Climate Change’s White Supremacy Problem

The climate movement’s white supremacy problem, explained. Support this channel directly by becoming a Patreon backer: In this Our Changing Climate climate change video essay, I look at how white supremacy pervades not only the history of environmentalism and environmentalist leaders, but also how white supremacy now threatens the climate change movement and climate action today. The forefathers of environmentalism, conservation, and preservation like Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and Teddy Roosevelt all espoused white supremacist ideas that were often intermeshed with their views of the natural world and environmentalism. Later as authors like Paul Ehlrich stoked fears of overpopulation, these racist sentiments were blended once again into concerns about overpopulation. In short overpopulation and environmental destruction as a result of overpopulation were wielded as racist and white supremacist tools to oppress people of color, especially in the majority