17 Nov 2023
This is not an exhaustive list, nor does it cover all aspects of race, climate and the environment. Rather, it's a starting point to help us understand how race and climate intersect.
It’s also important to note that this list is reflective of us and our place in this movement, and it therefore has its limitations.
We hope this reading list can be expanded and strengthened as more people access it. So please do send in any contributions – we'll review and add them.
Priority list
A Climate of Hope – Climate Justice: A Question of Survival. Utopia Dispatch. Podcast.
From Africa to the US to Haiti, climate change is a race issue. Patrisse Cullors and Nyuesi Nguvu. The Guardian.
Climate Justice is Racial Justice. Keya Catterjee. Eco-business.
Climate and race reading list. (Twitter). The Black Geographers.
Race to the bottom. Azfar Shafi and Ilyas Nagdee.
Shorter reads
We Don't Have To Halt Climate Action To Fight Racism. Mary Annaïse Heglar.
Climate justice means justice for black lives. Jennifer Deol. 350.org, Canada.
Black environmentalists talk about climate and anti-racism. New York Times.
To fix the climate crisis, we must face up to our imperial past. Daniel Voskobynik.
I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. The Washington Post.
What good is clean air if people can’t breathe? Racism is inherent to the environmental movement because its inherent to everything. Sarah Lazarovic. Yes! Solutions Journalism.
We need to talk about racism in the climate movement. Tonny Noswhin. Climate Change News.
The Least Convenient Truth – Part 1, Climate Change and White Supremacy. Bani Amor. Bitch Media.
Environmental justice means racial justice. Nina Lakhani and Jonathan Watts. The Guardian.
Extinction Rebellion, racism and the climate crisis. Manthan Pathak. Medium.
Black Lives Matter: the link between climate change and racial justice. Adelle Thomas and Rueanna Haynes. Climate Analytics.
Why Black Lives Matter should Transform the Climate Debate. Naomi Klein. The Nation.
We don’t need to halt climate action to fight racism. Mary Annaise Heglar. Huffpost.
Racism dictates who gets dumped on: how environmental justice divides the world. The Guardian.
Get Intersectional! (Or, why your movement can’t go it alone). Kirstin Moe. Yes! Solutions Journalism.
My environmentalism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit. Adam Ramsay. Open Democracy.
1.5 degrees to stay alive: climate change, imperialism and justice for the Caribbean. Leon Sealey-Huggins. Taylor & Francis Online.
The climate crisis is a racist crisis: structural racism, inequality and climate change (PDF). Leon Sealey-Huggins. The University of Warwick.
Conservation and human rights abuses – why is this still happening? Helen Newing. ICCS.
Three ways to take the environmental movement out of its white middle class ghetto. Shilpa Shah and Jannat Hossain. Open Democracy.
Decolonize Conservation series. Survival International.
The climate movement's silence. Emily Atkin. Heated.
The fight for Black Lives is a global one; it is a fight for all of our humanity. Jess Mally. The Good Trade.
The Danger of Oppression Olympics. Jess Mally. The Good Trade.
Environmentalism and the Legacy of Colonialism. Keila Mcfarland Dias.
What ACORN taught us. Elyshya Miller and Jeff Ordower.
Podcasts and videos
Patriarchy, racism and colonialism caused the climate crisis. Jamie Margolin. TedX Youth. Colombia.
What do racism and poverty have to do with pollution and climate change? Grist Video.
Settler colonialism is behind climate denial. Novara Media.
Hot Take podcast. Mary Annaise Heglar and Amy Westervelt.
The Yikes Podcast. Mikaela Loach and Jo Becker.
Intersectionality Matters! Kimberley Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum.
Watch Climate in Colour's video series on YouTube.
Watch Climate Justice is Migrant Justice, session 1. Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE).
Watch The urgency of intersectional organising: BIPOC voices on climate. 350.org.
Octavia’s Parables. Toshi Reagon and Adrienne Maree Brown.
Books
How to be Antiracist. Ibram X Kendi.
Conservation Refugees. Mark Dowie.
The memory we could be. Daniel Voskoboynik.
From the Ground Up: Environmental racism and the rise of the environmental justice movement. Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster.
Our History Is the Future. Nick Estes.
White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism. Andreas Mal and The Zetkin Collective.
What White People Can Do Next. Emma Dabiri.
Clean and White: A History of Environmental Racism in the United States. Carl A. Zimring.
Organisational statements
Anti-racism work at Friends of the Earth. Friends of the Earth.
Vision for a charity sector that is taking the lead to root out racism. Charity so White.
Solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. Friends of the Earth Europe.
Manifesto for Equality and Interculturalism (PDF). Young Friends of the Earth Europe.
Greenpeace UK’s commitment to tackling systemic racism. Greenpeace.
Why justice based solutions are the only solutions to the crisis we face. Friends of the Earth (EWNI).
Pulling Down Our Monuments. Sierra Club.
Practical #allyship – a guide for novices for after the hashtags fade… Climate Emergency Manchester.
Training and learning
Take Climate in Colour's course, "The Colonial History of Climate"
Toolkit for intersectional movement building (PDF). Young Friends of the Earth Europe.
Black and Green Ambassador Project Bristol.
Resist and Renew – power and privilege and anti-racism training.
Navigate – Facilitation for Social Change (run anti-oppression courses).
#Powershift resources@Anti-racism in Development and Aid. Oxfam.
Unlearning Racism course. The Racial Justice Network.
