Facing Climate Gentrification, an Historic African American Community Outside Charleston, S.C., Embraces Conservation

After a river in Fiji continued to flood, an entire village relocated uphill 2 kilometers away. About two-thirds of the residents participated in this voluntary relocation, which proved effective when a strong cyclone hit the island. Government policies are making it easier for villages to relocate due to climate change; in fact, four have done so already. Balancing the people’s cultural connection to the land and the need to move can be tricky, but as people continue to be displaced, their responses could help inform other coastal communities around the world.

Working toward environmental justice takes organizing on the community level. In Detroit, the Women of Empowerment promote resilience against the adverse effects of climate change on the city’s east side by spearheading projects that range from legal cases to the installation of solar panels. The group also partners with local nonprofits like the Eastside Community Network and Heatwaves Housing and Health (HHH), to collect data that can inform climate-resilient city planning.

Residents in Vancouver, B.C.'s Chinatown have banded together to protect their neighborhood from gentrification. With collaboration and crowd-sourced activism ideas, young students and senior residents repeatedly knock down initiatives that would destroy the historic preservation and affordable housing in their community.

Project 1975: A Vietnamese Diaspora Commemoration Initiative is a public art installation to memorialize the Vietnamese who fought alongside U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War, as this group is often forgotten. The memorial tells stories from the perspective of the Vietnamese, highlighting the impact of war on families and communities.

A team of Western art conservationists trained a community in Tibet how to restore historic monasteries that were crumbling due to the effects of climate change. Over decades of restoration work, the team sparked a cultural renaissance in the region and is providing economic opportunities for women.

Through the Achieving Sustainability Through Education and Economic Development Solutions (ASEEDS) Creek Rangers program, teens and community leaders are raising awareness of the effects of climate change in their small Mississippi town. They’ve fixed their community’s drainage system to help mitigate floods that have impacted the area for years. While some people were skeptical of their efforts, they’ve been able to work with pastors and other people to show how climate change is already impacting them.

Discussing history can help communities heal from racial violence and trauma. Organizations like the Greater Bronzeville Action Plan, the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CCR19), and the Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention are helping the Bronzeville community heal from the violence of the twentieth century by promoting education and commemoration about events like the historic 1919 riots. Partnerships between organizations such as these raise the level of discourse surrounding issues of racial trauma, promoting long-term social healing.

Soil collection ceremonies offer a meaningful way to help cope with and create institutional memory of racial violence across the United States. The Equal Justice Initiative is working to keep the victims of lynching and racial violence alive in America’s collective memory by promoting a practice common across cultures—the collection of soil. Communities collect soil from sites of racially motivated killings into jars, which are then displayed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.

To cope with and combat gentrification, residents of Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood created a community garden called the Femme Fairy Garden, founded by Fempower. Community members come together every Sunday to tend to their plants and connect with their neighbors.

Community-oriented heat pump group-buying programs work together to secure discounts of 10–20% on heat pump installations. Organized by companies, nonprofits, and local governments, group-buying programs have led to participants saving thousands of dollars and more people participating in climate-forward development.