Residents walk past a house damaged by Hurricane John in Coyuca de Benitez, Guerrero state, Mexico. Photo by AP/Felix Marquez

Black Co-ops & Communities Under the Weight of Climate Change (Global)

The earth is getting hotter with no end in sight as the past ten years remain the warmest years on record. With warmer temperatures come stronger and deadlier hurricanes. This year's Atlantic Hurricane season has already directly killed 326 people. And just this month two back-to-back major hurricanes, Helene and Milton, ripped through the Gulf of Mexico leaving over 240 dead in the US. Simultaneously along the Pacific, Hurricane John hit the Afro-Mexican region of Guerrero in Mexico twice, leaving 17 dead from flooding and landslides. The region received the equivalent of 80% of its annual rainfall in just 4 days.

Our partners at AfroResistance co-sponsored an Afro-Mexican reproductive justice convening in Guerrero, organized by the group Mano Amiga, that was scheduled to take place at the time that Hurricane John hit. The event was canceled due to the landslides, devastation, and death as organizers switched gears to providing mutual aid to their neighbors. And like Black New Orleans’ experience of Hurricane Katrina, Afro Mexicans in Guerrero are already getting notified that the entire community needs to permanently evacuate, even as private real estate developers court local governments for access to the area's waterfront beaches. If you want to support Mano Amiga’s recovery efforts in Guerrero and keep Afro Mexicans in their communities, DONATE to AfroResistance.

Meanwhile, the climate crisis has created a livelihood crisis for cocoa farmers and chocolate makers as cocoa harvests crash due to rain-induced fungal diseases. Almost half of the world’s cocoa (the bean used to make chocolate) comes from West Africa, which has seen an almost 50% drop in production over the years due to climate change, while Brazil has lost 75% of its cocoa crops. According to Collective Diaspora steering committee member Gillian Goddard of both the Alliance of Rural Communities of Trinidad and Tobago and the Cross Atlantic Chocolate Collective, Trinidad saw up to an 80% drop in 2021 and 2022 with some rebound in 2023 but not back to normal. Declines are being reported everywhere cocoa is grown with steep price hikes expected in the coming months as a result. Higher costs and lower crop yields are expected to be disastrous for cocoa farmers, who are primarily Black (whether they’re in Africa - where over 70% of the world’s cocoa is grown, the Caribbean, or Central and South America). It will also be disastrous for their communities and nations like Ghana and Ivory Coast where cocoa farming is a major player in the economy.