Donele Wilkins. Photo by Joe Parnell.

When the Biden administration announced the historic investments of the Justice40 initiative in January 2021, it was a reminder that Black and Brown communities have the power to reshape the future for the better. It is time for us to step up once again and ensure that those investments get to the communities they are for. 

For decades, Black and brown climate justice advocates have insisted that the fight to save the planet from disaster is an environmental issue and a racial justice fight. After years of pressure and tireless efforts, the Justice40 Initiative promises that at least 40% of federal climate investments will go directly to communities experiencing the worst impacts of poverty and pollution. Communities like the ones many of us love across Detroit.

After all, our neighborhoods are on the frontlines of our human-made environmental crisis. When wealthy corporations need a location for their toxic facilities, they often pick the poorest communities with the least political influence. From Louisiana’s cancer alley to “Michigan’s most toxic zip code” right here in Detroit, these are overwhelmingly Black, brown, and poor communities. 

This is why those of us who have been on the frontlines of this fight are thrilled at what Justice40 represents. This record-setting green energy investment is an opportunity to not only repair some of the damage that’s been done but to ensure we create a sustainable and beautiful world for generations to come. In the short term, we need to ensure everyone has clean drinking water and air and beef up our disaster preparation and response capabilities. 

We must make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. We must listen closely to the voices that have been shut out of mainstream climate discussions but accurately diagnosed the problem years ago. If we listen to everyday people who face these disasters, grassroots groups that respond to them, and researchers who study them, we’ll have a good chance of getting this right. To do that, we need a democratic process that includes their voices.

Because Detroiters know precisely what we need to meet our current crisis. 

Local and state officials have let our infrastructure wither for decades, ensuring that extreme weather events routinely become the worst-case scenario imaginable. Storms knock power out for days and sometimes weeks, forcing families to throw away hundreds of dollars in food and sit in the cold darkness of winter. Floods rip through our basements, wiping millions of dollars in personal belongings. Meanwhile, wealthy corporations like Marathon are polluting the air in our kids’ lungs and the water in their cups.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Justice40 must be a launching pad for us to make robust investments to ensure families can weather any crisis and live with dignity. Our communities should feel confident that when the next storm, heat wave, or cold snap hits, they won’t freeze to death or watch their infrastructure crumble when needed.  

This was the major theme when the Justice40rward tour swung through Detroit. Everything on our agenda is doable: from increasing the number of cooling centers in the city and providing reliable and truly affordable energy for all to retrofitting our homes so that they cool much more efficiently and making major stormwater upgrades. Think of all we could do with the billions made available through the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The human consequences will be dire if we don’t take swift action. As one professor who studies heatwaves and blackouts put it to Planet Detroit, a five-day “historical heatwave and a blackout” here could result in “many more fatalities than we saw in New Orleans after Katrina.” This analysis should horrify us all into action.

The tale of two cities is painfully accurate. Business as usual means a handful of comfortable and opulent neighborhoods for an elite few who increasingly see Detroit as a destination for escaping climate disaster. At the same time, poor and working-class communities could be trapped in a cycle of greater and greater uncertainty and ruin if we don’t act now. As we speak, the City of Detroit is beautifying the hippest corners of the city for big events like the upcoming NFL draft. We need the same scale and dedication to building beautiful and resilient neighborhoods, and we needed it yesterday.

The bottom line is this: Will the city be willing to provide the basic protection we need so that the rich and poor don’t live separate climate realities? 

Just like it took consistent grassroots pressure to make climate justice a real priority, it’ll take that same dedicated organizing to ensure everyone is cared for and our communities have what we need to be healthy. We’ve always taken care of each other, and we can rise to meet the moment again.

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