New Books Network Selina Nwulu, "Black Climates: Notes on Race, Our Environment, and Visions for Equitable Futures" (Chatto & Windus, 2025)
Mar 11, 2026
Selina Nwulu, poet and writer focused on climate justice and author of Black Climates, reframes climate breakdown as rooted in colonial violence and racial injustice. She discusses centering Black British experiences, links between prisons, migration, disability and environmental harm, and the role of community care, land reclamation, and everyday visions of thriving.
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Blackness As A Lens On Climate Crisis
- Selina Nwulu frames Blackness as a lens to read the climate crisis, arguing it reveals connections between colonial violence, exploitation, and environmental disconnection.
- She situates the book in the UK diaspora experience and says the crisis is about how we devalue each other and the living world.
Use Diaspora Perspective To Translate Climate Knowledge
- Center diaspora perspectives because they straddle cultures and can translate climate injustices between contexts.
- Nwulu uses her British‑Nigerian position to argue Black diasporic knowledge is an untapped resource for holistic solutions.
Bring Climate Discussion Home To UK Realities
- Nwulu centers UK Black communities to make climate discussion locally relevant, noting UK vulnerabilities like heatwaves and projected water stress in cities by 2040.
- She stresses policy gaps and asks plainly, What's the plan?
