Climate change and racism represent two of the most significant challenges of the 21st century, and they are deeply interconnected. A clear disparity exists between the contributors to climate change and those enduring its consequences. Contrary to common belief, it is NOT the melanated individuals in the Global South who will face the most severe impacts of the climate crisis.
Melanated is an adjective that means having or containing melanin, a pigment that gives color to skin, hair, and eyes, and even though their carbon footprints are generally very low climate change will adversely affect these populations but luckily they have indigenous ancient knowledge of building and farming practices that will give them an advantage over many so-called first world nations that are reliant on their food and mineral resources for survival.
With the effects of extreme temperatures there has also come a rise in xenophobic racist attacks against those perceived as cultural and ethnic others who don't belong in countries that have previously held a European or "Western" ethnic and racial majority. Colorism, social prejudice and vilification of immigrants is growing in these spaces exposing the deeply rooted fears people of European descent have of genetic displacement or annihilation as Dr. Frances Cress Welsing once described in her Essay "The Cress Theory of Color Confrontation."
The use of terms like "prejudice," "racism," and "colorism" in climate change discussions can be unsettling for some. Often perceived solely as an environmental issue, climate change is seen as a collective human challenge, not typically associated with racism. Heatwaves and rising mean temperatures present major health problems, especially for populations with limited physiological ability to withstand high temperatures and UV radiation. The vulnerabilities most prominent to populations without the protection of Eumelanin are susceptibility to Skin Cancers and Sun poisoning, photolysis, DNA damage and a decline in fertility and overall birth rates!
Eumelanin and pheomelanin are in the epidermis, which is one of the layers of the skin. By contrast, neuromelanin is present in the brain. It would take volumes of books to cover the extent of the importance of melanin as one of the key substances necessary to All life-forms in fact Europeans have been secretly studying it for over a century and until recently eumelanated people were not allowed entrance to the Melanin conferences! In fact, the next meeting of The European Society for Pigment Cell Research (ESPCR) will be held in Marseille (France), 15-18 October 2024. Organized by Heather Etchevers, Corine Bertolotto, S. Mallet, Thierry Passeron, M.A. Richard & Meri Tulic contact: espcr2024@sciencesconf.org
The following (26th) International Pigment Cell Conference (IPCC2026) will be organized by the ASPCR and will be held in New Delhi (India) on April 30 to May 3, 2026, at the Hotel the Ashok & Samrat Complex. Additional info at International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies IFPCS web site. Before the European Society for Pigment Cell Research (ESPCR) was founded, in Italy in 1985, a series of meetings were organized under the name of "European Workshops on Melanin Pigmentation" (EWMP): melanin had been studied in the USA for over 80 years prior to this date and there had been 5 previous annual meetings starting in 1978 in Lyon (France), 1979 London (UK),1981 Prague (Czech Rep).,1982 Edinburgh (Scotland UK),1984 Marseille (France),1985 Murcia (Spain).
It was precisely at the Murcia meeting, in 1985, where it was decided the creation of the ESPCR. This was done almost immediately after in Naples (Italy) and the ESPCR was registered officially there on December 11th, 1985, by Professors Giuseppe Prota, Patrick Riley and Natale Cascinelli, the founders of ESPCR. The initial legal text mentioned an end of the legal entity in 2000. The first ESPCR meeting was held in Sorrento (Italy) on October 11-14th, 1987. Recently, on June 23, 2009, the ESPCR society was officially registered in Belgium, as an international not-for-profit association.
Melanocytes produce melanin in the basal layer, the innermost layer of the epidermis. Keratinocytes transport this melanin to the skin's surface. Variations in skin pigmentation among individuals are attributed to the ratio of eumelanin to pheomelanin and the quantity of melanocytes. Pheomelanin gives the lips, nipples, vagina, and glans penis their pinkish hue. Different hair colors arise from varying amounts of different melanin types. Hair color can indicate the level of eumelanin in the body, and all organs contain melanin, which also forms the protective covering of sperm and ovum, initiating the birth process upon fertilization.
If your hair is black that signifies higher amounts of Eumelanin, brown is moderate amount, blonde hair signifies very little Eumelanin and red hair means you are primarily pheomelanin with very little Eumelanin. Melanin is a UV-absorbing agent and is able to protect the skin against the effects of UV light on the skin’s surface. It also offers protection against UVB and blue light. Eumelanin protects the skin from UV light, whereas pheomelanin does not. As a result, people with more pheomelanin, such as those with blond or red hair and light skin, are more likely to experience sun radiation damage. Melanin also has protective effects against reactive oxygen species (ROS). These are byproducts of cellular processes within the body. When there is an accumulation of ROS in the cells, they can cause cellular damage and stress. ROS has links to infertility aging, cancer, and diabetes. The production of excessive Reactive Oxygen Species causes Oxidative Stress which can lower fertility through lipid peroxidation, sperm DNA damage, and sperm/cell death.
Melanin is able to pick up ROS that form when UV light stimulates oxidative stress on the skin healthy nutrition and plentiful antioxidant ingestion aids in improving the bodies melanin content safely as tanning can cause some people to become at risk for skin cancer. Many Nordic countries are having anxiety over rapidly falling birth rates such as Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland and Finland and Norway. The total fertility rate (TFR) in Sweden is less than at 1.67 children per woman in 2021. The TFR in 2023 was 1.45, which is far below the replacement rate of 2.1 Sweden's TFR has hovered around 2 for decades but was boistered by immigrant births, which kept it close to replacement level and among Europe's highest. This has caused greater social problems as the ethnic and racial majority becomes threatened.
The newspapers in Sweden proclaimed in 2023 'Sweden as We Know It Is Dying" Sweden used to be seen as one of Europe's most welcoming countries for refugees. However, a right-wing conservative government coalition propped up by a far-right party is changing Sweden's migration policy and hardening its stance towards migrants and asylum seekers. Sweden used to have a reputation for treating refugees with relative generosity, something which the new Swedish government is aiming to change. Finland's birthrate in 2023 at 1.26 was the lowest in the country's history. The birth rate in Norway has been steadily declining since 2009. In 2018, the birth rate in Norway reached its lowest level in over three decades and has steadily been in decline since. The birthrate in Iceland has declined to 1.59 approximately ten births per thousand women. The adverse effect of Climate and Environmental Changes (CEC's) especially as it pertains to global demographic changes is prevalent!
More Importantly, the effects of CECs are ubiquitous, everywhere ranging from their effects on an individual's internal biology to their effects on a society's external systems such as we see occurring in the anti-immigrant sentiments of Europe and the West as a whole. Sexual maturation, fertility, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, lactation, and even menopause is affected by the climate changes shaping our collective world views.
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