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Climate disasters hit BIPOC communities first and worst: Tell FEMA & State Governments to prioritize disaster relief for Black and brown communities!

Climate chaos hits Black and brown communities first and worst.

Exhibit A remains the US Gulf South: In February 2021, an Arctic blast brought devastation to communities across the Gulf. And research shows  that impacts were particularly intense for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Caribbean communities. But not only were communities of color disproportionately impacted, they were systematically denied access to just and equitable disaster relief by the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA).

As part of his Build Back Better agenda, President Biden promised to make reforms to address environmental justice, and direct 40% of Federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities. Here's one that should be easy:

Tell FEMA to prioritize climate disaster relief for Black and brown communities hit first and worst.

A multi-partner impact report spearheaded by Smile Trust surveyed more than 50,000 impacted households int the wake of the storms, and the findings are stark:

• The storms caused millions of people to lose power and be put under boil water advisories. Families were stranded inside their homes without heat, food, and water. But not all families were impacted equally.
• 91% of those surveyed believed that governments purposefully and actively neglected to protect the health and welfare of Black communities in the aftermath of the storms. Residents of majority Black and brown neighborhoods had less access to disaster relief resources and were over-represented among the scores of people evacuated and displaced by the storms.
• Approximately three-quarters of the people who died in the Arctic storms were people of color.

The systemic failures documented in this report paint a clear picture of environmental injustice. The also give us a clear idea of how FEMA can work with state and local partners to meet the challenges of worse and more frequent storms, and distribute disaster relief faster and more equitably to impacted communities.

Our petition is based on that research report, and outlines 12 specific actions FEMA can and should take. But the last one is especially important to climate direct-activists like us. It says:

End the dependence on fossil fuel consumption and move to publicly-controlled renewable energy systems.

Renewable energy is not just cleaner, it's cheaper and more resilient in times of crisis. We can fix a lot of problems at once if we invest in distributed, publicly controlled, renewable energy and commit to investing in the communities hit first and worst by climate crises.

In short, we need FEMA and their local partners to prioritize climate disaster relief for Black and brown communities hit first and worst by climate disasters. Because the only way to Build Back Better is to build back fossil free, with energy democracy for all.

Sign the petition to FEMA and State Governments: Prioritize disaster preparedness and relief for Black and brown communities.

Sincerely,

Drew and the 198 methods to Build Back Fossil Free with energy and democracy for all.

Sources:

1. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/climate-changes-uneven-impact-on-communities-of-color-compounded-by-uneven-flow-of-aid
2. https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2021/07/20/the-path-to-achieving-justice40/
3. https://mthsmile.com/2021-arctic-blast-report/
4. https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-to-fema-and-state-governments-prioritize-disaster-preparedness-and-relief-for-black-and-brown-communities 

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198 methods is an experiment in melding online and direct action styles of organizing, with an emphasis on developing new projects and partners. You can learn more about us at our website, www.198methods.org