Celebrating Black History Month 2023
It’s October and this marks Black History Month in the UK. Even though Black women are central to the climate movement, much of the attention on climate activism has wrongly focused on white middle class advocacy.
At Opportunity Green, our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Committee takes a moment to celebrate the brilliant achievements of black women-identifying climate activists.
Adenike Titilope Oladosu
[shared by Sabrina Khan Dighe]
Adenike Titilope Oladosu is the founder of I Lead Climate. She was a Nigerian youth delegate to COP25 and COP26 on climate finance and gender related issues, and a former spokesperson to CARE International-UK on gender and climate change.
Her journey into the environmental movement started when she gained admission to study agricultural economics. She saw farmers and herdsmen fighting because their land was becoming more barren, and she witnessed communities who had never faced flooding having their farmlands swept away. It took her an extra year to finish studying because of the fighting, and she lost her puppies during a heatwave unlike any that had been experienced before.
Whilst talking with Greenpeace, she said:
“It does not matter what race, sex, tribe, country or age anyone is. Everyone can get involved in the fight for climate justice. What matters most is where we are going and what we want to achieve.
“In Africa and Nigeria, campaigning on climate justice and bringing people together to act and speak can be difficult and frustrating. But we move on and on and slowly our message is being listened to by a larger audience.”
Adenike explains more about her experience with activism in this video with UNICEF Nigeria:
I shared my journey into climate justice activism with @UNICEF_Nigeria. Through @LeadClimate, we have been advocating for the restoration of #LakeChad (for disarmament, regional stability & livelihood generation), climate education & other grassroots actions on ecofeminism.👇 pic.twitter.com/sJZ2Px0OtD
— Adenike Titilope Oladosu (@the_ecofeminist) April 16, 2021
You can follow Oladosu on Instagram and X.
Leah Thomas
[shared by Blánaid Sheeran]
Leah Thomas is an ‘eco-communicator’ who uses her platform to emphasise the interrelationship between the climate movement and other social justice movements and issues, including the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
She is vocal about the reality that the people who are most impacted by the climate crisis, namely Black, Indigenous and people of colour, will continue to bear a disproportionate burden of its impacts unless there is systemic change.
I started following Leah after reading her book ‘The Intersectional Environmentalist: How To Dismantle Systems of Oppression To Protect People and Planet’. I highly recommend if you’re looking for an accessible and engaging read on intersectional environmental justice!
But Leah has a huge number of projects to her name (which are all worth checking out!) including founding the non-profit Intersectional Environmentalist (IE), which is a platform and resource hub that advocates for environmental justice and promotes inclusivity and accessibility within environmental education and movements. IE facilitated the UK’s first ever Black Ecofeminist Summit in London last year to celebrate the intersection of Black Feminism and Climate Justice.
When I was researching Leah for this article, I came across a piece she had written for British Vogue after attending COP 26, where she reflected that:
“While BIPOC environmentalists were invited to bare our souls to crowds of people on panels and given passes to the events, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were just spectacles for the parade.”
This quote really resonated with me. At Opportunity Green, something that I hope we continue working on is amplifying the voices of diverse people and historically excluded communities in the spaces where decisions are being made, for example at the International Maritime Organization (IMO). But, most importantly, listen to what they have to say and ensure that their perspectives are taken seriously.
You can follow Leah’s work on Instagram or her website.
Hazel M Johnson
[shared by Carly Hicks]
The ‘mother of the environmental justice movement’, Hazel M Johnson was a black woman living in Chicago who was one of the first to link poor public health, and specifically high cancer rates in the area in which she lived, to poor environmental conditions.
Growing up in a public housing project, she began investigating the cause of the high cancer rate and high numbers of children suffering from respiratory illnesses. She discovered that the housing project was built on landfill, its residents living the effects of toxic pollution in their homes, air and water supplies.
She founded a community organisation to fight for a safer environment and to educate residents on what was happening in their community, gathering data to show the disproportionate effect of environmental pollution on low-income minority communities.
Her passion and commitment to environmental justice saw her testifying against powerful landfill corporations and securing President Clinton’s signature on the Environmental Justice Executive Order, which directed federal agencies to identify and address disproportionately high adverse human health or environmental effects on low income and minority populations.
At Opportunity Green, we hope to play our small part in continuing Johnson’s legacy by ensuring that our legal work has climate justice at its heart. Some of our current projects include working to phase out gas hobs due to their disproportionate impact on children’s health, and tackling pollution in vulnerable port communities caused by the international shipping trade.
You can read more about Johnson’s legacy at People for Community Recovery, the organisation she founded.
Hilda Flavia Nakabuye
[shared by Olivia Moyle]
Hilda Flavia Nakabuye is a Ugandan climate, gender and environmental rights advocate. She co-founded Fridays for Future Uganda, leading youth strikes every Friday in pursuit of climate justice.
She is a prolific public speaker. Overcoming her self-professed anxiety, she adopted a fierce and unapologetic rhetoric while representing her continent at the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference arguing, “We need leadership on climate action, not talks."
Speaking to leaders, she asked the crowd, "For how long will you keep negotiating? You've been negotiating for the last 25 years, even before I was born," earning her a standing ovation.
She continues to ensure those most affected by the climate crisis are represented at high-level negotiations. More recently, she has entered into talks with the European Commission to ensure discussions at COP28 effectively address climate funding for countries on the frontlines of climate change.
You can follow Hilda on X and Instagram.
Vanessa Nakate
[shared by Isabela Keuschnigg]
Vanessa Nakate is a Ugandan climate activist, the founder of the Rise Up Movement and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She's also the author on the book A Bigger Picture.
In 2020, Vanessa got cropped out of a picture with fellow European climate activists at the World Economic Forum. Vanessa later responded: “You didn’t just erase a photo. You erased a continent. But I am stronger than ever.”
Why did you remove me from the photo?
— Vanessa Nakate (@vanessa_vash) January 24, 2020
I was part of the group! https://t.co/rrhxcjaSye
The erasure sparked outrage and allegations of racisms: Despite Africa being at the forefront of the climate crisis, African voices have routinely been stifled on climate debates.
Vanessa further said:
“Africa is on the frontlines of the climate crisis but it’s not on the front pages of the world’s newspapers. Every activist who speaks out is telling a story about themselves and their community, but if they are ignored, the world will not know what’s really happening, what solutions are working. The erasure of our voices is literally the erasure of our histories and what people hold dear to their lives.”
Vanessa’s advocacy has focused on the need to amplify the voices of activists across the African continent and to make sure that impacted communities also get a seat at the table. She’s also been a fierce advocate for loss and damage finance.
