"COP26" = Climate Optics Porn
People fighting on the front lines to protect the earth and to survive its destruction must sit at the table, set the menu and lead the conversation. Otherwise, this is a waste of time
Publisher’s Riff
The United States is the world's largest economy (still) with about 5 percent of the world's population, but it accounts for nearly 30 percent of world energy usage and 30 percent of the world's carbon emissions. You wouldn't pick this up, however, if you're watching the ongoing "COP26" convening in Glasgow, Scotland. The impression is of US as something of an unpredictable outlier that is too constrained by its own internal political fracturing to really do anything substantial against climate crisis. As a result, COP26 comes off like a very international affair with very little US footprint on it, although it needs US leadership to work.
Beyond the other multiple conversations happening around COP26 - from Greta Thunberg thundering rhetorical takedowns of the conference as a "failure" to media outlets throwing jokes about the unsustainable, eco-unfriendly food menu - what's missing is one that's relevant to populations of color, particularly Black, Brown and Indigenous populations. Back in the US, media coverage treats this like something far away and far removed from domestic concerns. What's also missing is the dominant voice of non-White populations who are the hardest-hit victims of climate crisis and pollution.
What COP26 does not establish, at the outset, is that this conference really should be about environmental racism and injustice - eliminating that is how we get closer to fixing climate crisis. Even Greta Thunberg can't or won't say "racism." The organizers of COP26 treat those issues as separate from climate crisis. The conversation on how Black, Brown and Indigenous populations are treated and polluted on in predominantly White/White controlled places is not really coming up. What's also a major failure of COP26 and, more specifically, American media coverage of it, is that it's not being localized: in the US, Americans are not really prioritizing the really critical COP26 conversations because none of the COP26 agenda is being translated in any way that's relatable.
This is of particular concern, for example, in the way that there is no Black American presence at COP26. There is a Black Diaspora presence that is emerging as relatively strong(er) at COP26; but, it would be crucial to get the strong presence of Black Americans as a way to pressure point the US, the world's economic leader and also leading carbon emitter, into finally leading on carbon reducation and clean energy expansion commitments. This is the missing key to ensuring US involvement.
It would be crucial to hear the voices of descendants of the formerly enslaved, several centuries later, giving their perspective on how environmental racism is a top issue for them. That's not happening. Nor are we hearing any centering of Indigenous American voices. These are populations that are not only in closest proximity to sources of vicious pollution in the US, but they are also most likely to live in climate crisis impact zones and are least likely to recover economically from it. Back in the US, bad enough there is no mainstream media coverage of why the issues at COP26 are of supreme importance to the quality of life of Black, Brown and Indigenous Americans, there is also no conversation - at all - from Black media or the Black political/policymaking/and advocacy class on COP26 or how important environmental justice is. Essentially, no one back on the block is having this conversation because they don't know it exists ... and that's a real serious problem.
Bottom line: climate crisis will not be fixed until environmental racism is addressed and eliminated. With the Black voice in America still an influential - albeit oppressed and marginalized - voice, it could be the answer to finally pressuring American policymakers and regulators into playing the lead role in solving climate crisis. The centering and aggressive placement of Black American political, media, community and advocacy voices would be that spark to ensure American policymakers are prioritizing events like COP26, but few in that space see it that way or they are distracted elsewhere.