Talking Climate: Displacements

 

The Climate Museum has launched Second Fridays programming for 2021 featuring a monthly conversation series Talking Climate. The first event in the series Talking Climate: Displacements took place on January 8, 2021. 

Thinking about displacements can highlight new forms of uprooting catalyzed by the climate crisis including climate gentrification, land loss, and forced migration. It can also shed light on ongoing displacements that shape how climate is experienced amid multiple forms of inequality and the purposeful enactment of policy in the U.S. historically and in the present day. 

In Talking Climate: Displacements expert panelists Marleine Bastien, immigrant rights activist and Executive Director of the Family Action Network Movement; Vann R. Newkirk II, Senior Editor at The Atlantic and Floodlines podcast creator; and Shavonne Smith, Director of the Shinnecock Indian Nation Environmental Department discussed their journeys towards work and advocacy in climate and inequality, and the long history of displacements that animate the contemporary inequities they tackle in their respective communities. If you missed their conversation you can view it here.  

After Displacements a smaller audience convened for Gulf Coast Stories, a craft talk between artist Virginia Hanusik and journalist Vann R. Newkirk. The recording of this event will be published on our Youtube channel.

This resource page is designed to complement our Second Friday programming. If you enjoyed reading these pieces or if you think we missed something, let us know! 

Considering Displacements: Background Reading

These articles provide background on the historical and emergent forms of displacement underway across the United States.

What Is Climate Gentrification? By Shelia Hu (Natural Resources Defense Council, August 2020)

“We already know that climate justice, housing justice, racial equity, and economic opportunity are interconnected. To begin working through these issues and avoid the pitfalls of gentrification, cities need to ensure that they recalibrate their inequitable planning and economic development practices of the past and bring the decision-making table to those experiencing the issues firsthand.”

Rising Tide: Priced Out In Miami  (CBS, March 2020) 

In this episode of CBSN Originals' REVERB series, journalist Adam Yamaguchi explores climate gentrification in Miami.

The Great Land Robbery by Vann R. Newkirk II (The Atlantic, September 2019)

“Lynchings, police brutality, and other forms of intimidation were sometimes used to dispossess black farmers, and even when land wasn’t a motivation for such actions, much of the violence left land without an owner.”

“Mass dispossession did not require a central organizing force or a grand conspiracy. Thousands of individual decisions by white people, enabled or motivated by greed, racism, existing laws, and market forces, all pushed in a single direction.” 

As Sea Level Rise Threatens Their Ancestral Village, a Louisiana Tribe Fights to Stay Put By Barry Yeoman (Natural Resources Defense Council, April 2020)

“Fewer phrases pique the Grand Bayou elder faster than “managed retreat.” Given the arc of U.S. history, she worries that it’s the rebranding of an old policy: making life-altering decisions about communities without their participation or consent.”   

Long Island’s Shinnecock Fight Sea Level Rise By Using Nature Itself By Clarisa Diaz (Gothamist, September 2019) 

“A Discussion with Climate Scientist Sonali McDermid” (Apex Art, June 2020) 

This talk provides a global perspective on climate adaptation and mobility.

Ongoing Displacements and Actions Toward a More Equitable Future

The articles listed below detail the ongoing work of communities striving to determine their own response to the threat of climate change in New York, Miami, the Gulf Coast, and beyond.

The Original Long Islanders Fight to Save Their Land From a Rising Sea By Somini Sengupta and Shola Lawal (New York Times, March 2020) 

“We have an inherent responsibility to protect the homeland,” Ms. Smith said on a recent Monday morning walk along the shore. “It’s not the type of thing where you can work against nature. You work with it.”

When the Levees Break Again By Andy Horowitz (New York Times, May 2019) 

“Louisiana’s levee system stands, for now, as a sinking monument to America’s dangerously shortsighted climate policies.”

As Miami Keeps Building, Rising Seas Deepen Its Social Divide By Mario Alejandro Ariza (Yale Environment 360, September 2020) 

“The median household income in Little Haiti hovers around $39,000 dollars a year, and most of its residents are cost-burdened renters, meaning they pay more than a third of their total income on housing. They could easily be displaced onto lower ground since they are unlikely to be able to remain in a gentrifying neighborhood.”

The Tribe that Brought a Damaged Shoreline Back to Life By Anuradha Varanasi (Columbia Blog, September 2019)  

Work and Leadership from our Expert Panelists 

Marleine Bastien, Executive Director at the Family Action Network Movement 

Virginia Hanusik, Photographer

Vann R. Newkirk II, Senior Editor at The Atlantic 

Shavonne Smith, Director at Shinnecock Indian Nation Environmental Department 

Further Resources on Native Land Rights 

As the Displacements panelists emphasized, the history of the United States is one of dispossession, and the impacts of the seminal displacement of Indigenous peoples from their lands continues to be felt today. In a virtual context where readers and audience members join us from all over the United States and beyond, we acknowledge that our context is one existing on unceded Indigenous territories, and offer here a range of resources that highlight various Indigenous efforts towards sovereignty and chronicles of resilience. We encourage readers to discover the longer histories of their particular locations and of others listed here. 

 
Miranda Massie