By: Jackie Kirouac-Fram, Executive Director
Today is Earth Day and, in honor of the day, I’ve spent some time reflecting on how terrible this “holiday” has become. There. I said it.
Over the past 20 years, Earth Day has evolved so far away from the movement its organizers envisioned as they worked alongside the civil rights movement in the late 1960s, borrowing tactics like civil disobedience, mass action, and a focus on the impact of environmental degradation on people, and particularly on Black people.
Those early organizers knew that climate justice is bound with racial justice. Racism upholds the extractive, exploitive elements of our current economic system, which prioritizes consumption and endless growth while ensuring that the outcomes disproportionately affect Black, Brown, and Indigenous populations.
Compare that to our era’s version of Earth Day, which has largely been hijacked by corporate entities cashing in on our guilt about climate change and what feels like an inability to do anything about it. Buy this metal lunchbox! Buy this green cleaner! But our climate crisis will not be solved by consumer product purchase choices, especially when a focus on consumption is actually at the root of the crisis.
So what can you do this Earth Day to step outside the mainstream and participate in the climate justice movement?
First, listen to this fantastic episode of How To Save A Planet, about the value of individual action vs. policy change and corporate regulation. (Spoiler: it’s all important!)
Second, consider what you can do, what changes you can make, and how you’ll talk to others about it. By talking to others about changes you’re making (eating less meat, biking more, installing solar, insulating your attic) you can multiply the limited impact of your actions by making them contagious.
Third, learn more about how climate justice is linked to racial justice. Some very smart people have written about this if you want to dig deeper, including Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. of Hip Hop Caucus, and Elizabeth Yeampierre of the Climate Justice Alliance.
At ReBuilding Center, we see our work as providing countless opportunities for people to see how their individual actions (choosing to reuse or repair, instead of buying new) can have an impact on the climate crisis and racial justice. Our work marks one path toward an anti-racist economy that is based in sharing and abundance and equity, rather than the racist strategies of extraction and exploitation. This might feel like heavy stuff for a reuse organization, but it’s what guides our work internally. We envision a world in which reuse is the norm, people are valued over profit, and solutions to our most pressing challenges come from the communities most impacted. We try to live our version of Earth Day every day, with the support of our community of customers, material donors, students, volunteers, and members. We’d love for you to join us on this journey.