Climate Conversation at the Brown and Black Forum

DES MOINES, IOWA (January 21, 2020) — Today and over the weekend climate advocates in Des Moines, Iowa, participated in the Brown and Black Forum, the nation’s oldest minority-focused presidential forum.    In advance of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, Mustafa Santiago Ali, the VP of Environmental, Climate and Community Revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) moderated a panel of speakers gathered for the forum. The Sunday afternoon panel, entitled "Rebuilding Vulnerable Communities: Climate, Health, Jobs, and Justice," discussed the disproportionate impacts climate has on vulnerable and minority communities.   Santiago Ali set up the discussion by reminding audience members of the consequences of climate-change. “Each day, 100,000 people in America die of air-pollution, a disproportionate number of them being people of color," said Santiago Ali. "25 million Americans have asthma, 7 million of them are children, and those bearing most health burdens from climate change are black and Latinx communities."   Minority communities often live on the front-lines of climate change, facing industrial pollutants, like the people of Muscatine, Iowa, where citizens won a $50 million class-action settlement for exposure to haze, odor, and particles from a milling facility in town. In other corners of the state, Iowans faced real consequences from climate-change in 2019. Devastating floods rocked the state last Spring, causing billions of dollars’ worth of damage and threatening public health.   Just like the children who live in Muscatine, vulnerable communities across the US are threatened by air-quality and climate-change. 68% of African Americans live within 30 miles of a dirty coal plant and their children are more than four times as likely to be hospitalized for an asthma attack than their white peers.   Senator Joni Ernst recently mocked support for policies that would prioritize a green economy and Democrats who support them, claiming such efforts are inconsistent with Iowa’s ag economy and the Iowa way of life. Karin Stein, speaking for Clean Air Moms Action, called the comment into question and proposed that instead of a way of life “where farms get washed away,” we support and encourage land stewardship. Stein went on to challenge Sen Ernst to take responsibility to learn the science behind climate-change and to fight for the children of Iowa.   Affirming Sen Ernst’s failure to address climate-change, Dianne Dillon-Ridgely, a long-time human-rights and environmental advocate, emphasized the need for elected officials like Joni Ernst to act on climate change.   “It is sad that Sen Ernst would fall back on the tired and failed line of ‘not being a Climate scientist,’ said Dillon Ridgely. “What she definitely is, and has the responsibility to do, is represent the present and future interest of all Iowans; to support policies that will protect the health of Iowa communities, especially those most vulnerable to Climate Change — our children; to support policies that will ensure the sustainability of Iowa’s habitat and wildlife! It is '20/20' the year of clear vision. To continue to support the fossil fuel choices of the past is inexcusable.”   Sen Ernst’s failure to act threatens every Iowan and their families for generations. As extreme heat made more intense by climate-change threatens the health and well-being of farm-workers, extreme rain will continue to threaten the soil and water our ag economy relies on.   In September, 216 scientists and researchers from 38 Iowa colleges and universities signed on to a statement highlighting the dangers of extreme heat and urging climate action. Iowa currently averages fewer than 5 dangerous heat days a year. By 2050, the state is projected to see almost 40 such days each year, which poses a threat to the nearly 70,000 Iowans that are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat. Yet, with agreement in the science community and devastating costs impacting her constituents, Sen Ernst continues to ignore the science and resist acting on climate change.   In the 2020 legislative year, Sen Ernst’s constituents in Iowa are calling on her to heed the science and act on behalf of her communities, no matter their demographics.