Environment is Black and White « It’s Getting Hot In Here

Environment is Black and White

Published by Shadia Wood, July 19th, 2007 Climate Justice

EJCC steering committee member, Robert Bullard, interviewed with CNN this past Tuesday, around the issue of environmental racism and the fight for environmental justice. Bullard says, and I very much agree that, “Just because you’re poor, just because you live physically on the wrong ’side of the track’ doesn’t mean that you should be dumped on.”

It is time that we dismantle this racism starting with ourselves, starting with our campaigns that we so passionately pour our hearts into, starting with the candidates and legislation that we push for. Everything starts at home and moves outward.

To read this article click here…

2 Responses to “Environment is Black and White”

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1 Matt Maiorana Jul 19th, 2007 at 10:04 pm

Grist had an excellent piece on this back in May: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/5/19/154942/683

As with most Grist stories, the title does an excellent job of summarizing: “The unbearable whiteness of green.”

It poses hard questions: Is there a place in environmentalism for the poor and neglected? Are we an eco-elite?

I’m not sure I know the answers - but I do know there is a lot we could be doing better.
2 mattreitman Jul 25th, 2007 at 8:44 pm

this is good stuff. folks are waking up.

About Shadia

Shadia began at age seven as an advocate for justice and the environment, in an eight year campaign to pass state legislation that, without it, was responsible for cancer clusters and deaths that existed in her community. In response to her efforts she has received the Yoshiyama Award from the Hitachi Foundation, and the Brower Youth Award from the Earth Island Institute. At age fifteen, She attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development, joining the youth energy caucus' efforts to create the Official Global Youth Energy Policy Statement. Months later, Shadia attended the Second National People of Color Summit and there she helped create the Environmental Justice Youth Platform. She is a member of the Environmental Justice Climate Coalition Youth Committee and is on the Kids Against Pollution National Board of Trustees. Shadia graduated from West Canada Valley High School in 2005, where she then took two years off before entering a career in higher education to work as a leader in the Global Youth Climate Movement. She finished working for the EJCC as the youngest Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator in the Energy Action Coalition, in October 2007. She is currently attending American University of Beirut, studying Arabic and Communications.