At the 100th annual convention (or “Centennial Convention”) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on July 14th, the powerful organization passed a resolution to support climate and energy legislation. Despite the great likelihood that African Americans will bear more, as a percentage of their household incomes, than caucasians for clean, green energy, the NAACP recognized the importance of this great matter and stood in support of green climate legislation.
In addition to the fact that African Americans are increasingly in support of climate protection and action for its broader importance, the organization said that climate change would have a more severe effect on African Americans and is, therefore, an especially important matter for their members. It is an important matter globally and a possibly even more important matter for African Americans.
Important issues the NAACP also address in the resolution are that the climate legislation needs to do its best to make sure that low- and moderate-income families bear as little as necessary and gain as much as possible from such legislation. This is an important aspect of sustainable legislation and is something other groups, such as Public Citizen, are justly pushing for.
A key aspect of sustainability theory is that there should be a proper balance between environment, equity, and economy. Given the widespread economic effects of a climate and energy bill, there should be appropriate support for lower-income groups in the bill.
It is admirable that a social equity group like the NAACP is getting behind climate legislation. Hopefully, climate legislation will be sure to adequately address social equity concerns regarding this matter as well.
For more on this topic, read “NAACP Throws Weight Behind Climate Bill” and watch the NAACP Centennial Convention webcast.
Image credit: Anika Malone via flickr under a Creative Commons license
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Zachary Shahan
If you couldn't guess, I spend most of my time on CleanTechnica and Planetsave. I'm the director/editor of both sites and am a little obsessed with them and the topics they cover. I'm also Publishing Services Manager at Important Media, which means that I do everything I can to support other Important Media writers, editors, and directors (as well as the network as a whole) in the good work they are engaged in. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Change.org, most of the sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. For more, or to connect, go to: zacharyshahan.com
3 Responses to NAACP Supports Climate Change Legislation
Click on a tab to select how you'd like to leave your comment
Finally!
[...] A few days before this, we saw the NAACP responding to this call ahead of time and making the link the other way. At its 100th annual meeting, the NAACP passed a resolution to support climate and energy legislation. [...]
[...] activist organizations, such as the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the NAACP support the bill but raise similar concerns and say that the public will suffer if certain aspects [...]