affirmative action

Opinion: The Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling puts climate progress and leadership in peril

This radical reversal of social equity scaffolding poses a monumental challenge for environmental and climate justice.

As the world response to the climate crisis remains ‘pitiful,’ the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has overturned affirmative action, representing the latest casualty to social equity and climate justice progress.


This win for white mediocrity, conjured-up grievances and structural racism granted by SCOTUS — an institution that seems to exist primarily to protect the rich and preserve unbridled capitalism, both of which co-constitute as the root cause of planetary destruction — is a huge loss for climate justice. SCOTUS is also an arguably fascist, undemocratic, deeply corrupt, pro-corporate (yes, including the liberal justices) and destructively neoliberal institution incompatible with modern democracy.

Radical reversal of social equity

This decision reverses the very modest movement, brought through affirmative action, toward racial equity in higher education in the United States. It bans consideration of race in college admissions, except when considering it to recruit racialized minorities as fodder for American imperial violence in the military (another destructive institution through its direct violence and outrageous climate contributions).

As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson poetically puts in her dissent: “Racial diversity in higher education is only worth potentially preserving insofar as it might be needed to prepare Black Americans and other underrepresented minorities for success in the bunker, not the boardroom.”

Of course, in yet another death of irony moment, the historical affirmative action for white people, which has been the core of this settler colonial nation through legacy admissions and donor affiliations, was unquestioned.

This radical reversal of social equity scaffolding poses a monumental challenge for environmental and climate justice, especially from a leadership perspective. Historically marginalized Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) communities face some of the biggest climate and environmental injustices across the social and structural determinants of health spectrum.

Despite overwhelmingly disproportionate racial and health inequities stemming from the climate crisis borne by BIPOC communities and repeated calls for diverse leadership in the environmental justice movement, the challenge of centering the voices of those at the margins in decision-making leadership capacity remains a stain on the environmental justice movement. For instance, BIPOC leaders represent only 20% of environmental organizational heads and constitute less than a quarter of their board memberships. These statistics are equally egregious within universities, including environmental health sciences and public health, where 80% of full professors are white compared with just 3% identifying as Black. Of course, it is critical to think about these challenges within the broader elitist context of academia, where nearly 80% of the faculty come from 20% of the elite institutions. For instance, at my alma mater and one of my current affiliations, Harvard University — an institution that defines the elite hubris, coloniality of knowledge and monopoly over knowledge systems — a shameful 1.2% of tenured faculty are those who identify as Black females (I believe the data was collected on sex and not gender). This is where we stood with affirmative action. Let that sink in. The SCOTUS decision is bound to make this exponentially worse.

Beyond diversity

Diversity, beyond performative checkboxes that only serve to placate liberal impulses without material changes, is not the outcome of affirmative action. It allows for a pluralistic worldview, leading to equitable policies and programs, inclusive decision-making and progress on our climate and environmental justice journey. Diversity is not a metaphorical aspiration. It is a material commitment of any egalitarian society committed to ensuring ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ for all its citizens — especially within the climate injustices context.

Platitudes and policy crumbs such as the ones served by the current administration remain grossly insufficient to meet the enormous challenges of racial equity and climate leadership, an issue the Biden administration has grossly fallen short of. Of course, solutions, with their pros and cons — some with many — exist, such as adversity scores, supporting HBCUs and learning from institutes where race-conscious decisions had been banned, among others. However, in this deregulatory ‘free-market’ fantasy, the onus is left on the individual higher education institutions: corporate entities interested in the bottom line with a storied history of being on the wrong side of history.

The time for cruel indifference, platitudes and the delusions of an apolitical, secular society is over. Time for fetishizing bipartisanship as some moral virtue is over. It is time to shed the reductive politics of always having to pick the ‘lesser evil’ and the leaders who profess to care for climate justice but whose best pitch is ‘I am better than the abyss.’ I invite readers to think about what moral, political legitimacy is left if our litmus test is ‘at least I am not a fascist like those other guys’ — to deliver on the existential threat of climate change.

It is time to get past our inertia and remember that the path to fascism is paved by incremental injustices, one policy at a time. We must demand more and make our political and institutional leaders earn our support through actions that center social equity and will allow us to move toward climate solutions and justice representative of the vibrancy and plurality of human existence.

A woman wearing safety goggles, gloves and a face mask holds the sides of her goggles.
Credit: Andy Dean Photography/BigStock Photo ID: 362087353

CDC faces backlash for removing key public health data from its website

The CDC is under fire after abruptly removing crucial health data from its website, with top advisers demanding answers on why the information disappeared and when it will return.

Usha Lee McFarling reports for STAT.

Keep reading...Show less
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
Document with redacted sections blacked out.

Trump administration removes climate information from federal websites

The Trump administration has begun deleting climate science information from federal websites, raising concerns among scientists and watchdog groups about restricted access to critical data.

Bob Berwyn reports for Inside Climate News.

Keep reading...Show less
Surrounded by people, Donald Trump holds a printed document as he sits at a podium with the presidential seal.
Credit: Trump White House Archived

EPA employees face sudden job threats amid growing tensions

More than 1,100 Environmental Protection Agency employees were blindsided with emails warning of immediate termination, fueling fear and frustration within the agency.

Tracy J. Wholf reports for CBS News.

Keep reading...Show less
Offshore oil rig.

Trump's push for more drilling clashes with market realities

Despite Donald Trump's efforts to expand offshore drilling, oil companies are sitting on thousands of unused leases in the Gulf of Mexico due to high costs and an oversupply of crude.

Tristan Baurick reports for Grist and Verite News.

Keep reading...Show less
Offshore wind farm under cloudy skies.

Offshore wind industry faces uncertainty after new federal order

The U.S. offshore wind industry, which spans 40 states and supports thousands of jobs, faces potential setbacks after a new executive order halted lease approvals and federal permits for wind projects.

Trista Talton reports for Coastal Review.

Keep reading...Show less
Power plant equipment in a black-and-white photo.

Duke Energy pushes to weaken pollution rules on coal and greenhouse gases

Duke Energy and other utilities have asked the Trump administration to roll back Biden-era regulations on coal ash disposal and greenhouse gas emissions, arguing they are costly and unworkable.

Emily L. Mahoney reports for Tampa Bay Times.

Keep reading...Show less
Cup of coffee beside cardboard box of Oatly milk.

Oatly explores clean heat alternatives as food industry eyes decarbonization

Oatly is working to replace gas-fired boilers at its U.S. factories with electric heat pumps, highlighting the broader challenge food and beverage manufacturers face in reducing their reliance on fossil fuels for industrial heat.

Maria Gallucci reports for Canary Media.

Keep reading...Show less
From our Newsroom
wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

People  sitting in an outdoors table working on a big sign.

Op-ed: Why funding for the environmental justice movement must be anti-racist

We must prioritize minority-serving institutions, BIPOC-led organizations and researchers to lead environmental justice efforts.

joe biden

Biden finalizes long-awaited hydrogen tax credits ahead of Trump presidency

Responses to the new rules have been mixed, and environmental advocates worry that Trump could undermine them.

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Prisons, jails and detention centers are placed in locations where environmental hazards such as toxic landfills, floods and extreme heat are the norm.

Agents of Change in Environmental Justice logo

LISTEN: Reflections on the first five years of the Agents of Change program

The leadership team talks about what they’ve learned — and what lies ahead.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.