forcibly displaced persons due to climate change. Displaced communities are therefore unprotected and vulnerable. Mass deportation further disrupts their lives, making them more susceptible to exploitation and human rights abuses.
Furthermore, migrants and refugees often resettle in communities also vulnerable to climate disasters increasing their risk for double displacement. Nonetheless, their learned climate resiliency and climate coping mechanisms can often help host communities in their own adaptation strategies including areas like agriculture and infrastructure and cultivating indigenous knowledge systems.
By deporting migrant workers, the United States loses an essential labor force that could support more sustainable, manual-labor-based farming practices. This gives place instead to furthering industrial agriculture which contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, primarily due to synthetic fertilizer use, intensive livestock production, and transportation.
If we are serious about the climate crisis, we must be serious about challenging this administration and all elected officials to do better. We cannot afford to be silent. Future generations are depending on the action we take today.
I want to end by offering an important reminder: you have agency and power. You have a community. We wield power in every choice, from what we buy, to who we vote for, and what we stand up for. Let’s seize our collective power to disrupt systems of injustice and lovingly craft a country that reflects our true values.
