Toward Environmental Justice for All: Addressing Race, Poverty and Pollution
DETROIT, November 9, 2011 - The Fourth National PolicyLink Equity Summit 2011: Healthy Communities, Strong Regions, A Prosperous America opened on Monday in Detroit. This afternoon, I will be speaking on a panel entitled “Tackling Poverty and Pollution: New Directions in Environmental Justice” from 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. The afternoon panel will explore some of the promising strategies communities across the country are using to build successful alliances, develop foresighted agendas, and secure policy wins. Many of the strategies, milestones, and trends detailed in my talk are gleaned from my latest book, Environmental Health and Racial Equity in the United States: Building Environmentally Just, Sustainable, and Livable Communities (APHA Press 2011), a project sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
New Book - Discussion and Signing at Texas Southern University
I will discuss and sign my latest book, Environmental Health and Racial Equity: Building Environmentally Just, Sustainable, and Livable Communities, from 5:00pm – 8:00pm, Thursday November 17, 2011, Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas.This new book, my sixteenth written over the past two decades, is published by American Public Health Association and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. It examines the relationship between a community’s physical environment and health burdens through a racial equity lens. People of color and those with lower income and lower wealth have long borne an unequal burden of environmental health threats in the United States compared to the general population. The poorest of the poor within the United States have the worst health and live in the most degraded environments. One of the most important indicators of an individual’s health is one’s street address or neighborhood. Residents who live on the “wrong side of the tracks” are subjected to elevated environmental health threats. This new book captures the current state of the environmental justice movement and its work around health and racial equity over the past 25 years. While mounting grassroots mobilization efforts over the past three decades has resulted in protective new laws and regulations, people of color neighborhoods continue to serve as “dumping grounds” for polluting facilities, making them more vulnerable to all kinds of health threats and exacerbating disparities.
Environmental Justice Encuentro Comes to Houston
HOUSTON, May 17, 2012 –The Environmental Justice Encuentro opened today in Houston and runs thru Saturday May19. The event is held at the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University, a historically black college and university (HBCU) whose history is intertwined with the quest for racial justice. Given TSU's history and mission as a "special purpose university for urban programming," the BJML School of Public Affairs is embarking on a new initiative to lead the way in research, policy, and community engagement work in the areas of environmental justice, public health, housing, transportation, land-use planning, regional equity, smart growth, sustainability, equitable development, food security, disasters, clean energy, climate, civil rights and human rights—all seen through a racial equity lens.
Principles of Environmental Justice Turn 21
It was twenty-one years ago today that the Principles of Environmental Justice were adopted on October 27, 1991 at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, held in Washington, DC. The EJ Summit, attended by well over 1,000 delegates, was probably the single most important event in the Environmental Justice Movement’s history.
Earth Day 2013: Call for Environmental Justice Milestones
This announcement is a national “Call for Environmental Justice Milestones” (2012-2013) to be released as part of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University (TSU) Earth Day 2013 celebration. Submissions will need to include hyperlinks.
