Climate change is affecting the working class of the planet the hardest , and they’re aware of Jeff Sparrow
The conservative commentariat could not be more wrong in dismissing global heating as a concern of only the ‘woke elite’ Indian woman carrying water pitcher on her head “What do you mean, ‘why am I working in this heat?’ If I don’t work, we will die of hunger.” That was how Shiv Kumar Mandal, a Delhi rickshaw driver, explained why he continued to transport passengers during a prolonged and horrific temperature spike that experts attribute to global heating. Mandal, one presumes, does not consider planetary warming a topic relevant only to the rich. Yet, in the wake of the Australian federal election, we’re hearing versions of that claim again and again and again. Lismore’s residents are living in limbo on the frontlines of the climate emergencyRead more Think of how Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes – one of the Coalition’s senior spokespeople on climate, no less – recently dubbed warming “almost like a luxury issue”. Similarly, Quillette editor Claire Lehmann says those who advocate for renewable energy do so primarily to signal their own wealth, while the Spectator’s Rebecca Weisser judges the poll a victory for “green and teal rent-seeking elites” (whom she describes as having “been helped immeasurably by an education system that indoctrinates children and young adults, from kindergarten through to university, in the cult of climate catastrophism, legitimising climate ‘strikes’ during school hours, which are openly attended by Greens and the Socialist Alliance.”). Meanwhile, Lillian Andrews goes so far as to claim the election reveals the Liberals are “becoming the new party of the ordinary people”, with their climate stance revamping “what were once core Labor values of protecting the working class and defending their rights.” Well, it’s nice to have an imagination. In the real world, anyone concerned about the actual working class recognises that, always and everywhere, global warming most harms the oppressed and the poor. Poverty can happen to anyone at any time – it’s in my every waking and sleeping thought | Angela FinchRead more The horrific Indian heatwave means temperatures in Delhi have exceeded 42C for 25 days since summer began. Yet millions of workers still toil outside, simply because, like Mandal, they can’t afford to stay out of the sun. In the unbearable conditions, all of them suffer – and some of them die. “This is not just exhaustion or discomfort,” says Avikal Somvanshi of the Urban Lab at the Center of Science and Environment. “It is actually killing people.” The same distinction between the wealthy, who can protect themselves from a warming planet, and the poor, who patently cannot, manifests in the developed world. With a heatwave gripping the United States, authorities have urged a hundred million Americans to stay inside. Alexia Gonzales works for Instacart. Her employers might sit in air-conditioned comfort but she certainly can’t. Workers and their wages are the collateral damage of the war on inflation | Greg JerichoRead more “It’s too hot to work,” she told the Guardian, “but this is when people want deliveries.” Across the planet, rising temperatures mean densely populated areas become “urban heat islands”, as the concrete landscapes inhabited by working-class families absorb the sun and then warm up the air. By combining satellite measurements with census data, University of North Carolina researcher Angel Hsu has shown how heat correlates both with poverty and race. Shockingly, almost everywhere in America communities of colour endure temperatures a degree higher on average than those faced by non-Hispanic white people. Similar factors govern the population’s exposure to the climate crisis in Australia, where, for instance, western Sydney gets an astonishing 8-10 degrees hotter during heatwaves than the eastern parts of the city. It’s not just a question of temperatures, either. We know the carbon getting pumped into the atmosphere means more fires and more flooding – and we know who will bear the brunt of the entirely predictable disasters that will ensue. Australia’s lowest paid workers (some of them) are (sort of) getting a pay rise! Don’t be ungracious | First Dog on the MoonRead more Researchers looking at the 2019-2020 bushfires say that “the most socio-economically disadvantaged communities bore a disproportionately higher hazard exposure in the Black Summer than relatively advantaged communities.”
