Trump’s Fleeting Gesture in Louisiana Falls Far Short
The NAACP’s statement on flooding in Louisiana eloquently addresses the human rights issues at stake in the immediate impact of the floods and in the long term as climate change continues to accelerate. According to the statement,
“From inadequate protections against rising water in East Baton Rouge, to unsafe drinking water in Flint, to toxic coal fumes in Kansas City, African American communities are shouldering the worst of America’s abuse of the environment. These are matters of civil rights and human rights, and the NAACP is committed to righting these wrongs.”
President Obama will visit the affected areas on Tuesday, August 23. The President has signed a disaster declaration and provided federal aid to the area. His visit was delayed at the request of Governor John Bel Edwards, who was concerned about the considerable resources that would be diverted by a presidential visit at the height of the flooding.
Ignoring the Governor’s request that politicians not stop by for “photo-ops,” Presidential candidate Donald Trump visited the state for a few hours on Friday with an 18-wheeler of supplies. It may have been a savvy move for his sinking campaign, but it was a fleeting and hollow gesture given his continued denial of climate change and its human impacts. Last year, Trump claimed that climate change was a hoax created by the Chinese in order to gain a competitive trade advantage. He has offered no plan at all for averting the long term impacts of global warming, which promises more devastating weather events like those seen in Louisiana, jeopardizing human rights and civil rights and falling hardest on people of color. A truckload of supplies is more than welcome, but a truckload is just a truckload, and providing that alone trivializes the complex challenges that are at the core of these mounting disasters.
There is certainly much more that those on both sides of the political aisle can do to seriously address the issue of climate change. But by failing to even acknowledge the problem, Trump remains stuck at square one. Americans, and particularly communities of color, cannot afford a leader whose policy seems to be to run away from this issue.
For more details on the links between climate change and human rights, see the recent report of the UN Environment Programme. For information on how to help Louisiana flood victims, click here.