Foundation News

Opening comments by Dan Chu, Executive Director, Sierra Club Foundation at the Confluence Philanthropy Climate Solutions Summit

True, lasting, climate progress is measured not only by reductions in carbon, but also by how climate solutions can more fairly distribute wealth and jobs, and reduce the exploitation of natural resources and human labor to create a more equitable and just world for all.

As a member of the Confluence Philanthropy board, I am excited about its new mission statement:

To transform the practice of investing by aligning capital with our community’s values of sustainability, equity, and justice.

This mission statement recognizes that advancing social justice, environmental protection, and fundamental human rights are interrelated and must be the direct result of our investments and grantmaking.

This week has brought home for me why we must use such an intersectional approach. We are at the center of a societal maelstrom where systemic racism, fossil fuel dependence, and lack of universal access to health care is erasing human rights and wiping out countless lives.

How did we get here? In part, this has been the result of a worldwide throw-away economy, where forests, oceans, wetlands, grasslands, and people are ruthlessly extracted for raw materials and cheap labor in order to concentrate wealth for a few to have dominion over all others.

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change affect every human being on this planet. Yet, the death toll from storms, heatwaves, pollution, and contagions is much higher for communities of color and Tribal nations. Centuries of systemic racism have put these communities next to polluters and denied them access to affordable health care, clean water, or healthy food, and to protection from being beaten and murdered with impunity.

Today, we have a president who instinctively wields fear and hate to “divide and conquer.” Since the dawn of civilization, emperors, dictators, and colonists have always depended on the strategy of creating and pitting factions against each other to divide and conquer the masses. A sustained show of solidarity, embodied by peaceful protests, is what dictators fear the most.

Dictators know that undermining such solidarity makes each faction suspicious of each other and distracts them from unifying to confront the overlords. This systemic racism asserts that “some lives are worth a lot less than others,” “those that don’t look and think like you are a threat” and “you must close ranks to protect your own kind.”

The protests this week once again highlight the troubling reality that if you are a Black man in America, you are much more likely to be harassed, incarcerated, or killed by police (#BlackLivesMatter). If you are an Indigenous woman, you are up to 10 times more likely to be murdered, often by transient oil and gas workers (#MMIW Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women). If you are Latino, Muslim, Asian, or (fill in the blank), you are increasingly targeted as un-American and an “other” who is not welcome. The fabric of our society is torn apart when aggressors are “above the law” and when we have a president who asserts that he could shoot someone in broad day light and have full immunity.

The antidote to such division is solidarity – born from love, compassion, and courage.

Let’s learn from each other to ensure that our investments do not perpetuate the domination of a few over all others. How can we all shift trillions of dollars toward the arc of racial and economic justice? Can we contribute toward the healing of the deep social wounds exposed by the climate crisis and COVID-19? When we invest in technology companies that reduce waste and carbon emissions, are we also ensuring those companies are led by people of color? Do they create economic opportunity, quality jobs, and reduce pollution in distressed communities? Do clean energy projects on Tribal lands strengthen the Tribe as a sovereign nation? Is the bank that services you committed to not financing fossil fuel projects? What social justice indicators can we integrate into conducting due diligence on climate solution investments?

The Sierra Club Foundation is grateful to be an active member of Confluence Philanthropy’s Climate Solutions Collaborative. It is a living, breathing, interdependent entity that thrives when we all come together with shared values, creative solutions, and a deep commitment to justice as we address the universal challenge of the climate crisis. By doing so, we can use this universal challenge as an opportunity to transform our world from an extractive to a generative economy for all living beings.