We can forgo plastic straws, bring reusable bags to the store, and calculate our carbon footprint as much as we want--but these individual actions alone will not stop the rising CO2 levels and global warming that are perpetrated by the largest global corporations and governments. We have only nine years left to prevent irreversible, global life-threatening damage from climate change. Scientists have given us until 2030 to enact radical environmental protection measures. Our rapid development and consumption have destroyed the planet; we are approaching humanity’s maximum, a term used in geological time for the last time something happened at its greatest extent. We are currently causing and living in a catastrophic climate crisis which, if remains unchecked, will wipe out our future on this planet. The Earth, one day, will recover; however, we, and life as we know it, will not be part of that future. 

The early images of the climate change movement focused on environmental preservation, which while still critical to the biodiversity of the planet, shifts the attention away from the detriment that the human race has done to its own kind, and the social injustice that is the climate crisis. For many of us, the effects of the climate crisis may be a new experience, with warmer temperatures, stronger hurricanes, and a widespread pandemic that has wreaked havoc on everyone’s lives. But Black and Brown folks, disabled people, impoverished communities, and rural communities throughout the United States, and in previously colonized, resource pillaged countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, are already living through the effects of the climate crisis. The exploitation of their land and labor forces these communities into a deadly cycle that increases their exposure to climate hazards, in turn increasing their susceptibility to the damages caused by climate hazards, and leaving them with a decreased ability to cope with and recover from the damages. 

PHYSICAL LOCATIONS

VAE Pop Up Space, 120 S Wilmington St Raleigh, NC 27601

Dock 1053, 1053 E Whitaker Mill Rd, Raleigh, NC 27604

NAVIGATION

Home // Environmental Racism in NC // Carbon and Corporate Responsibility

North Carolina Introduction // Coastal Plains // Piedmont // Mountains

Current Trajectory // Equitable Futures // Exquisite Corpse // Artist Talk