What Privilege Means in the Climate Crisis Fight
What Privilege Means in the Climate Crisis Fight
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Turning Points: Guest EssayNo longer insulated from the climate crisis, the Global North has the power to lead the charge against the pollution it has long enabled.Greenpeace activists projected a slogan onto a cooling tower at the Neurath power plant in Germany in 2017.Credit...Wolfgang Rattay/ReutersCarola RacketeMs. Rackete is an ecologist and activist.Dec. 2, 2021This personal reflection is part of a series called Turning Points, in which writers explore what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead. You can read more by visiting the Turning Points series page.Turning Point: The United Nations called a report on climate change released in August “code red for humanity.”The climate crisis has been building for decades, but only since the mid-2000s has it truly come to the attention of the richer countries that comprise the Global North. Wildfires from California to Greece and flash floods from New York City to Germany have opened people’s eyes to the fact that this global crisis is real — and it is in danger of spinning out of our control if something isn’t done to stop it.This past summer, the world’s climate scientists published the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, highlighting, once again, the need to act now. But rather than finding conviction in the many public reactions to these dire warnings, I instead sense a feeling of helplessness. Many in the Global North seem unable — or unwilling — to connect our growth-based, consumption-driven economy with the intensifying natural disasters around us.We live in countries that burned through their share of the world’s CO2 budget long ago — if we account for the historic emissions released since 1850. But the effects of that overspending have mostly ravaged the faraway countries that we don’t see, whose citizens face far greater risks to their personal safety when they speak out against this injustice.I believe that those of us who can act have a responsibility to do so. Embracing activism to combat polluters — who hurt the whole world — is a way to begin to repay our debt. Indeed, that ability to organize and protest safely is, to me, one of the most powerful symptoms of our privilege. And in my experience, exercising that privilege is the most effective way to help move the entire world toward a safer, more just future for all life on this planet.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT