Abolish Climate Disasters |
Storm ravaged house, Oregon Coast. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
“Under racial capitalism, land is treated as nothing more than a natural resource to be extracted, and violence is committed against the climate and the waters,” said Leah Penniman, who runs Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York and is the author of the acclaimed book Farming While Black.
Penniman’s words have been echoing in my mind since January 8, 2025, when I awoke to find myself on the floor of a cramped hotel room in Southern California where I had evacuated, escaping the Eaton Fire. My multigenerational family—parents, kids, and cat—fled our home the night before as ferocious Santa Ana winds whipped around us, threatening power lines and fueling a firestorm that sailed down the San Gabriel Mountains, miles into densely inhabited areas, burning down houses within two blocks of my home.
In my quarter of a century of living here, the fires never came so close, and they never raged in early January. The Eaton Fire is part of a conglomeration of wildfires across Southern California racking up more than a quarter of a trillion dollars’ worth of damage.
Three days after the fires started on January 7, I returned to my north Pasadena home, a structure covered by ash and soot on the outside, but well-sealed on the inside; Los Angeles sheriffs had barricaded all streets entering Altadena. Local authorities had requested National Guard forces to join them, ostensibly to deter “looters,” and prevent homeowners from returning to the toxic ashes of their former homes.
I found myself on the front lines of the world Penniman described in the conversation I had with her a year ago, one of 12 such conversations I had with leaders, thinkers, academics, and activists who describe themselves as “abolitionists.” The conversations are gathered together in my new book, Talking About Abolition: A Police-Free World is Possible (Seven Stories Press) released on January 14, exactly one week after the most........