“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.”
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. King is, of course, best known as a civil rights leader whose work was instrumental in advancing voting rights and desegregation. When we look back at his words now, like the above lines that were part of a Christmas Eve sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1967, we see that they are equally relevant to the environmental movement as they are to the fight against racism.
Racial equity is always a guiding principle of Drawdown Georgia, and today we are reflecting on how to talk about the intersection between racial justice and climate, and, importantly, how to take the next step and create change.
A recent post on GreenBiz by Victoria Gilchrist and Heather White, "How to talk about racial justice in sustainability," aligns beautifully with our mission at Drawdown Georgia -- to drive climate solutions while surfacing impacts, both positive and negative -- Beyond Carbon. The authors explain, “If we get it right, this new movement for equity in sustainability can snowball by not only providing a "cooling effect" for climate change but also resulting in thriving, healthy, equitable communities."
We couldn’t agree more, and in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are sharing their post as an invitation to join us in this work of navigating the intersecting paths of civil rights and climate justice.