On Thursday, September 24, I attended Climate Week NYC’s “COVID’s Lessons for Climate and Inequality: From Sacrifice Zones to Justice,” a panel discussion that opened the “Lessons from COVID for Climate” series. Hosted by the Climate Museum, this session focused on U.S. inequities that threaten the health and livelihoods of underserved communities. 

Director Miranda Massie opened the event by acknowledging the multiple emergencies, and resulting trauma, that face society today: Breonna Taylor’s murder, President Trump’s apparent refusal to accept a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the upcoming election, and an ever-growing list of extreme weather events, from wildfires in the Pacific Northwest to hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Massie emphasized that we can’t allow these events to become a new normal. Now, more than ever, she stressed, it’s critical that we are emotionally and intellectually present to take immediate action. 

Poet Ross Gay shared two powerful works, “The Joy of Caring for Others” and “A Small Needful Fact” to set the tone of the afternoon’s discussion. The panelists represented an impressive list of long-time environmental justice advocates with a variety of expertise in community organizing, public health, and journalism. 

Eddie Bautista is the executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, a non-profit network of BIPOC-led community organizations. He noted that structural racism is embedded in the United States’ very existence, as we continue to see disproportionate impacts of both COVID-19 and climate change on Black and brown communities. For example, neighborhoods with poor air quality due to high particulate matter have experienced higher rates of COVID infection. These systems-wide impacts are on full display during the pandemic and pose added complications for responding to the effects of climate change — for example, under extreme heat, how can communities provide critical cooling centers that follow social distancing guidelines?

Dr. Cheryl Holder serves as the president of the Florida State Medical Association, in addition to co-chairing Florida Clinicians for Climate Action. Given her medical experience, Dr. Holder focused on how COVID-19 has accelerated vulnerabilities among communities with health and racial disparities. For example, in a city like Miami, what happens to “sheltering at home” when a hurricane makes landfall? She challenged viewers to consider how we can address social determinants and the root causes of inequality. Dr. Holder, an HIV specialist, concluded by citing community response to the HIV epidemic as a model of collaboration that could be applied to the climate crisis. 

Based out of Pittsburgh, Brentin Mock is a writer and editor for CityLab. He cautioned viewers to avoid placing too much focus on disproportionate impacts and to consider the harm that comes from repeatedly telling Black and brown people that they are vulnerable. Relatedly, Mock reminded the audience that this type of messaging can actually play into racism and classism when some individuals simply don’t care that underserved communities bear the burden of climate change. While we certainly must emphasize that Black Lives Matter, we need to also find language that affirms our humanity and demonstrates how our fates are intertwined.

Jaqueline Patterson directs the NAACP’s Climate and Environmental Justice Program and recently authored a report entitled “Ten Equity Implications of the Coronavirus COVID-19 Outbreak in the United States.” She explained that while COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on communities of color is deeply concerning, it comes as no surprise due to foundational inequities. In many ways, climate change, as manifested by recent extreme weather events and disasters, already predicted what would happen in a pandemic. Systemic injustice, such as historic redlining and resource extraction, makes fertile ground for further exploitation under crisis. Patterson closed with a reminder that we live on an Earth of abundance, urging viewers to reject the false narrative of scarcity and instead create policies and programs that actualize and reaffirm this reality.  

Other points of hope raised by the panelists include COVID-19 mutual aid efforts, millennial and youth climate activism, and recent racial justice resistance movements that are preparing us to face the climate crisis. While the insights shared during this discussion may seem somewhat removed from international climate negotiations or the mechanics of global greenhouse gas emission reductions, I see several key parallels.

First, it’s essential that we examine climate change through a justice framework. It’s simply not enough to view resilience as “building back”; we must collectively reimagine a future in which all communities are thriving, not just surviving. Second, we must provide funding and true decision-making power to frontline communities, who have the lived experience and generational knowledge to guide effective response. Finally, we must commit to a higher level of ambition, supported by a just transition that takes into account structural racism and colonialism and flatly rejects the notion of “sacrifice zones.” In the words of Bautista, “Get ready to get down because this is the fight we have to win.”

Thanks to a generous scholarship from Waterfront Alliance, I also had the opportunity to attend a two-day Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines (WEDG) Professionals course during Climate Week NYC, and I look forward to learning more about how these principles of resilience, equitable access, and ecological integrity can be applied globally in coastal and riverine communities facing the impacts of sea level rise, hurricanes, and floods.