Over 100 economists penned the following letter published by The Guardian to sound the alarm on the danger of continuing to function in a carbon economy. Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz, Mariana Mazzucato, and many others expressed the urgent need to leave behind the industries that disproportionately harm communities of color – including making them more vulnerable to COVID-19 – and offers a path forward.
From deep-rooted racism to the Covid-19 pandemic, from extreme inequality to ecological collapse, our world is facing dire and deeply interconnected emergencies. But as much as the present moment painfully underscores the weaknesses of our economic system, it also gives us the rare opportunity to reimagine it. As we seek to rebuild our world, we can and must end the carbon economy.
Even as climate breakdown looms around the corner, the pressure to return to the old carbon-based economy is real – and all the more dangerous, given the fundamental instability of an economy rooted in injustice. Sources of large-scale human suffering, such as crop failures, water shortages, rising tides, wildfires, severe weather, forced migration and pandemics, go hand-in-hand with a warming world. For example, exposure to airborne pollution heightens the risk of complications from diseases like Covid-19, and deforestation and rising temperatures make the emergence of future infectious diseases more likely. When these consequences manifest, it is no accident that they are disproportionately felt by communities of color, low-income communities, the most vulnerable nations and peoples, and other historically marginalized groups.
Communities in Partnership, in Durham, North Carolina, uses a “community-rooted” approach to its work that leverages community residents’ expertise and resources, as an alternative to “community-based” organizations that can marginalize community voice, limit 
When asked to describe James Baldwin’s work, Maya Angelou said, “James Baldwin was born for truth. It called upon him to tell it on the mountains, to preach it in Harlem, to sing it on the Left Bank in Paris. His honesty and courage would lead him to see truth and to write truth in poetry, drama, fiction, and essay. He was a giant.” One of the subjects Baldwin was especially truthful about was his struggle with his faith in God, which is expressed in the following poem
Quality & Equality is a consulting firm based in the UK whose mission is to teach senior leaders how to use, “Organisation Development processes and frameworks to build the type of organisation that will last in what they have to offer, to help them ensure that the internal capacity and human systems of their organisation are robust enough to support its strategic ambitions.”
Ezra Klein interviews Bryan Stevenson on his podcast to discuss “What would it take for America to heal?” Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a clinical professor at the New York University School of Law, a MacArthur “genius,” and the author of the remarkable book Just Mercy — which was recently turned into a feature film where Stevenson was played by Michael B. Jordan.
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