When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) unveiled his ambitious environmental agenda last week, he did not choose City Hall or the green meadows of Central Park as his backdrop.
By Seandra Pope, Keya Chatterjee, Danielle Hilton / On June 7th, 2016
It’s no secret that the climate movement, despite some recent successes, has its problems. Spoken by mostly white voices, our messages are sometimes out of touch with the priorities of frontline communities: the ethnic minorities and low-income people who unfairly absorb the health and economic costs of climate change and environmental pollution.
I was late for an appointment, sitting in traffic on one of the major arteries out of Washington DC. It was miserable, barely moving traffic of the kind that makes you whimper with frustration as yet another green light turns yellow, then red, as you inch along
Have you ever been to a community that was exposed to inland flooding, hurricane surge, and future sea level rise? A community that is exposed to such poor air quality that a 2005 Houston Chronicle report compared it to "sitting in traffic 24/7"? Welcome to the super neighborhoods of Manchester, Harrisburg, and Magnolia Park, adjacent to oil refineries and the Houston Ship Channel in East Houston, Texas.
The terrorist attacks that occurred in Paris on November 13 shattered the complacency of the French lifestyle. A few weeks later, a savage attack erupted in San Bernardino, California, further exposing the vulnerability of Western societies.