Changing the Social Climate

By Catherine Lerza, Tides Foundation. Posted April 21, 2007.

The pressing need to do something about dramatic climate change has reached a critical mass across the globe and across the country. And it is an issue that has also reached into every aspect of our lives.

Global warming is not simply an environmental issue. It is an economic issue, a social justice issue, a lifestyle issue. It's about race, class and democratic participation. It's about globalization and global democracy. It's about national security and global security.

Catherine Lerza, a writer, editor and a senior philanthropic advisor at the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation interviewed Michael Gelobter, the executive director of Redefining Progress, about how we can effectively enact positive change around this growing crisis. Redefining Progress is one of the nation's leading policy institutes dedicated to developing solutions that help people, protect the environment and grow the economy.

What world do we want to live in?

Lerza: Why do you think it took so long for the U.S. public and mainstream politicians to acknowledge the reality of climate change? And moving ahead, what do you suggest as effective strategies to capture the public's imagination and mobilize them to support climate stabilization initiatives?

Gelobter: Well, to speak in broad terms, we tend to be complainers within the progressive community. We are good at saying what is wrong. But there is a positive story behind addressing the problem of global warming and moving towards climate stabilization. We really have to talk about the kind of world we will be living in when we start addressing climate change.

For example, "peak oil" was a hot topic for some time -- the idea that the worldwide rate of oil production will eventually begin a terminal decline. And that is a negative story, right? "We're going to run out of oil."

But that can be a positive story. Why can't we talk about the benefits of a world where we're not using oil? About spending less of our money on oil and more of our money on education, on our children, or on recreation? About safer vehicles and shorter commute times?

The leadership act for the movement is in projecting a positive future. It is about getting out of our silos and talking about the world we want to live in.

Lerza: So what other opportunities does this dilemma create?

Gelobter: Climate stabilization presents many positive opportunities. This is a technological opportunity to have a set of new products that are cleaner, safer and more efficient. This is a business opportunity as well, for clean technology and for the venture capital community.

The public wants to know "where is the light?" I can't stand it when people say, "Taking action on climate change is going to be extremely difficult." Wait a minute! My reply is, "There is nothing to not like about a world where we're using less fossil fuels. What is it about that world you don't like?"

Why are we spending $2 trillion on a war in Iraq when we could be having cleaner air, better education and better healthcare? Talk about the things that we want, not just those things we don't want. I think that's an act of leadership.

We have two worlds to choose from. There is the bright world, where we address these problems, where we're going to have a better economy through these new opportunities and new technologies. And that can also be a more just and secure world.

Or there is the alternative world: A 30- or 40-year-old war of terror and fear. And I don't think anybody in their right mind wants that second world, except those who benefit from it economically, from a power perspective.

The social climate

Lerza: The impacts of global warming highlight social and racial inequalities around the world. It certainly affects poor communities differently. We saw that clearly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Could you talk about these different impacts of climate change depending on geography, race and class?

Gelobter: Communities of color and low-income communities in this country clearly feel the impact of climate change and have been feeling that impact for over 20 years.

My organization, Redefining Progress, has conducted a number of studies on Latinos and climate change and African-Americans and climate change. Different communities bear quite a different vulnerability to the risks of global warming. Six years ago, we already had figured out that the greatest victims of climate change were the lower-income communities and communities of color. You can see it in the disparity in heat deaths in St. Louis. You can see there's an impact on agricultural communities and on border communities and indigenous communities, particularly in the Arctic.

We have to address issues of justice: people have a right to health and to a secure place to live. They have this right whether they're black, or white, or whatever.

Even before Katrina hit, New Orleans was an extremely clear case of what's happening all over the country. People of color and from low-income communities are spending almost twice as much of their income than white people on energy -- both for gasoline, because they have to commute farther and because they live in substandard housing, which requires less efficient and more expensive heating.

See more stories tagged with: globalization, global warming, climate change, social justice

Catherine Lerza is a writer, editor and a senior philanthropic advisor at the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation.

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