How A Big Win By Swiss Activists Can Help Black Communities

By Willy Blackmore | Word In Black (WIB) – A group of Swiss women who are disproportionately at risk to the effects of climate change won a landmark legal case today when a European court agreed that their human rights are being violated because their government has not done enough to reduce carbon emissions. The victory for KlimaSeniorinnen, or Senior Women for Climate Protection, is the kind of ruling any number of groups around the world and in the U.S., including a diverse group of California kids, are hoping to win as suing local and national governments becomes a growing form of climate action.  LEARN MORE: NYC Floods Are Worst for Those Who Can Least Afford Them While the legal jurisdiction might be half a world away, a similar case could be made for so many Black Americans. Like the Swiss women, Black communities nationwide are at outsized risk of harm from climate change due to centuries of systematic and structural racism. If the KlimaSiniorinnen are having their human rights violated, then it’s logical to conclude Black Americans on the front lines of climate change certainly are, too.& The KlimaSeniorinnen argued before the European Court of Human Rights that, since...