Community-powered solutions to the climate crisis | Rahwa Ghirmatzion and Zelalem Adefris

26,821 views ・ 2021-02-10

TED


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Transcriber: TED Translators Admin Reviewer: Mirjana Čutura
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Don Cheadle: Home.
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It's where we celebrate our triumphs,
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make our memories and confront our challenges.
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And these days there are plenty of those.
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An historic pandemic, wildfires, floods and hurricanes
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all threaten our basic safety.
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These challenges hit even harder
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in communities that have been cut out of equal opportunities.
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In the US, unfair and racist housing policies,
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called redlining,
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have for decades forced Black, brown, Indigenous and poor white families
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into areas rife with toxic chemicals that make people sick.
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They are surrounded by concrete that traps heat.
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Extreme temperatures demand more cooling,
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more money, more energy, more carbon.
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Our problems are interconnected.
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Imagine all we can do when we realize the solutions are too.
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At the Solutions Project,
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we've seen that some of the people most impacted by COVID-19,
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least likely to have a steady place to call home
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and most affected by the damage to our climate
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are already working on effective and scalable solutions.
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Take Buffalo and Miami,
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where affordable housing has become a community solution
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to the climate crisis.
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Rahwa Ghirmatzion: Buffalo, New York, is the third poorest city
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in the United States
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and sixth most segregated,
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but our people power is strong.
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Over the last 15 years, my organization, PUSH Buffalo,
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has been working with residents to build green affordable housing,
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deploy renewable energy
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and to grow the resilience and power in our communities.
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When we saw heating bills soar over the last decade,
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we organized to pass state policy,
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help small businesses
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and to put our people to work weatherizing homes.
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We responded with eco-landscaping and green infrastructure.
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When record rainfalls flooded our neighborhoods,
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we replaced the concrete that overwhelmed and made heat waves unbearable.
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Let us visit School 77,
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an 80,000-square-foot public school building
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that was closed and abandoned for nearly a decade.
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But PUSH Buffalo and the community
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transformed it into solar-powered, affordable senior apartments
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and a community center.
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This is what the community wanted.
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When private developers were eyeing that school building
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for high-end loft apartments,
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800 residents mobilized and came up with the plan.
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We became New York State's first community solar project
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and during the coronavirus pandemic, a volunteer-run Mutual Aid Hub.
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Zelalem Adefris: At Catalyst Miami and the Miami Climate Alliance,
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we work with dozens of other organizations
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to enact policies that provide safe housing
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and protect the climate.
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Here in Miami, we've seen a 400-percent increase in tidal flooding
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between 2006 and 2016
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and have seen 49 additional 90-degree days per year since 1970.
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We fought for the Miami Forever Bond to fund 400 million dollars
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for affordable housing and climate solutions.
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Yet every day, we continue to see luxury high-rise condos
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being built in our neighborhoods,
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adding more concrete and heat on the ground.
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Some of our members are taking matters into their own hands, literally.
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Conscious Contractors is a Grassroots Collective
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that formed during Hurricane Irma
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to protect, rebuild and beautify our communities,
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all while increasing energy efficiency.
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They don't think that anyone should have to choose
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between paying a high AC bill
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and living in a hot and moldy house that will worsen respiratory illnesses
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such as asthma or coronavirus.
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They fix problems at the source.
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Advocates across the country are holding their governments accountable
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to climate solutions that keep their communities in place.
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We need to push for more affordable housing,
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green infrastructure and flood protections
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because these are the solutions that solve many problems at once.
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DC: Climate change is the epic challenge of our lives,
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but we're confident we can solve it.
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Community leaders like Rahwa and Zelalem are already doing it.
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We can create the future we want,
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but getting there is going to take everyone contributing
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around the world, wherever we call home.
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