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Photo by Keecha Harris for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Ensuring a Healthy U.S. Democracy in the Face of Extreme Weather Events
Funders, climate experts, and structural democracy reformers gathered to identify resources to guide funding for tools organizers, policy makers, and communities need to anticipate and cope with climate-related shocks.
Because U.S. democratic institutions tie voting systems and political power to fixed districts, managing highly mobile populations with rapidly shifting needs is challenging. So, when climate disasters strike, affected communities bear both the brunt of physical destruction and the long-term destabilization of their political agency. Regions devastated by climate disasters often see disruptions in voting patterns, organizing efforts, and resource distribution.
And, as a result of historical segregation and redlining, both formal and informal, climate impacts disproportionately affect people of color and low-income people concentrated in high-climate-risk communities, exacerbating existing inequities.
Read more in Candid Insights.