By Fernanda Lopes<\/p>\n
It is well known that the climate crisis poses substantial risks to health, food production, water supply, ecosystems, energy, security and infrastructure. Although climate change affects the entire planet, a part of society is disproportionately affected by social, economic, political, environmental and sociocultural issues. Both crisis and change exacerbate existing inequalities and exclusions resulting from intersecting histories of colonialism, racism, oppression and discrimination.<\/p>\n
In Brazil, 82.5% of the population, estimated at 212.7 million people by IBGE in 2021, resides in urban areas. Urban space is segregated, and in areas characterized by housing in unsuitable conditions for housing and a lack of fundamental infrastructure services, the majority of the resident population is black.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, in areas of greatest environmental degradation, dumping of toxic waste, where polluting industries are located, the majority of the population is also black. The report of a study by the P\u00f3lis Institute proves in data how environmental racism happens. The study \u201cSocio-environmental injustice and environmental racism\u201d observed three Brazilian capitals \u2014 Bel\u00e9m, Recife and S\u00e3o Paulo \u2014 and found patterns that are repeated in the rest of the country. In Bel\u00e9m, 75% of people living in risk areas are black, representing 64% of the city's total population. In Recife, the percentage of black people is 55%, but this number rises to 59% in regions subject to flooding and reaches 68% in places at risk of landslides and climatic events.<\/p>\n
In S\u00e3o Paulo, where 37% of the population is black, 55% of people residing in risk areas are black. Environmental racism becomes evident when the consequences of environmental degradation are concentrated in neighborhoods and peripheral territories, where poorer families live and where there is a greater concentration of black, indigenous and quilombola people.<\/p>\n
Environmental racism presents itself as a serious and unequal threat to the enjoyment of multiple human rights, including the right to life, health, an adequate standard of living, future generations, ancestral territory and material and immaterial heritage.<\/p>\n
The effects of climate change are disproportionate and mainly affect victims of environmental racism, something that is little debated. Until recently, the discussion was focused on physical assets, which were natural resources, then animal life. People and communities were not at the center of discussions. Nowadays, it is clear that the crisis generates forced migrations, absolute and relative poverty, and an increase in food insecurity and hunger. Climate change goes beyond the limits of an environmental crisis, also generating social, economic, cultural and political crises whose impacts are not felt uniformly.<\/p>\n
In different countries around the world, studies and official data indicate that the black population is among the most vulnerable groups to the impacts of climate change, along with women, children, the elderly and poor people in general. According to a recent report from the North American Environmental Protection Agency, African Americans and people of African descent are 40% more likely to live in areas affected by extreme temperatures and with the highest rates of morbidity and mortality, a medical concept that refers to the index of people who become ill or die as a result of a specific disease within a given population group.<\/p>\n
The Baob\u00e1 Fund is committed to climate philanthropy. At the invitation of GIFE (Group of Institutes, Foundations and Companies), it was present at COP 27 and committed to tackling the climate crisis, recognizing the role of women, rural quilombola communities and other traditional communities at the forefront of these actions. Baob\u00e1 also joined the global movement on philanthropy for climate change, #PhilanthropyForClimate movement, reiterating that, in Brazil, the black population and other racialized groups are those who lose the most from social and climate injustices.<\/p>\n
And it focuses on promoting actions that can increase voice, power, build autonomy and contribute to strategies to mitigate adverse effects among more vulnerable groups. Grantmaking characterized by small financial contributions increases the capacity of these groups to face, deal with and recover from specific or extreme climate events, implementing solutions that can be adapted and replicated.<\/p>\n
In rural contexts, in addition to contributing to the recognition of traditional practices, fundamental to promoting sustainable and fair development, philanthropy for climate and social justice promoted by the Baob\u00e1 Fund reiterates the traditional knowledge and practices of managing natural resources that preserve and enable its regeneration and contribute to the maintenance of biodiversity implemented by quilombolas, riverside dwellers, shellfish gatherers and fishermen. These practices, in addition to generating income, are paths to a fair transition, towards a greener and more inclusive economy. It is worth highlighting that these are tested and replicable solutions, which can be adapted in different contexts and scaled through public policies.<\/p>\n
Therefore, it is so important that the philanthropy ecosystem, the public and private sectors and the third sector can recognize humanity's responsibility for the impacts of the greenhouse effect and gas emissions on black people, women, the poorest and vulnerable groups , critically addressing inequalities, promoting transformative approaches and regenerative solutions based on human rights principles and guidelines.<\/p>\n
Article originally published on the WINGs blog, a community of leaders and changemakers committed to ensuring that philanthropy reaches its full potential as a catalyst for social justice.<\/p>\n
Fernanda Lopes has a PhD in Public Health from USP (University of S\u00e3o Paulo), member of the GT Racism and Health of the Brazilian Association of Public Health and program director of the Baob\u00e1 Fund for Racial Equity. Coordinated the Program to Combat Institutional Racism in Brazil (PCRI), a partnership established between the Technical Cooperation Agency of the British Ministry for International Development and Poverty Reduction (DFID), the Ministry of Health (MS), the Special Secretariat for Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Seppir), the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and was a staff member of the United Nations Population Fund in Brazil .<\/p>\n
*Cover image: shutterstock website<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Fernanda Lopes<\/p>\n
It is well known that the climate crisis poses substantial risks to health, food production, water supply, ecosystems, energy, security and infrastructure. Although climate change affects the entire planet, a part of society is disproportionately affected by social, economic, political, environmental and sociocultural issues. Both crisis and change exacerbate existing inequalities and exclusions resulting from intersecting histories of colonialism, racism, oppression and discrimination.<\/p>\n
In Brazil, 82.5% of the population, estimated at 212.7 million people by IBGE in 2021, resides in urban areas. Urban space is segregated, and in areas characterized by housing in unsuitable conditions for housing and a lack of fundamental infrastructure services, the majority of the resident population is black.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,33,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-justica-socioambiental","category-fundo-baoba","category-transforma-recomenda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-wyy8bhlsif5v8gukfr0yhxue.studio.tikovolpe.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}