Environmental Justice Blog

 

OK Fellow EJ supporters and critics, I just arrived in New York City 2 hours ago from my hometown of Chicago, IL for the Climate Justice Conference that is being sponsored by Peggy Shepard’s EJ group, WeACT.  Peggy is one of the most if not the most recognized EJ “grassroots” activist in the field.  She has been rightfully  recognized by both the McArthur and Rockefeller foundations for her role in advancing EJ in NY. 

A little aside here is that the conference is taking place a little more than  a week after my homeboy’s , Barack Obama’s,  presidential inaugural speech. 

We should all know by now that President Obama  has  made it  very clear that his administration is committed to the environment.

The timing is fantastic for this new “environmental” administration and I hope that the presentations will be informative and constructive for a lot of reasons…

The EJ movement, as I have stated in all of my books and publications, has not been as successful as other movements in the United States because it has failed to produce federal legislation and policies that has the teeth or enough teeth to make an impact during its 27 years (for the modern EJ movement).

A few years ago (August 2006)  as a brand new senator from Illinois , President Obama  sent a letter of support for  my EJ proposal (dealing with power relations, sustainable communities and black elected leadership) to the NSF—

Senator Obama provided a letter of  a strong endorsement and I was deeply impressed by his support of EJ studies.

—so I do believe that he has a commitment to EJ (at least in theory).

Despite his eloquent endorsement, NSF turned down the proposal ;  and amazingly the idea started popping up everywhere in the environmental academic and policy circles…hmmm… maybe that idea got passed along in one of those sexy internet chat rooms that some of those guys were recently caught visiting on their cushy jobs supported by tax payers dollars….just kidding !!

Sorry for this digression anyhow…

I flew in on my birthday, January 28th  from Chicago and arrived just after midnight. 

Why?

I did this  because I believe that this conference  is going to be one of the most critical  and possibly a “watershed” forum son environmental justice and climate change and could provide policy guidance for President Obama’s environmental programs.

The worst outcome will be that this will simply become a forum to make EJ superstars for folks and the EJ communities who need the help will continue to suffer from EJ trickle down economics.

It is too bad from a Chicagoan’s perspective (mine especially) that the conference organizers didn’t invite African American EJ groups along with the Hispanic/Latino EJ group, LVEJO from the Chicago metropolitan area.

LVEJO is the darling of the ivory towers in Chicago because as several professors and leaders of environmental organizations have blatantly  informed me and their students …

Their emphasis for environmental justice  in Chicago is intentionally focused on Hispanics. 

For African American  and poor white EJ communities in Chicago and the Chicago suburbs… it appears to be Environmental “JUST US” at least in terms of institutional support on the same level as LVEJO and now even for participation in a major national EJ  conference like this one.

Now that isn’t just is it? 

For the last ten years African American EJ activists and communities in Chicago have personally complained to me and others who are engaged in the field  and who will listen to them…that they have been grossly slighted by EJ leadership in the USA. 

Peggy Shepard has lined up an array of impressive  environmental politicos, intellectuals and activists for the conference…including the President Barack’s new African American female appointee  to lead the EPA, Lisa Jackson.

Check out the conference website for the list of speakers at :

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001jENKcWifcgrNuM-CokIGi7WaCeSpPtg1AsjDu041N6GW3IGYM-o3bfLH-sl9uhaMYOEADS_-Jr995AvBzCG580pfu0os19ywhM3y-5sE1r4%3D

Registration is now closed for the conference but you can look at the topics being presented by a link  to a pdf file on this site.

I will be sending images and comments on all of the forums that I will attend . 

My goal during this conference is to provide an objective overview of what is taking place and of course to get some feedback from you …. which might appear in the Environmental Justice journal !!

 In the meantime send me your comments and questions that you might want me to ask on your behalf while I’m here.

Peace,  Whole-Health and Sustainable Prosperity

Sylvia

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 1:03 AM and is filed under Environmental Conference, Environmental Justice Conferences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.