GLOSSARY
Black Climate Mandate - by outlining the urgency and need for every community to take action before we are locked into 1.5℃ climate change and its devastating and deadly impacts on Black lives, this mandate calls for dismantling the status quo, providing climate reparations, and investing NGO and government resources
in transformative climate-change strategies and alternatives that protect and defend all
Black lives. This document was built to protect not only Black communities, but all communities in the U.S. and Global Black Diaspora. Read more about the 9 pillars here.
climate - the average measurements of temperature, wind, humidity, snow, and rain in a place over the course of years. Climate is like the weather, but over a long time.
climate change - A change in the state or variability of the climate. Climate change is identified by variability in climate properties that persists for a prolonged period and can be identified through statistical tests. Climate change may be caused by natural internal processes or by external forces, such as volcanic eruptions or persistent anthropogenic actions.
climate justice - the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
disproportionate - uneven or out of balance with something in terms of size, ratio, degree, or extent.
According to the EPA: "the most severe harms from climate change fall disproportionately upon underserved communities who are least able to prepare for, and recover from, heat waves, poor air quality, flooding, and other impacts."
emissions (carbon) - the production and discharge of something. in the case of the green heart challenge, we're mainly talking about carbon emissions which stem from the burning of fossil fuels, among other things.
- sources - carbon emissions occur because of many common actions taken by humans. some of the most common sources are agriculture, transportation, electric power, industry, commercial & residential.
- sinks - anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.
environmental justice - a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.
food desert - an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food.
greenhouse effect - The gaseous component of the atmosphere, which may be natural or anthropogenic. Greenhouse gases absorb and emit radiation, which causes the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases are:
Water vapour (H2O)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Nitrous oxide (N2O)
Methane (CH4)
Ozone (O3)
infrastructure - the physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g. buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society, enterprise, or in the case of the Green Heart Challenge, climate solutions.
planeteer elements - fire, earth, water, wind and heart.
read more about how the elements categorize climate solutions in the planeteer community.
renewable - resource is not depleted when used.
renewable resources - resources whose supply is not finite and is not depleted when used, ie: water, wind, or solar power.
non-renewable resources - resources whose supply is finite and is depleted when used, ie: gas, coal, or oil.
sequester (ie: carbon sequestration) - the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
weather - the state of the atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness.
additional tools and resources