green for all
Environmental activist Shilpa Shah writes this article in response to Lucid editor Sylvia Arthur’s Guardian opinion piece on the need for diversity and inclusion in the green movement
I’m a second generation British Indian female. I’m 27 years old. I first started campaigning on environmental issues in 2003. I attended speaker meetings and protests, collected petition signatures and lobbied my MP. The spoken message of campaigners around me always boiled down to ‘our environment is for everyone, our movement is for everyone’. But, apart from in the photographs of those struck by floods and droughts, where were the faces who looked like me, my family and friends? And was this all-pervasive monoculture impeding our efforts to create the transformational movement we dreamed of?
As an ‘outsider within’, I observed. And I continue to do so. The larger campaigning organisations are known for their technical and policy expertise. They grab media attention to help drive changes in legislation. Smaller organisations focussed on behaviour change have significant reach and commitment to help people reduce their carbon footprints. There are pockets of excellent work tackling environmental injustice, working with communities locally and internationally.
But the framing of the issues can be heavy on technical information and big abstract concepts, or preaching behaviour changes which seem too small to be significant (wash your clothes at 30 degrees and save the world). Or too difficult, expensive or downright inconvenient. Supporters of big campaigning organisations have increasingly become cannon fodder, signing postcards to put pressure on decision makers at pre-planned moments. The language can alienate and the reliance on impersonal written and online forms of communication work only for some – usually those who are already active on the issues and confident of the contribution their voice can make to influencing change. When I started to unpack this I began to understand why the ‘white, middle class’ image of ‘green’ people is so pervasive.
I encountered stereotypes amongst activists about Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) people not caring about environmental issues or anything outside their own sphere of activity. But this seemed to be a convenient myth, masking the inability of many of them to connect across race and class.
The recent focus on climate justice, working together with the social justice charities and campaigners from the global South, has humanised the climate change debate somewhat.
During the UN summit in Copenhagen last month, the media focus was often on the present and future impacts of climate change on the lives of people in the majority world. Some in the movement think this angle will engage people from BME backgrounds automatically – ‘hey, you’re from Bangladesh. Climate change is going to devastate your country, you should support us’.
I myself am petrified by changes in the monsoon patterns in India and the impact that floods have had on my family and friends there. But I care about the impacts in other countries too. I also feel this view of BME people does not understand who I am – a person immersed in British life, even though I have strong roots and connections in India. I am much more than my self-interest about my ‘home’ country.
