Black Businesses Stress the Benefits of Reversing Climate Change

U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., which represents representing nearly 250,000 small businesses, recently met to address the long-term health and economic benefits of reversing climate change to African Americans.

The meeting, held at Coppin State University in Baltimore, was designed to rally support for President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

Speakers at the event included Ben Jealous, chair of the Southern Engagement Foundation and former president and CEO of the national NAACP and Rev. Barry K. Hargrove, pastor of the Prince of Peace Baptist Church, who spoke passionately about environmental justice and “going green.”

“Environmental concerns are not abstractions for African Americans,” Jealous said. “They are real, they affect us in very real ways, and they are getting worse.”

Jealous continued “We have a responsibility to act now as if everything depends on this, because it does. From jobs, to business owners, to our families and children, climate change is hurting our communities.”

The stakes are high for African Americans, as nearly 40 percent of the six million Americans living close to coal-fired power plants are people of color, and are disproportionately African Americans.

Studies have shown such plants are responsible for thousands of premature deaths, higher risks of asthma attacks and other respiratory diseases, and hundreds of thousands of missed work and school days. Obama’s Clean Power Plan is set to cut carbon pollution nationwide by 32 percent within 15 years, prevent up to 3,600 premature deaths, 1,700 heart attacks, 90,000 childhood asthma attacks and 300,000 missed school or work days, But according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency health scientists.

The U.S. Black Chambers exists to support efforts to strengthen the Black community, and this includes a commitment to President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and to a green economy,” said Ron Busby, Sr., president and CEO, U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. “As we gain greater fluency in green technology, we can rise in the public discourse, as we must. Only then can we ensure healthier and better economic futures for African Americans across the country.”

U.S. Black Chambers climate change discussions will also be held in Austin in Austin and St. Louis.

These important conversations will continue into 2016.