Ahead of this week’s Global Climate Action Summit, 18 foundation leaders have stepped up in support of forests, rights, and lands for climate. In his essay on Trust.org, Darren Walker explains why this matters.

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Published in Trust.org

The twin crises no one can avoid—or allow to continue

By Darren Walker

Too often we talk about climate change and inequality as though they were separate issues. When we talk about climate change, our conversations tend to focus on the earth’s systems—rising temperatures and sea levels and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—and the megastorms they produce, like hurricanes and even the wildfires still raging in California.

When we talk about inequality, our focus is typically on social and economic concerns like poverty, jobs, and the cost of living.

But whether we debate particles of carbon per million, or the widening gap between rich and poor and inequalities based on race, gender, physical ability, citizenship and migration status, these global crises are actually the same conversation. To make progress, we must see them as inextricably linked.