“Maybe that’s why so many Americans don’t believe climate change is happening, it’s happening in Celsius.” On Tuesday, February 23, Naomi Klein came to Johns Hopkins to speak as a part of the 2016 Foreign Affairs Symposium, and in the process she challenged us all to reassess the way we think about climate change.
The activist, writer, and environmentalist opened her talk by poking some fun at the Paris Climate Change Agreement announced in December. An agreement that was heavily celebrated in the across the world, Klein dubbed “a concrete plan for disaster.”
It may be the best our leaders have ever done, Klein conceded, but it is still terribly inadequate, and the celebration may have been a little premature. While our leaders may have finally come together to make admirable goals, they’ve proven themselves a little less willing to actually follow through.
The plan is choc full of INDTs, otherwise known as internationally determined targets. Each participating nation has made their own goals for reducing greenhouse gases. However, there are no repercussions for not adhering to these plan, leaving us with a huge gap between goals and actual plans.
Furthermore, the highly acclaimed agreement failed to make any mention of fossil fuels, oil, or fuel, making it akin to “an agreement to eliminate lung cancer without mentioning cigarettes.”
Fuel and oil aren’t the only problems Klein associates with climate change. She vehemently asserts that climate change is an intersectional problem, and this first became apparent to her when she visited New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. From economics, to politics, to human rights, people were intrinsically connected to this environmental disaster.
Asking us to change our “throwaway culture,” Klein sited countless other intersectional environmental issues. As a result of these issues, materials, resources, and even people get thrown by the wayside. In particular, she brought up Freddie Grey, who was a victim of environmental racism years before the arrest that led to the tragic end of his life.
If our leaders are refusing to step up in the face of environmental justices, then it is our job to either make them or do it ourselves. The good news is that there are people stepping up where our leaders have failed us. From the “kayativisits,” who protested Shell’s Arctic oil exploration, to Hopkins’ own “Refuel Our Future” campaign, people are taking action. And action, Klein asserts, is what we need to make tomorrow better than today.