When the Green New Deal res­o­lu­tion was intro­duced by Rep. Alexan­dria Oca­sio-Cortez (D‑N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D‑Mass.), many were con­fused by its scope: Why would a cli­mate plan also promise hous­ing and healthcare?

Climate policy has often been determined by the wealthy and powerful—those who are causing the crisis—and its record is one of failure.

But the resolution’s empha­sis on eco­nom­ic jus­tice showed AOC and Markey were pay­ing atten­tion. Envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice advo­cates have long con­nect­ed pol­lu­tion with pover­ty and racism, and as Michelle Chen report­ed for In These Times in August 2009, these con­nec­tions hold true for cli­mate change. In ​“Falling Through the Cli­mate Gap,” Chen writes:

Cli­mate change will exac­er­bate region­al health dis­par­i­ties tied to indus­tri­al air pol­lu­tion. In many areas, peo­ple of col­or suf­fer greater impacts from dirty air, because they are more like­ly than whites to live in com­mu­ni­ties heav­i­ly exposed to pol­lu­tion sources like coal-fired pow­er plants [and] oil refineries. … Many urban neigh­bor­hoods … are prone to the ​“heat island” effect: Sur­faces absorb heat and raise area tem­per­a­tures. Fur­ther, the preva­lence of heat-trap­ping sur­faces in a neigh­bor­hood cor­re­lates strong­ly with pover­ty and the pro­por­tion of peo­ple of color. As seen in the uneven destruc­tion wrought by [Hur­ri­cane] Kat­ri­na, a community’s resilience is often deter­mined by social priv­i­lege. Mar­gin­al pop­u­la­tions tend to lack insur­ance and be neglect­ed by emer­gency response and health­care systems. … The poor and peo­ple of col­or are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly threat­ened by poten­tial floods. Their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty is height­ened not only because of where they live, but also fac­tors like lim­it­ed Eng­lish abil­i­ty and lack of access to emer­gency transportation. … Extreme weath­er … could dras­ti­cal­ly increase ener­gy prices, mak­ing it hard­er for work­ing-class fam­i­lies to cov­er the cost of elec­tric­i­ty. Cli­mate volatil­i­ty could also lead to job loss­es in the farm­ing and tourism sectors.

Because of these dis­par­i­ties, envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice advo­cates insist that ​“invest­ments in social ser­vices, hous­ing and infra­struc­ture” are crit­i­cal to the cli­mate fight, Chen reports.

The rel­a­tive­ly mod­er­ate cli­mate bill Con­gress was con­sid­er­ing in 2009 (co-authored by Markey) nev­er passed. The next big fed­er­al cli­mate push only took off in Decem­ber 2018 — the Green New Deal. As Chris­tine Mac­Don­ald report­ed for InThe​se​Times​.com in Sep­tem­ber, sev­er­al lead­ing pres­i­den­tial con­tenders have put out detailed plans for how they’d use the Green New Deal to sup­port mar­gin­al­ized communities.

Cli­mate pol­i­cy has often been deter­mined by the wealthy and pow­er­ful — those who are caus­ing the cri­sis — and its record is one of fail­ure. It’s high time those who will be most affect­ed set the priorities.