When people get discriminated against, they get hurt more by climate change. For example, Marquis is a Black man living in Cityville. Because of racism, he and his family couldn’t get good jobs. They were forced to live in a part of Cityville without a lot of resources. They couldn’t afford to live in a better part of the city.

Mostly white people lived in the parts of Cityville with the most resources. They decided they needed more energy to power the city. They decided to build a power plant. But they didn’t want the power plant built in the “nice” part of Cityville. So they decided to build it near where Marquis and his family live. They didn’t care about how it might hurt the people living there. They discriminated against people like Marquis and his family.

The power plant started to pollute the air around Marquis’ neighborhood. Marquis and his family started to get sick. Marquis got a disability, and lost his job. He couldn’t afford health care. He still couldn’t afford to leave his neighborhood. Marquis and his family got hurt by climate change because of discrimination. Racism, capitalism, and ableism all affected Marquis and his family.

The people in the world with the most power stay in power by using discrimination. They keep people from having good lives so they can make money from people’s pain. They hurt others so they can feel better about themselves.

These people in power treat the Earth the same way. They don’t care that the Earth is in pain from climate change. They care about making as much money as possible from the Earth’s resources, like water and gas. They care about owning land just so that other people can’t use that land. 

Hurting the Earth hurts all of us. But it especially hurts people who get discriminated against the most. That’s why understanding discrimination can help us understand why climate change is happening.