As a Black Environmentalist, I Wanted So Much More From COP26

 

In recent months, I have been astounded, in a good way, to see the rarest of sights in the celebrity wild: Divorced and otherwise uncoupled women over 35 living their best lives with new romances of their own. As she divorces Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, 40, appears to, indeed, be dating Pete Davidson—SNL star and Hollywood’s favorite seasonal boyfriend—who happens to be 12 years her junior. Kourtney Kardashian, 42, who has never been married but had a torturous on-and-off relationship with Scott Disick, is now crazy in love and engaged to rocker Travis Barker, who routinely showers her with extreme flowers. Their fellow goth couple friends, Megan Fox, 35, and Machine Gun Kelly, 31, are similarly subverting the usual trope. Following Fox’s split from ex-husband Brian Austin Green, she was the first to move on with a new, now highly public relationship with the rapper. In the case of Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis’s split after eight years together, she is the one globetrotting with a 27-year-old star: one Harry Styles.This shifting breakup narrative has put some famous men in the vulnerable position that famous women have long occupied: licking their wounds while their partners move on in very public fashion. See: Disick’s reported direct messages lamenting Kravis’s PDA spree. Nothing is more typical than a recently “free” man popping up on a beach vacation with a “new love.” But over the summer, it was Wilde who surfaced on a boat off the coast of Italy with Styles.

 

We’re accustomed to female celebrities having to take ownership of splits (Garner disclosing that she and Affleck were already separated when he got together with their nanny, for one), but male partners are now having to publicly process what happened (oh, the horror!). Austin Green was the one who revealed on his podcast last year that when Fox went to shoot a movie (with Kelly), she realized she wanted space from him. “I was shocked and I was upset about it, but I can’t be upset at her because she didn’t ask to feel that way,” he said. “It wasn’t a choice she made, that’s the way she honestly felt.” Fox, meanwhile, engaged in the traditionally male post-breakup ritual (see: Pitt’s domestic bliss-themed W spread with Jolie) of effusing about her new relationship in an interview, likening Kelly to her “twin flame.”During the summer of 2020, I pleaded with the broader environmental community to consider anti-racism in its advocacy for the planet. This plea, sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement, reverberated across the internet and into environmental organizations and curriculums worldwide. Environmental racism finally seemed to be at the top of the climate agenda after decades of advocacy by many.So when I was invited to my first COP26, I had high hopes for what was slated to be the “most inclusive COP ever.” COP is an annual climate conference, and this year 40,000 people (politicians, researchers, world leaders, and activists) descended upon Glasgow for its 26th year. I was granted a seat at the table with hard-to-come-by accreditation and passes, which I gained as a journalist for the media company Camp Presents. I was excited and honored to observe all that COP26 had to offer.

 

 

To set my expectations upon arrival in Glasgow, I asked Vic Barret, a Black Honduran-American climate activist, if COP is typically effective. “Well, there have been 26,” he said—and that speaks volumes. The goal of the gathering was unclear throughout my time there. I couldn’t help but wonder: Why have we had nearly 30 of these events when the goal should be immediate climate action? COP27 was already slated to be held in Egypt before COP26 began, signaling to me that perhaps not much progress would be made.Are any number of these women in the throes of midlife crises, as their husbands are expected to be? Maybe, and that’s entirely their business. Are their relationships mere rebounds? Does it matter? (It does not.) I don’t relish in anyone’s heartache—male, female, or across the gender spectrum—but I’m also not mad at seeing several women at or around 40—when Hollywood and some husbands tend to write them off and swap them out—getting another chance at love and not being particularly shy about it. Perhaps this is another step toward parity, or at least a long-overdue new tabloid narrative: Believe it or not, some women flourish post-breakup.My goal in Glasgow was to find out whether intersectional environmentalism was actually embedded into the climate conversation after the “racial awakening” of 2020. What would it ultimately mean for me to have a seat at this table as a Black environmentalist? And most important, I wanted to know: Could a conference truly pave the way for the immediate climate action we so desperately need?