Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jaiel Pulskamp, of Worcester, who is a member of Central Vermont Climate Action, a volunteer with 350Vermont and an organic vegetable grower.
[A]pril 29 is the People’s Climate March on Washington D.C., with sister marches all over the world, including Montpelier. It is a march for climate, jobs and justice. I will join hundreds of thousands to march against a system that exploits the Earth and its creatures, that exploits workers and engenders injustice. I am marching as an organic farmer, deeply invested in the nourishment of others. I will march with my outrage at how climate change impacts food production around the world, perpetuating the starvation of millions. I am marching as a mother, determined for a future of health and peace for our children. I am marching as a woman, to shatter disempowerment and inequality. I am marching against corporate greed and complacent consumer consumption, and the resultant waste and hate. I am marching for environmental justice, for economic justice, for racial justice.
The climate crisis is perpetrated by a fissure in our capitalist structure — an enduring infection of inhumanity within our economics, founded on oppression, exploitation, racism and sexism, continually upheld by a political bolstering of inequality. Our “ill economics” puts corporate profit over all living things and has become a free market rampage without morals for any constraints or ethics applied, systemically keeping down the majority of its people.
The narrative within the criminal justice system that promotes biases against people of color, and has endorsed centuries of “legal” slavery, claims people of color are prone to becoming criminals. This is a false narrative. The crime rate in black communities has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with poverty — poverty forced upon people of color since colonization. In order to sustain cheap and free labor, our economics have denied people of color the support and opportunities needed to rise from poverty. This system wants people of color marginalized into low paying jobs, into communities with limited resources, into desperation and crime so the system can continue to exploit them.
A historical perspective reveals today’s capitalism as a type of feudalism in disguise. With the abolishment of slavery, fundamentalist America fought tooth and nail to maintain this design. The criminal justice system has perpetuated the economics of slavery through criminalization, incarceration, and resistance to raising the minimum wage.
Most people are aware of current international conflicts, such as the conflict in Syria, but not many people have equated this conflict with climate change. After years of severe drought, caused by unnatural shifts in weather patterns, farmers left their land in search of jobs and moved to urban areas. Finding little work, many farmers became disparaged. They began to hold peaceful protests calling for a better economic situation. The government responded with violence and the conflict erupted.
The effort to move away from fossil fuels and exploitative economics is a bit like turning around an oil tanker, but we have no choice, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work for the betterment of all.
These situations — i.e., the rise of terrorist organizations and civil war — will become commonplace as more and more regions of the world are threatened with food shortages due to severe floods and droughts. People will become desperate, and this desperation will lead to anger and violence.
People in industrial countries need to take responsibility for the release of carbon into the atmosphere. The United States was the highest emitter of CO2 for the past 100 years. The droughts and floods happening around the world are a direct result of our consumption of fossil fuels. It has been the burning of fossil fuels that have made this country wealthy. While other countries have not burned fossil fuels at the rate we have, they are now at the brunt of our actions. Poorer nations that do not have the funds to invest in infrastructure to withstand unpredictable weather patterns find themselves suffering as a consequence to climate change.
On a basic level, one that relates to all peoples, climate change is intrinsically tied to the oppression of women. Fostered by patriarchal mindsets that lead to policy making for the control of natural resources and productivity, today’s disregard for the health of the natural world is mirrored in the denial of women’s rights to reproductive health, equal pay and equal opportunity. Our current administration views the natural world as both an interminable, granted resource to “use,” and an unknowable threat to conquer and control. This is reflected in societal treatment of women around the world, and in almost every culture throughout history. Women are treated like a resource and a threat, and as such must be controlled. Climate/environmental justice and women’s rights are interconnected and the two issues need to be fought for with the same support and motivation.
As much as Vermont seems protected and isolated from the negative effects of social injustice, climate change and what’s going on in Washington, we are not impervious. Vermont still hasn’t raised its minimum wage to livable standards. The state does little to foster equal pay initiatives for women. Vermont has one of the highest rates per capita of incarcerated blacks in the country. We recently approved construction for a fracked gas pipeline. Lets focus our efforts for positive change here at home.
If more coal factories are built in the Midwest, or places like Wyoming, and they do not adhere to clean air standards, we will see a rise in air pollutants and temperatures in Vermont and our health will be impacted, as we are already seeing with an increase in Lyme disease. As the earth dries and heats, Vermont will suffer a shift in weather patterns that will likely cost Vermont citizens their robust agricultural and tourism revenues — ski resorts will lose their ability to promise snow, fall colors will cease to attract peepers, and maple syrup production will be inconsistent. We still have time to stop this grim prediction from fruition.
The effort to move away from fossil fuels and exploitative economics is a bit like turning around an oil tanker, but we have no choice, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work for the betterment of all. We can begin by supporting bills and policies that will help in making this transition. And we can begin by marching in solidarity for the love of the planet, and all living beings, on April 29.
