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Causes of Climate Change | Climate Literacy | PBS LearningMedia

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Find resources from a range of public media producers and curators that will help you learn and teach climate science literacy. The structure of this collection is based upon the Essential Principles of Climate Literacy. For more information on Climate Literacy, visit CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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The rate of change since the mid-20th century is unprecedented over millennia.

Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era - and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth's orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Credit: Luthi, D., et al.. 2008; Etheridge, D.M., et al. 2010; Vostok ice core data/J.R. Petit et al.; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record.) Find out more about ice cores (external site).

The current warming trend is different because it is clearly the result of human activities since the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia. It is undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped more of the Sun's energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.

Do scientists agree on climate change?

Yes, the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists - 97 percent - agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.

detailed answer

Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the world. These data, collected over many years, reveal the signs and patterns of a changing climate.

Scientists demonstrated the heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases in the mid-19th century. Many of the science instruments NASA uses to study our climate focus on how these gases affect the movement of infrared radiation through the atmosphere. From the measured impacts of increases in these gases, there is no question that increased greenhouse gas levels warm Earth in response.

"Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal."

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth's climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age. Carbon dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.

References

References
Header image shows clouds imitating mountains as the sun sets after midnight as seen from Denali's backcountry Unit 13 on June 14, 2019. Credit: NPS/Emily Mesner

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Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. How do we know it's happening? Here's the evidence.

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Climate change is THE existential question that humanity is facing. But are we too late? Has climate change reached the point of no return? Are we doomed?

TEACHERS: Get your students in the discussion on KQED Learn, a safe place for middle and high school students to investigate controversial topics and share their voices.
KQED Learn: https://learn.kqed.org/discussions/47

What's the state of climate change right now?
Since around 1880, the average global temperature of the earth has increased by 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. That increase is due almost entirely to humans burning fossil fuels, mostly from 1950 on. That might not sound like a big increase, but it is. It means sea level rise, shrinking polar ice caps, and increased extreme weather events like heat waves and monsoons.

That's why a hundred and ninety-plus countries signed onto the Paris Climate Agreement. The goal is to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius - or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit - by the end of this century. Many scientists say that staying under 1.5 puts us near the upper limit of what's tolerable. We'll have droughts, sea level rise, and extreme weather, but chances are we can manage it.

What does climate change look like in the future?
That's why we have the IPCC. The IPCC is part of the United Nations, and it stands for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It's been the world's top authority on climate science for the last 30 years. Thousands of climate scientists from around the world volunteer their time to analyze and summarize the latest and best climate science. According to these experts, if we keep burning fossil fuels like we are today, then we're blowing past 1.5 degrees of warming by 2100. We'll almost definitely hit 2 degrees, and might even reach 3 or even 4 degrees. That means longer and more intense heat waves. And stronger hurricanes and dangerous flooding.

How do we get climate change under control?
Let's start with transportation. 95% of the vehicles on the planet burn fossil fuels. They're responsible for almost ⅓ of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide! It might sound like a pipe-dream to replace those gas-guzzlers with electric vehicles, but it might not be. In the last decade and a half electric vehicles that don't have any pollution out of the tailpipe went from a dream to commonplace in places like California, China, Norway.

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Climate Change: How Doomed ARE We? | KQED

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Climate change is THE existential question that humanity is facing. But are we too late? Has climate change reached the point of no return? Are we doomed?

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Our Climate Our Future | Climate Education That Inspires.

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Our Climate Our Future is a collection of educational resources on climate science, justice, and solutions. Climate education that inspires.

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"I need you to understand that our racial inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis."

-Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

The work of 1% for the Planet doesn't start and end with planting more trees, cleaning our oceans, protecting wildlife, curbing carbon emissions or banning plastic straws.

The climate crisis is much more complex and intertwined with many injustices and social inequities. From food insecurity and hazardous pollution to crippling natural disasters, the negative impacts of the environmental crisis affect people of color at much higher rates than other communities.

At 1% for the Planet, we state our purpose plainly: We exist to ensure that our planet and future generations thrive. However, achieving this goal requires a multi-faceted approach that addresses both environmental and social justice.

We've outlined a list of nonprofit organizations that work at the pivotal intersection of race and the environment. These organizations work on a range of issues from food insecurity and urban agriculture, to representation in the outdoors and leadership in climate advocacy.

We're amplify the voices and grassroots organizations addressing injustices. While the list of supported nonprofits in our network continues to grow, we encourage you to committed to using our platform to refer any organization that works on social and environmental justice to join our network.

Nonprofits fighting for social & environmental justice

We recognize that we cannot solve the climate crisis without recognizing the disproportionate impact of environmental issues. Justice does not work unless it works for everyone. The nonprofit organizations outlined below work at a pivotal intersection: social and environmental justice.

National, Oakland, CA

Outdoor Afro celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. With 80 outdoor leaders in 30 states, the nonprofit is changing the face of conservation while connecting thousands of people with the outdoors each year. Last year, Outdoor Afro brought together the first ever all Black expedition team to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Regional, Minnesota, USA

MN350 brings Minnesotans together to unite against pollution and build a better future for generations to come. Sam Grant, the Executive Director of MN350, was among one of the first climate activists to call for the prosecution of the police offices implicated in the murder of George Floyd. The organization also provided food and first-aid care to Black Lives Matter protestors.

Local, Portland, OR

OPAL stands for "Organizing People, Activating Leaders," and this is exactly what the nonprofit is doing. Founded in 2006 by and for people of color and low income, OPAL is a grassroots-driven hub fighting for Environmental Justice for all. OPAL builds power for environmental justice and civil rights by creating meaningful opportunities for their members to be directly involved in the decisions impacting their communities.

National, Bay Area, CA

WeGotNext uses storytelling to inspire individuals and remove barriers from outdoor spaces to empower environmental advocates. The nonprofit passes the mic to historically underrepresented communities in outdoor and environmental spaces to share their stories of activism and outdoor adventure. These stories help others see themselves in nature and inspire more advocacy, activism, and adventure.

Regional, California, USA

Communities for a Better Environment is fighting to achieve environmental health and justice by building grassroots power in and with communities of color and working-class communities. CBE provides residents in highly polluted areas in California with organizing skills, leadership training, and a foundation in activism and advocacy.

Local, San Francisco, CA

Urban Sprouts is building healthy and thriving neighborhoods through community and garden-based education in San Francisco. The nonprofit is using food and food gardens to connect communities to nature in urban settings. Food gardens are used to provide school programming, nutritional education, job readiness programs, and more. The mission brings food and food- based education to 2,000 people per year.

Local, Harlem, NY

Located in the heart of Harlem, Harlem Grown is inspiring youth to lead healthy lives by providing mentorship, education, and hands-on experiences in urban farming. Harlem Grown operates with the goal of increasing access to and knowledge of healthy food for Harlem residents, all while providing engaging and educational garden-based development programs to Harlem youth.

Local, Los Angeles, CA

Ron Finley, "the Gangsta Gardner", grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where fresh food was hard to find. In 2010, he decided to address the problem by planting food along L.A. parkways. The city pushed back, but Ron pushed harder for his community to have the right to fresh food. Today, through the Ron Finley Project empowers others to not just plant fresh food for their communities, but to enjoy it, and make food and nutrition a community backbone.

National, Washington D.C, USA

LCVEF plays a major role in the environmental movement's effort to make progress in the climate fight, as well as fighting for land and water rights. The nonprofit strives to put environmental issues at the forefront of political action, and is inspiring communities to speak out against environmental injustices.

Local, St. Louis, MO

Urban Harvest STL empowers communities to cultivate equitable access to healthy, sustainably grown food and enhance biodiversity in cities. The organization grows produce in seven urban farms in the heart of St. Louis and donates the majority of the harvest to nonprofits and communities with limited or no access to fresh food.

Local, New York City, NY

Just Food supports community leaders to advocate for and increase access to healthy, locally-grown food, especially in underserved NYC neighborhoods. Each year, nearly a quarter million New Yorkers access fresh food in their neighborhood through Just Food's network of community food projects. The nonprofit also empowers youth to get involved through education and training programs inspiring youth activism and leadership.

Regional, New York City, NY

City Blossoms provides bilingual affordable after-school, in-school, and summer programming to predominantly Latino and African-American youth ranging from ages two through teens. City Blossoms serves neighborhoods in which children and youth may not otherwise have access to green space. Since 2009, the nonprofit has worked on 42 sites in Washington DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

Regional, Washington D.C, USA

Since its founding in 2001, City Slicker Farms has been at the forefront of sustainable urban farming and food justice, gaining national recognition as a leader in supporting low-income communities of color to grow food in the city. To date, City Slicker Farms has built over 400 backyard and community gardens, producing about 300,000 pounds of nutritious food while offering education to thousands of community members.

Local, Washington D.C, USA

The City Kids Wilderness Project, Inc. (City Kids) provides out-of-the-classroom education to underserved and at-risk youth in D.C.. Programs aim to prepare youth for adulthood, getting off on the right foot and ensuring that participants are ready to be active and connected community members.

International, Colorado, USA

Earth Guardians is empowering and training diverse youth to be effective leaders in the environmental, climate and social justice movements. To do this, they utilize the power of art, music, storytelling, civic engagement, and legal action. In learning these key skills, youth are able to step forward to dream up and implement solutions to some of the world's most pressing issues, starting in their own communities.

Local, Louisiana, USA

Louisiana Bucket Brigade uses grassroots action to hold the petrochemical industry and the government accountable for the true costs of pollution and bring light to the communities being impacted the most. By taking action, Louisiana Bucket Brigade fights to free neighborhoods from industrial pollution and hasten the transition from fossil fuels.

Regional, Oakland, CA

The Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment fights for a future where nature is protected, environmental justice is prioritized, and the people's rights are ensured. The nonprofit amplifies the voices of youth leaders in low-income communities and communities of color in Oakland, CA, so that they can become fierce advocates for the health of their communities.

Regional, New York City, NY

Teens for Food Justice is a youth-led movement with the goal of ending food insecurity and breaking the cycle of diet-related illness that impacts low-income communities, particularly those of color. TFFJ trains youth in hydroponic farming and growing and distributing fresh produce to food desert communities.

Local, San Diego, CA

Project New Village is committed to improving fresh food access in Southeastern San Diego and paving the way for healthy neighborhoods centered around social equity. To do this, PNV implements resident-led, community-rooted experiences that build stronger neighborhoods, improve the neighborhood food supply chain, and stimulate collective investment in better health and maximize the impact of investment to address social inequities.

International, London, UK

The Environmental Justice Foundation believes that environmental security is a human right. They're working with those on the frontlines of environmental destruction to investigate, document and expose environmental and human rights abuses.

International, Boulder, CO

Global Greengrants Fund is mobilizing resources for communities worldwide to protect our shared planet and work toward a more equitable world. The nonprofit puts environmental justice in the hands of those most affected by empowering frontline communities to take charge and resist the development of fossil fuels. The nonprofit focuses on women's rights, land and water rights, local action, and healthy ecosystems and communities.

National, British Columbia, Canada

RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs) raises legal defense funds to assist Indigenous Peoples who enforce their rights and title to protect their traditional territories. RAVEN hosts public education programs to collaborate with Indigenous communities and work toward eliminating environmental racism and foster a greater understanding of indigenous rights and governance.

Regional, Chicago, IL

Just Roots empowers communities to develop access to local, sustainably grown food. This organization achieves their mission through education, sustainable farming and community-building.
*Recently joined 1% for the Planet network as an approved nonprofit partner.

National, Southern USA

Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.) is a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing small farm land loss to ensure generational wealth and reducing hunger in rural low-income communities. The nonprofit assists farmers with retail market expansion to ensure future farm revenue and ensures quality service for participants.

Regional, Oakland, CA

Farms to Grow is a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with Black farmers and underserved sustainable farmers around the country. Farms to Grow is committed to sustainable farming and innovative agriculture practices which preserve cultural and biological diversity, the agro-ecological balance of the local environment.

Regional, Bay Area California, USA

The education program at Planting Justice activates people impacted by poverty and food injustice to create a more local and sustainable food system. By developing skills in ecological design, nutrition education, and multimedia arts, communities use urban gardens to connect with local and international struggles and movements for social justice.

Regional, Philadelphia, PA

Soil Generation is a regional network of Black farmers committed to using ecologically sustainable practices to manage land, grow food, and raise livestock that are healthy for people and the planet.

Local, Southside Chicago, IL

The Urban Growers Collective operates eight urban farms on 11 acres of land in Chicago's South Side and works with more than 33 partner organizations to create economic opportunity and boost healthy food access. Each farm uses organic methods and integrates education, leadership training, and food production.

National, Virginia, USA

The National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) represents African American farmers and their families in the United States. NBFA's education and advocacy efforts focus on civil rights, land retention, access to public and private loans, education and agricultural training, and rural economic development for black and other small farmers.

Regional, Black Belt, Southern USA

The Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund is a multidisciplinary, cooperative nonprofit ecosystem rooted in Black eco-cultural traditions and textile arts to regenerate custodial landownership, ecological stewardship, and food and fiber economies in the South.

Regional, Southeast Georgia, USA

New Communities is a grassroots organization that has worked for more than 40 years to empower African American families in Southwest Georgia and advocate for social justice. New Communities Inc. is long recognized as the first land trust organization in the US, is continuing to initiate the discussions around race equality, economic disparities and opportunities for small farmers.

International, Washington D.C, USA

Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural has served as a voice of African-American, American Indian, Asian-American, Euro-American and Latino farmers, farmworkers, and rural communities in the US, as well as indigenous and campesino groups in Mexico and beyond for 40 years.

National, Washington D.C

Soul Trak Outdoors is a D.C. based nonprofit organization that connects communities of color to outdoor spaces while also building a coalition of diverse outdoor leaders. We run a variety of programming to serve hands-on, experiential programming.

Regional, Georgia, USA

The Greening Youth Foundation's (GYF) mission is to engage under-represented youth and young adults, while connecting them to the outdoors and careers in conservation. GYF's cultural based environmental education programing engages children from local communities and exposes them to healthy lifestyle choices in order to create an overall healthy community.

National, Vermont, USA

The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform supports diverse movement towards safe chemicals and clean energy that leaves no community or worker behind

Local, Baltimore, MD

Whitelock Community Farm is a vibrant open space that grows food and activates community to promote social equity in the neighborhood. We work to promote dialogue about food access, neighborhood development, and environmental justice.

Local, Berkeley, CA

Wanda teaches how to plant the seeds of wisdom necessary to build a sustainable and just future.

Regional, Texas, USA

Black Outside, Inc has one simple mission: Reconnect Black/ African-American youth to the outdoors through culturally relevant outdoor experiences

National, Washington, USA

Community to Community works to empower underrepresented peoples to have an equal voice in decision making processes, develop cross-cultural awareness, restore justice to food, land and cultural practices, promote community relationships toward self-reliance, work in solidarity with those that strive toward human rights for all and rescue the value of feminine intellect and leadership.

Regional, Seattle, WA

Got Green organizes for environmental, racial and economic justice as a South Seattle-based grassroots organization led by people of color. The organization cultivates multi-generational community leaders to be central voices in the green movement in order to ensure that the movement's benefits (green jobs, healthy food, energy efficient & healthy homes, public transit) reach low income communities and communities of color.

Regional, Los Angeles, CA

Nature for All aims to ensure that everyone in the Los Angeles area has equitable access to the wide range of benefits which nature provides. This organization builds support to protect, create access to our forests, rivers, and parks and developing a new diverse generation of environmental leaders and stewards who connect to and care for our public lands.

Local, Cleveland, OH

Rid-All Institute turned an empty and forgotten piece of land in Cleveland's Kinsman Neighborhood into an urban farm where they grow produce to bring healthy, local food to area institutions and citizens and train others on this work.

National, Washington D.C, USA

HEAL's mission is to build collective power to create food and farm systems that are healthy for our families, accessible and affordable for all communities, and fair to the hard-working people who grow, distribute, prepare, and serve our food - while protecting the air, water, and land we all depend on.

Local, New York, USA

Soul Fire Farm is a BIPOC-centered community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system.

Local, New Haven, CT

Gather New Haven promotes health, equity and justice for people and the environment by cultivating connections with each other and our local lands and waters and by inspiring us to care for ourselves, our community and the natural world.

Regional, Washington, USA

Communities of color, people with lower incomes, and indigenous people are on the frontlines of climate and environmental change-hit first by extraction, pollution, and climate change, which makes existing health and economic disparities worse. Front and Centered ensures these communities are included in the transition to a healthy, resilient and sustainable future.

Local, King County, WA

The Service Board (tSB) mentors teens to conquer personal and cultural challenges through outdoor adventure, environmental and social justice education, and public service.

National, Portland, OR

The Center for Diversity and the Environment harnesses the power of racial and ethnic diversity to transform the US environmental movement by developing leaders, catalyzing change within institutions, and building alliances.

International, Utah, USA

1% for the Planet member Alex Honnold started the Honnold Foundation to advance and increase the accessibility of solar energy. The foundation provides grants to organizations advancing solar energy. These organizations focus on environmental standards, social equity, and strong ties with the communities that they serve. The Honnold Foundation secures solar energy in communities around the world. Photo by Patrick Bentley, SolarAid.

Local, Richmond, Virginia

Blue Sky Fund is bringing youth living in urban areas to the outdoors through nature programming offered to students from elementary to high school. Programming is meant to engage students in a way that will help them succeed academically with a focus on science. Blue Sky Fund develops leadership and confidence with team activities, a strong support network, and exciting outdoor adventures.

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Nonprofits fighting for social & environmental justice

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"I need you to understand that our racial inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis." -Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson The work of 1% for the Planet doesn't start and end with planting more trees, cleaning our oceans, protecting wildlife, curbing carbon emissions or banning plastic straws.

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Climate Justice Alliance is challenging the extractive economy that is harming people and ecosystems

In these new times of political uncertainty, grassroots communities continue to lead the way forward.

About the Alliance

We envision a world in which fairness, equity and ecological rootedness are core values

Climate Justice Alliance members have won significant victories against polluting and extractive industries. We are building local alternatives that center traditional ecological and cultural knowledge and create a pathway for a regenerative future.

Our Power Campaign

As frontline communities, we pilot solutions and organize collectively to shut down the extractive economy

Climate Justice Alliance is amplifying the leadership of the original Our Power Communities while expanding to 70 communities in seven regions that are home to key grassroots groups. These groups organize to end the era of extreme energy and implement a Just Transition that promotes local control of resources (including energy, land, water, and food systems).

Meta-Strategies

Together, we are advancing bold, grounded and interlinked strategies across the country

Six meta-strategies undergird the Climate Justice Alliance projected vision through 2020, and will continue to influence the trajectory of alliance work.

WASHINGTON, DC -- This morning, President Biden announced a proposed new climate rule that would require most fossil fuel power plants to slash their greenhouse gas pollution 90 percent between 2035 and 2040 - or shut down. At face value, the rule looks to encourage...

Groups Propose Legislative Path That Rejects Manchin, Republican Ploys WASHINGTON- Climate Justice Alliance, along with more than 290 groups, urged President Biden and Congressional Democratic leaders today to take action and accelerate renewable energy, address...

Says Action Would Not Have Come Without Persistent Advocacy from Frontline Communities, Environmental Justice Movement as They Continue to Push for Coherent Climate Policy & an End to Fossil Fuels WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, President Biden signs the Revitalizing Our...

Groups Propose Legislative Path That Rejects Manchin, Republican Ploys WASHINGTON- Climate Justice Alliance, along with more than 290 groups, urged President Biden and Congressional Democratic leaders today to take action and accelerate renewable energy, address...

read more

Says Action Would Not Have Come Without Persistent Advocacy from Frontline Communities, Environmental Justice Movement as They Continue to Push for Coherent Climate Policy & an End to Fossil Fuels WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, President Biden signs the Revitalizing Our...

read more

On March 9, 2023, Dwaign Tyndal, Melissa Miles, Kirtrina Baxter, and Leah Humphrey, the Co-Chairs of Climate Justice Alliance's Black Caucus, released the following statement: "In the wake of the most recent clampdown on freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and...

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"Having an alliance of US frontline communities to strategically confront the existing tyranny of our country and present real solutions is needed right now."

- Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

Groups Propose Legislative Path That Rejects Manchin, Republican Ploys WASHINGTON- Climate Justice Alliance, along with more than 290 groups, urged President Biden and Congressional Democratic leaders today to take action and accelerate renewable energy, address...

read more

Says Action Would Not Have Come Without Persistent Advocacy from Frontline Communities, Environmental Justice Movement as They Continue to Push for Coherent Climate Policy & an End to Fossil Fuels WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, President Biden signs the Revitalizing Our...

read more

On March 9, 2023, Dwaign Tyndal, Melissa Miles, Kirtrina Baxter, and Leah Humphrey, the Co-Chairs of Climate Justice Alliance's Black Caucus, released the following statement: "In the wake of the most recent clampdown on freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and...

read more

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Climate Justice Alliance is challenging the extractive economy that is harming people and ecosystems In these new times of political uncertainty, grassroots communities continue to lead the way forward. About the Alliance Climate Justice Alliance members have won significant victories against polluting and extractive industries.

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Environmental injustice, including the proliferation of climate change, systematically impacts communities of color and low-income communities in the U.S. and around the world.

Watch the Discussion

Advocacy in Action - Jackson, MS

The Jackson crisis is part of "the conversations about how Black communities are deprioritized when it comes to ensuring that there's infrastructure planning, ensuring there is resiliency built within the communities," said Abre' Conner, director of environmental and climate justice at the NAACP.

Running water could not be guaranteed by city officials, since the water pressure had dropped throughout the entire water system. The failure of the main water treatment plant in Jackson, Mississippi, means 180,000 people in the capital city and its surrounding areas will be without reliable drinking water for the foreseeable future.

President of the NAACP Derrick Johnson addressed Governor Reeves on Twitter. "We demand on behalf of the Jackson communities that you request federal aid from @FEMA and other agencies to ensure people have access to a basic human right: WATER," read Johnson's tweet.

Toxic to Our Communities

Black communities continue to live close to natural gas facilities and will continue to have a higher cancer risk without pollutant levels being mitigated through the operation of this proposed rule. Air in many Black communities already violates various air quality standards and at least 6.7 million Black people live near oil refineries.

tons of methane and toxic pollutants dumped by the oil and gas industry into the air each year

Communities must continue to have the ability to monitor pollution in their communities. The timeline is too long between the notification of a high level of pollution within a community and responsive action. Nothing is normal regarding high levels of emissions and more defined language is required to explain the documentation of emissions.
- Abre Conner, Director, Center for Environmental and Climate Justice

What we're fighting for

Reduce harmful emissions, particularly greenhouse gases

We combine action on shutting down coal plants and other toxic facilities, as well as the building of new toxic facilities, at the local level with advocacy to strengthen development, monitoring, and enforcement of regulations at federal, state, and local levels. This also includes a focus on corporate responsibility and accountability.

Advance energy efficiency and clean energy

We work at the state level on campaigns to pass renewable energy and energy efficiency standards while simultaneously working to provide safer, more sustainable mechanisms for managing energy needs for our communities and beyond. We also support small businesses, unions, and others to develop demonstration projects to ensure that communities of color are accessing revenue generation opportunities in the new energy economy.

Strengthen community resilience and livability

We work to ensure that communities are equipped to engage in sustainability and climate action planning that integrates policies and practices on advancing food justice, advocating for transportation equity, upholding civil and human rights in emergency management, and facilitating participatory democracy.

Watch the Discussion

Advocacy in Action - Jackson, MS

The Jackson crisis is part of "the conversations about how Black communities are deprioritized when it comes to ensuring that there's infrastructure planning, ensuring there is resiliency built within the communities," said Abre' Conner, director of environmental and climate justice at the NAACP.

Running water could not be guaranteed by city officials, since the water pressure had dropped throughout the entire water system. The failure of the main water treatment plant in Jackson, Mississippi, means 180,000 people in the capital city and its surrounding areas will be without reliable drinking water for the foreseeable future.

President of the NAACP Derrick Johnson addressed Governor Reeves on Twitter. "We demand on behalf of the Jackson communities that you request federal aid from @FEMA and other agencies to ensure people have access to a basic human right: WATER," read Johnson's tweet.

tons of methane and toxic pollutants dumped by the oil and gas industry into the air each year

What we're fighting for

Reduce harmful emissions, particularly greenhouse gases

We combine action on shutting down coal plants and other toxic facilities, as well as the building of new toxic facilities, at the local level with advocacy to strengthen development, monitoring, and enforcement of regulations at federal, state, and local levels. This also includes a focus on corporate responsibility and accountability.

Advance energy efficiency and clean energy

We work at the state level on campaigns to pass renewable energy and energy efficiency standards while simultaneously working to provide safer, more sustainable mechanisms for managing energy needs for our communities and beyond. We also support small businesses, unions, and others to develop demonstration projects to ensure that communities of color are accessing revenue generation opportunities in the new energy economy.

Strengthen community resilience and livability

We work to ensure that communities are equipped to engage in sustainability and climate action planning that integrates policies and practices on advancing food justice, advocating for transportation equity, upholding civil and human rights in emergency management, and facilitating participatory democracy.

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NAACP is fighting to address the environmental injustice that systematically impacts African American communities.

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Sociologist Robert Bullard has spent four decades making the case that environmental harms have disproportionately affected communities of color across the United States. So when one of President Joe Biden's first moves after inauguration was to sign an executive order that pledged to "advance environmental justice" in his efforts to address the climate crisis, Bullard was ecstatic.

"Now, environmental and racial justice is the centerpiece, not a footnote," says the professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University.

Over 40 years of research has outlined patterns of environmental injustice, where Black and brown communities bear the brunt of environmental degradation or pollution. Now, climate change is adding another dimension: Those communities also often experience the worst effects of climate-change fueled risks like hurricanes and wildfires.

Decades of environmental injustice, recorded

Research on environmental injustice began in the late 1970s, after residents of a Black middle-class neighborhood in Houston, Texas, found out that the state was going to permit the siting of a solid-waste facility in their community. One question loomed large in the residents' minds: Why was it being placed here and not in the white neighborhoods nearby?

Bullard, a sociologist by training, got pulled in to collect and parse the data. He found that 14 of the city's 17 industrial waste sites-accounting for over 80 percent of the city's waste tonnage-were situated in Black neighborhoods, though only 25 percent of Houston's population were Black.

The findings were the first to systematically show that environmentally harmful infrastructure was more likely to end up in places where minority populations lived. But from the start, Bullard and other researchers were certain that Houston was not the only place where this was happening.

Just a few years after Bullard's Houston analysis, a group of residents and activists in Warren County, North Carolina, gained national attention when they resisted a proposed waste facility that planned to store 60,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil. At the time, the county had the highest percentage of Black residents in the state. When the contaminated soil began to arrive at the site, more than 500 protestors showed up to oppose it, lying on the road to block the dump trucks.

They ultimately failed to stop the soil from being buried at the site. But news of their fight galvanized Black leaders, community members, and researchers across the country, prompting them to ask whether there was evidence that toxic waste disposal sites were more often placed in minority communities.

The following year, in 1983, a federal report confirmed what Bullard had shown in Houston: Black communities in the South were home to a disproportionately high percentage of waste sites. And in 1987, a study commissioned by Benjamin Chavis, a minister at the United Church of Christ who had been deeply involved in the Warren County protests, took that conclusion nationwide: In almost every place researchers looked, the best predictor of whether someone would live near a toxic waste site was race.

That was true even after controlling for geography and income. Income levels contribute to the disparities but are usually a compounding factor. The inequality in dangerous environmental exposure is worst for communities that are both poor and minority.

Birth of a movement

A movement started to emerge, says Dorceta Taylor, an environmental justice expert at Yale. In 1990, she was one of about 20 researchers and activists who gathered in Detroit to confer about the recent studies and the enraging implications.

"It was a bone-tingling moment," says Taylor. So energized by the passion in the room, they stayed up till the wee hours of the morning, crying and laughing and talking about the work they could do to make their world more environmentally just.

"We knew we were doing something that was going to change things," she says. "We knew it was going to grow."

The next year, over a thousand people attended a conference in Washington, D.C. At that meeting, they finished drafting out their "Principles of Environmental Justice," 17 precepts that that could guide the growing research, activist, and policy movements that are still used today by many environmental justice groups.

Environmental racism occurs for many reasons: intentional and unintentional discrimination in siting of things like waste dumps, but also unequal enforcement of environmental laws and the exclusion of Black and other minority groups from decision-making processes. To achieve true environmental justice, the principles said, all of those issues must be addressed.

Policymakers began to take notice. In 1992, the EPA officially defined "environmental justice" and established an office devoted to it. In 1994, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order calling on all government agencies to consider environmental justice in their decisions.

Rhetoric vs reality

The rhetoric, though, has not consistently translated into reality.

"As far as I know, there have been no policies that have produced measurable changes on the ground, and until we get to that point, environmental justice policy is nothing more than a window dressing," says Paul Mohai, an environmental justice expert at the University of Michigan.

The more places researchers looked, the more examples of longstanding environmental inequity they found-everywhere across the country, and above and beyond the inequalities caused by income disparities.

For example, in Texas, primarily Hispanic communities are more likely to be exposed to natural gas " flaring" events at fracking sites than primarily white communities. Historic "redlining"- racist housing policies that led to and upheld neighborhood segregation and disinvestment-have been linked to many environmental hazards that still impact minority communities today: Premature births are more common, and babies are often born smaller, in redlined neighborhoods.

Black and minority communities are more often exposed to devastating toxins in water than white communities, a reality that is still playing out in Flint, Michigan and in other cities across the country. Black households with incomes between $50,000 and $60,000 experience overall pollution burdens equal to those felt by white households earning $10,000 or less.

Overall, Black residents absorb about 1.5 times the air pollution burden of the population at large. White communities get a "boost" and are exposed to 17 percent less pollution than they are responsible for producing through their consumption of goods and services.

Recently, environmental injustice has aggravated the pandemic, because people exposed to long-term air pollution are more vulnerable to lung-damaging diseases like COVID-19. The excess exposure in minority communities has contributed to their higher proportion of deaths, research has found.

Unequal climate impacts

As climate change's effects became more visible in the U.S., it has also become clear that those effects are disproportionally hitting minority communities, a form of what author Rob Nixon calls " slow violence " inflicted on communities of color.

Jacqui Patterson, the director of the NAACP's environment and climate justice program, saw the disparity firsthand when she spent weeks volunteering after Hurricane Katrina, a storm that was likely made more damaging by climate change.

Most of the people in the temporary shelter where she worked as a sign language interpreter were Black, as she is. In New Orleans, 75 percent of residents in badly flooded areas were Black.

"I spent six weeks in that disaster recovery center hearing stories and seeing the patterns," she says. "It was impossible not to see the disproportionate number of African American people who were there who were suffering."

After the storm, the disparities widened. Research found that recovery aid flowed more readily to white, wealthy communities than to poor or minority ones, a divide that other researchers have found grows with the magnitude of the disasters. FEMA has recently acknowledged it.

Other climate risks also hit minorities harder-extreme heat, for example. Temperatures in formerly red-lined areas can be over 10 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than other neighborhoods in the same city, Tree cover and greenspaces are less common. And minority communities tend to have less access to air conditioning.

What's the cause-and does it matter?

For a long time, the legal and political conversation around environmental injustice centered on intent. Did a company siting a waste facility or other pollution source, or a city or state permitting it, mean to put it in a poor minority neighborhood-an explicit racially motivated goal-or was the location simply the outcome of market forces, which put the bad stuff where land was cheapest?

Intent is difficult to prove. In some rare cases, there was evidence that communities with little political power were implicitly targeted as places to site heavy industry or pollution sources. For example, in 1984, the California Waste Management Board was deciding where to put toxic waste incinerators. A report commissioned to find communities that might put up the least resistance suggested looking for low-income, rural, Catholic communities-which almost guaranteed the sites would be placed in Latino neighborhoods.

Sure enough, an incinerator site was proposed in a predominantly Latino town in California's Central Valley. But the community turned out to be less passive than the report authors had expected; residents fought back and defeated the proposal.

Whatever the motivation for such siting decisions, the outcomes clearly tend to affect some racial and ethnic groups disproportionately.

"It's not really necessary to have racial animus," says Mohai. "Once discriminatory zoning happens, everything after looks like non-discriminatory, even though it is. It's already been institutionalized into the system, even if people are not intentionally making the decisions."

"Where I see the racism is not caring about making reckless decisions, or not caring, after damages have been made, to repair the problem."

New hope

The Biden Administration has embraced environmental justice, at least in theory, promising to consider it in all decision-making and to direct 40 percent of environment- and climate-related federal investments to communities that have borne the brunt of past environmental harms.

Exactly which communities those are and how they'll be prioritized is still being hammered out, says Julian Brave Noisecat, a climate policy expert at the nonprofit analytical group Data for Progress-and those details matter a lot. The patterns are sometimes less obvious at the census block level than if researchers look at the precise distance people live from a hazard like a power plant, for example. "We have a baseline problem there, which is that we don't have a great federal dataset for lawmakers to tap into," he says.

But Bullard is fizzy with hope for the new administration.

"The environmental justice framing is integral here, and we've never had that before," he says. "What we have now is an opportunity for the reformulation and overhauling of the whole thing."

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The origins of environmental justice-and why it's finally getting the attention it deserves

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Sociologist Robert Bullard has spent four decades making the case that environmental harms have disproportionately affected communities of color across the United States. So when one of President Joe Biden's first moves after inauguration was to sign an executive order that pledged to "advance environmental justice" in his efforts to address the climate crisis, Bullard was ecstatic.

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In recent weeks, our nation has been forced to come to grips with the variety of ways in which inequality harms minority communities, from the death of George Floyd at the hands of police to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19. A recent Harvard study concluded that air pollution - which is typically worse in areas with larger minority populations - is linked to higher coronavirus death rates, along with a slew of other health problems.

This is just one form of environmental injustice, which Peggy Shepard has dedicated the better part of her life to combating. Shepard is the co-founder of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a New York City nonprofit organization that's been working to improve the environment of local communities since 1988. The mission of WE ACT is to "build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices."

Environmental justice has become a mainstream topic recently as awareness grows of the worsening impacts of climate change and the proposal for a Green New Deal. So this week CBS News asked Peggy Shepard to discuss how environmental issues disproportionately impact minority communities and what needs to be done to fix that. Here is a portion of that conversation.
Jeff Berardelli: Social justice is front and center in the news, but you've been fighting what your website calls "environmental racism" for decades. Can you explain the term environmental racism?
Peggy Shepard: Environmental racism is the intentional targeting of pollution in communities of color and low-income communities because they are less informed and they vote less. They have less political clout and often land is cheaper in those communities as well. As a result, industrial pollution tends to get located inside in those communities because there is more industry, government-run facilities like sewage treatment plants and bus depots.
How do environmental issues fuel racial inequality?
One thing we know is that environmental enforcement does not happen the way it needs to happen in communities of color and low-income communities. I work with groups in Florida that are small Southern communities surrounded by 19 waste sites. All throughout the country and in the South there aren't zoning laws, so you can have a chemical facility right next to a small community. Out in California there's no zoning so you can have a cement factory or an oil refinery right down the street from a school. When you look at the issues around the country they play out very differently. But the one commonality is that pollution is in communities of color and low-income. Environmental enforcement is very lax and those people who are most affected by that pollution are not a part of the environmental decision-making in that city, state or the nation.

Would it be correct to say that the pollution, the flooding, and all the climate and environmental issues that are more common in these communities exacerbate the racial inequalities?

Absolutely. If you're living in a community filled with transfer stations where trucks are coming daily to dump garbage; if you're living in a community with buses up and down the street idling outside of schools; if you're living in a community where the oil refinery is emitting air pollutants that are making people sick and have horrible odors; then you're probably living in a community with low property values, with trash, where people don't feel respected. They're living in a community that's environmentally degraded. You also add to that the stress of racism and unequal schools and you have an environmental system that is making people sick and stressing people out.

You will find that some of those communities are the same ones that don't have access to open space and parks. There may be a waterfront but you'll find that half the kids don't even know because they've never had access to that. One of our projects was creating access to the incredible Hudson River in our community so the families could go there and have recreation and have aesthetics.
This is a little deeper, but can you trace the roots of environmental inequality in the United States back to their beginnings?
There are books written on this. ... Urban planning is a good example, which has planned for some of these situations that poor communities find themselves in... and we understand that that has been systemic. For instance, one of the issues that got us started was the siting of the North River sewage treatment plant, which was mandated by the Clean Water Act because it used to be if you flushed a toilet on the west side of Manhattan, it went directly into the Hudson River. So the federal government said, you've got to clean up the river, you've got to have a sewage treatment plant. Well, the best place that the engineers felt was in the [affluent] West 70s on the west side of Manhattan. But developers, seeing that that land was much more profitable and wanting to develop that land, managed to get the City Planning Commission to move it uptown to Harlem. So as a result, we have one of the largest sewage treatment plants in the city that's literally right across the street from Riverside Drive, right across from people. The emissions and the odors were making people sick. So we had to begin to hold the city accountable and that was our first real campaign.

What are some examples of how communities of color are disproportionately impacted by environmental issues like pollution, disease and climate change?

Extreme heat events right now are killing more African Americans than any other people. Air pollution creates something like 200,000 premature deaths around the country every year. I think a lot of people have been stunned to understand that air pollution has increased the risk of more severe impacts from COVID-19 for people living in polluted communities. And so the link of environmental exposure to health outcomes is a very strong link, and I think the Harvard study that came out last month or so certainly bears that out.

A number of studies show that the primary predictor of where toxic waste sites will be sited is a community of color, and secondarily, a low-income community. You can also see that the refineries - the chemical companies - are all in communities that are low income and of color. We can look at cancer alley [in Louisiana] as a prime example of that.

We can also look at many of the communities in the South, along the Gulf Coast, that are impacted by hurricanes and extreme weather events. We know those communities are going to be hit by extreme weather, yet the investment by those municipalities and states are not going into the communities that are most vulnerable. For example, New Orleans' Ninth Ward was the most impacted [by Hurricane Katrina] yet communities that are most impacted by sea level rise and hurricanes have not been invested in.

There are many of the Gulf Coast states and communities that have still not been restored from the last hurricanes. You've got black communities in Alabama and Mississippi that are still waiting for their roads to be repaved. That investment that came from the federal government did not go to the most impacted communities.

We're also seeing the issue of climate migrants. People had to leave New Orleans because their homes were gone, so they moved to other states. When many of them tried to return they found that all the public housing had been torn down and they could no longer afford the new housing that was there. This is called climate gentrification in which communities are being cleared out because of climate impacts and then more affluent people buy up the property and rebuild the city. So you really have total civic disruption and you do not have the civil society that you once had.

I think we'll see that in Puerto Rico, as well, with so many people having to leave the island [because of Hurricane Maria] with no electricity, no services. Yet affluent people can go back, buy up those properties, and put the infrastructure investments in place that are needed to have a healthy society.

Another example is wildlife exploration in Alaska. What's the equity issue with that? Well, if you're allowing exploration in the Arctic... that's going to hurt the animals that the indigenous people depend on for food. It's going to pollute the ocean and that means it pollutes the fish that they depend on.
That brings us to climate change. It is fast becoming the most pressing of all environmental issues worldwide. As a result, "climate justice" is a term that I hear often. What are your main concerns for the future as climate change continues to get worse?
Well, the term climate justice, I think, is being used by a lot of people as a cool term. Climate justice has a very specific meaning: it is about the studies, it's about the initiatives, it's about the interventions that are needed in communities of color and low-income communities that will be the first and worst hit by climate extreme events. Even though it seems to be a newer consciousness, the environmental justice community has been working on climate issues integrated with environmental justice for many many years. It goes hand in hand. You cannot have climate justice without environmental justice.

We understand that the investment has got to go to those communities that we know are in the flood zones that will be the worst hit and don't have the resilience to come back without strong support by the government.

We need changes and reform of FEMA. We need advisory committees made up of people of color and the most affected people informing the committees about the kind of initiatives and interventions needed to become whole again when there is an extreme event. All of us need to be part of the climate solutions. We cannot just have mainstream green groups working on climate, national climate legislation, because they are not generally living in the communities that are the first and worst hit.

So when we talk about environmental racism and environmental injustice, we're also talking about being engaged in environmental decision-making. If people of color and low-income people who are most affected by the issues are never in the rooms where the decisions are being made and the solutions are being recommended, we are going to continue to have two different worlds, two different realities, like we're seeing right now today. Two different realities do not make a unified country.
Let's talk about the Green New Deal. I think a lot of people don't understand why the Green New Deal addresses sustainable energy and at the same time addresses social programs. Can you explain how these two are interconnected and why they both need to be addressed?
Climate is more than simply reducing greenhouse gases. The communication to the public has got to be for them to understand how it impacts every facet of their lives, whether it's energy security or whether it's a " just transition" from fossil fuels to a green economy. If we are not all part of those solutions, we are going to continue the divisions that we currently have.

I have heard some people say climate change is about greenhouse gas reduction, what does equity have to do with it? Well, the solutions are going to affect our economy and our energy security. Right now 30 million households in this country are energy insecure. They cannot pay their energy bill and put food on the table, yet many of our climate initiatives may increase our energy costs. So how do we begin to distribute those costs fairly, especially when we're talking about communities of color and low income who consume less and produce less carbon emissions than more affluent communities? So, how do we begin to equalize the benefits in a new green economy? You really have to come together.

Also, there's no requirement for community involvement in what kinds of jobs will be created or what kind of businesses will receive tax incentives. That's economic development. What does economic development have to do with climate or environmental quality? Well, of course, it has everything to do with environmental quality. It can create more density, bringing in more pedestrians and more commuters, which has an environmental impact and contributes to health disparities.
How can both the impacted communities and also society as a whole create positive change and get us off this track of environmental Injustice?
I think we have to understand that all of our communities need to be respected. The benefits that society has given so many of the residents in our country have not gone equally to all of the residents here. We've got to understand our shared values. I think we're seeing today... we have a shared value that the police should treat everyone equally, that our community should be invested in equally, that without transformative economic development that the workers who are now in the fossil fuel industry will not have family-sustaining jobs in the new green economy.

I believe there's now a consensus that we have got to unify. The environmental community and the mainstream green groups have been coming together over the past year and a half to up climate solutions together. So you might know about the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform that about six green groups and 12 environmental justice organizations have worked on for the past couple of years. We are now working to develop policies to implement.

We cannot continue to perpetuate the divisions that have gotten us to where we are today, which is in a crisis. We're in a COVID-19 pandemic and we're in a climate crisis and without coming together with unity, consensus and common ground, we are not going to get ourselves out of these crises.

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"Two different realities": Why America needs environmental justice

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In recent weeks, our nation has been forced to come to grips with the variety of ways in which inequality harms minority communities, from the death of George Floyd at the hands of police to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19.

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Environmental Justice & Environmental Racism – Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

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The Environmental Justice Movement has broadened the perspective of environment beyond the scope of conservation and preservation of natural resources and has defined the environment as “Where we live, work, play, learn and pray.”

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Climate Change - We are the PROBLEM & the SOLUTION (Animated Infographic)

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"Pollution is Segregated" Says the Father of Environmental Justice | Amanpour and Company

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Home - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Current news and data streams about global warming and climate change from NASA.

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Boldly fighting climate change by cutting carbon pollution and expanding clean energy and efficiency is the most powerful thing we can do to build a better future for our communities and future generations.

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Cheryl Johnson and Peggy Salazar, lifelong residents of Chicago's South Side, grew up in some of the city's most polluted neighborhoods, in the shadow of dirty industries, including steel mills, coal plants, manufacturing plants, and storage facilities.

The women now lead two of Chicago's oldest environmental advocacy groups. Johnson is the executive director of People for Community Recovery (PCR), which was founded in 1979 by her mother, Hazel Johnson. Salazar is the executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force (SETF), formed in 1989. Their work includes demanding that city representatives and industry leaders undo-and stop perpetuating-decades of unfair policies and practices that have left communities of color and low-income residents overburdened with toxic air pollution and other environmental health hazards.

In Chicago, Black and Latino residents are more likely to live close to industrial pollution and have chronic health conditions, such as asthma, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. A recent report issued by the city earlier this year noted that "structural racism and economic hardship" are "making it more likely for certain people to live in polluted communities."

Here, Johnson and Salazar give powerful accounts of what it's like to grow up and live in neighborhoods deeply impacted by environmental racism. Their tireless efforts not only inspire but also help envision a path forward-to right past wrongs and create healthier, more equitable communities across the city.

Cheryl Johnson

A Mother Who Began to Ask Questions

I grew up in Altgeld Gardens, a housing project on the far South Side that was originally built for Black World War II veterans. In 1969, my father died from lung cancer at the age of 41, and my mother, Hazel Johnson, started wondering why so many people in the area have died of cancer.

She started doing research. She learned that the South Side had the highest incidence of cancer than any other area in Chicago. She wanted to know why a lot of people had asthma and other health problems. She learned that our area had 50 documented landfills, hundreds of hazardous waste sites, and leaking underground storage tanks. And, all around us, we had industry that constantly emitted air pollution. My mom called our community "the toxic doughnut" because we were completely surrounded. In 1979, she founded People for Community Recovery to raise environmental awareness and help local people impacted by pollution.

"They Tried to Break Her Spirit"

In the early years, it was very difficult for my mother. She didn't have a science background; she was not educated or trained in this area. She just knew that something was wrong.

A New Generation Is Speaking Out

Oscar Sanchez, cofounder of the Southeast Youth Alliance, is rallying youth in his community to take action on the future of Chicago's South Side.

Tired of the Negative Stigma

The Southeast Youth Alliance came about two years ago when some college students-myself and a few others-started to feel tired of the negative stigma of our community. We were like, "We need to make a difference."

We focus on environmental and social justice. Our biggest success is that we are revitalizing community engagement. We're doing educational events, community cleanups, and we organize and attend protests. We also put together art fairs that promote local artists and their art. We host community envisioning sessions where we ask folks, "What do you want to see here?" It's not just about our vision-it's about the community's vision. One of the things we've been talking about is that you shouldn't have to choose between being able to breathe and being able to have a job or having a good quality of life.

Harmed by Pollution

We're so normalized to living in a dumping ground for the city. People say we exaggerate, but we are one of the few places in Chicago where zoning [policies] allow this to happen. If your zoning [policy] says you can dump all of this here, then we're a dumping site. I think of my family. I think about growing up here. I think of my brothers who have asthma. I think of my brothers who played in the baseball field that had large amounts of contaminants.

A City that Doesn't Care

The Chicago Public Department of Health has failed us. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has failed us. They don't care about community input. They don't even care about the environmental burden. It's not even a requirement when it comes to the permitting process to look at environmental burden or to strongly prioritize community input. We have to look at where the resources are going, and our community is under-resourced. I always emphasize that we are literally fighting for scraps. Lincoln Yards, on the North Side, is getting a $1.3 billion investment, and then you have South Chicago-we're competing with 10 other neighborhoods to get $10 million dollars. That's ridiculous.

Many times, I wanted to fight people for the way they treated my mother. Elected officials would say to her, "Well, the garbage has to go somewhere. Why not your neighborhood?" Or they would claim that the pollutant in the air was not as bad as what she said it was. They treated her so rudely. She would come home crying because someone called her a big-mouthed woman or an ignorant person or told her she didn't know what she was talking about. They tried to break her spirit-that's hard for a child to see. She would call our local Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 office, but they wouldn't work with her because they had no jurisdiction over the impact that industry had on a community. They were only mandated to regulate industry and to work with academic institutions, but not with a community.

Early Victory for Safe Water

One of our first environmental victories was right next to our community in Maryland Manor, a subdivision bordering Altgeld Gardens, in 1984. For 25 years, the residents there were paying taxes on a sewer line and water hookup that they never had. They had well water that was very contaminated with pollution.

The history of pollution there goes all the way back to the 1860s when [industrialist and inventor] George Pullman used to own the land and had a sewage farm in this area. It was used as a dumping ground for a long time. Testing of the well water showed cyanide and other contaminants. We were able to get the city to install water and sewer lines. It's interesting that here we are today, over 100 years later, still here on this land, and we are still talking about environmental justice.

Recognition and a Growing Movement

In the early 1990s, my mother began to travel and meet with other community groups. She received President George Bush's Environment and Conservation Challenge Award in 1992. Being with her at the White House when she received that award is an experience I'll never forget. The previous year, the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit took place. It was there that she was first called the " mother of the environmental justice movement." [Delegates from around the county] all joined together [at the summit] and came up with the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice. That meeting helped lead to President Clinton's signing of Executive Order 12898 in 1994, which said federal agencies had to consider environmental impacts on communities of color and low-income communities.

Resistance to Environmental Justice

My mother passed in 2011, and about a year after that, there started to be a little more awareness and recognition of the environmental justice groups in Chicago. For decades, the city has been wholeheartedly resistant to recognizing environmental justice, especially under the Daley administration. [Richard M. Daley was the mayor of Chicago from 1989 to 2011.] In fact, during that period, we learned that the Chicago Housing Authority [CHA] had dumped thousands of gallons of PCB waste right in the heart of my community. We had to fight with the city and CHA to clean it up-and to this day, I don't think it was completed properly.

Current Battles and Planning for the Future

This past year, we joined several local groups and filed a fair housing complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. We are very concerned about the relocation of a recycling facility, General Iron, from Lincoln Park, a wealthier neighborhood, to our area. We talk about the city of Chicago just using our community as a dumping ground for so many years. Why do we always have to get polluting industries in our area? It's not fair. Land-use practices in Chicago have been discriminatory.

My mother used to say that we know how to dirty up this country, but we don't have the workforce to clean it up. One of the major goals of People for Community Recovery is to create training facilities in the area.

We were the first in the country to bring lead abatement training for workers to the community. We trained nearly 300 residents, and a little more than 80 percent of the folks would get jobs with contractors doing lead abatement. We are also working to promote our community to become a solar community and to have more education about energy efficiency. We are looking at how we can be engaged in the clean energy economy and get residents trained in those opportunities. This is the only place I've ever lived. It's a good community if only the city and the state would invest instead of letting it go.

Peggy Salazar

"We Thought Pollution Was Normal"

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s and '60s-literally across the street from U.S. Steel. Back then, you could live that close to the steel mills. We didn't really think about the pollution or how dirty things were, but I remember my mother complaining that when she hung the laundry outside, it would get dirty if she didn't bring it in as soon as it dried.

We thought everybody's neighborhood was as sooty and dusty and drab. It wasn't until I got older and ventured outside of the neighborhood that I realized not everybody lives in an environment like this. It was an interesting awareness, but at the same time, I was still accepting of it because I grew up in it.

A Rude Awakening

In the late '80s, when the steel mills began to close, I started volunteering with a neighborhood group called the Veteran's Park Improvement Association. With the massive loss of jobs [from the steel mill closures], the organization wanted to keep the neighborhood from declining and keep people from moving away. I started to learn more about how the community was treated. Our local gas utility had done a cleanup of an old coal gasification site in our neighborhood. It removed most of the contamination and then filled it in with gravel. I found out later that we could have demanded much more than that-we could have had it cleaned up to a better level, where it was usable by the public. Our alderman didn't tell us we had that option. I felt like we had been totally let down as a community. Our leaders didn't fight for us; instead, they were on the side of industry-that was a rude awakening.

From that point on, I said, "I need to educate myself." I didn't think we could trust anyone. I was convinced that if this had been in a more socioeconomically advantaged community, it wouldn't have happened. Or residents probably would have been more informed or aware. They take advantage of people not knowing or being educated about the facts.

The Formation of the Southside Environmental Task Force

Marian Byrnes started the Southside Environmental Task Force in 1989. She successfully helped fight off a proposal to pave over a large wooded area for a bus storage facility, stopped a new garbage incinerator from being built, and halted efforts to reopen old city dumps in the area. During my volunteer work with the Veteran's Park Improvement Association, I would rub shoulders with the SETF. Even though I wasn't part of it, I became interested in their work because, after all, this was a dirty, polluted area.

I started volunteering with SETF in the mid-2000s. The term "environmental justice" was not something I was aware of until I got involved. I got to know people like Cheryl Johnson from People for Community Recovery-and heard about her mother. I got to know more history. In 2009, when SETF needed an executive director, I took the job. Every year since then, we have had a battle.

"We're Always Being Dumped On"

We opposed a 33-acre outdoor firing range that the city of Chicago wanted to build, near Hegewisch Marsh Park. We had to fight against a coal gasification plant. The biggest eye-opener for people was the petcoke situation-piles of petcoke were blowing toxic dust all through the neighborhood. Then we had a similar crisis with toxic manganese dust blowing all through the community from a storage facility. Every year, it's something. It's like we're always being dumped on.

All along, I have been trying to just make people aware of the industrial corridor and the impact it has on us-and that other communities don't have the same kind of a situation going on. I remember a volunteer telling me that they never realized how dirty our community was until they went to the North Side, where everything looks so much cleaner. And it's the truth. In the 1990s, a huge effort was made to green the Chicago River and push out and relocate industry. At the same time, the city was working to preserve the polluting industrial corridor in my community. I think every neighborhood needs reinvestment. I don't like this piecemeal kind of revitalization approach-and when it's not done equally across the board, that's unacceptable. We need to look at the city and think about how to make all the neighborhoods better.

"They Want to Keep Us a Sacrifice Zone"

We had hoped that our situation would improve when Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office in 2019. I'll never forget that we went to her candidate forums and brought up all these issues. She seemed very sympathetic to us, so we were very hopeful. Then she got into office and decided to move forward to relocate General Iron-a very polluting metal-shredding operation on the North Side in Lincoln Park-to our community. General Iron has violated environmental codes, it's had explosions and fires, and it's been shut down repeatedly for public health violations. The North Side doesn't want it. We don't want it either.

Along with PCR and other local groups, we filed a fair housing complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development about General Iron. We're demanding an end to policies that entrench environmental racism. This is clearly discriminatory and demonstrates environmental racism when the receiving community is already overburdened by industry-and is protesting the relocation. The reason that the city wants to do this is because we have this history. They want to keep us a sacrifice zone.
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Environmental Justice in Chicago: It's Been One Battle After Another

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Cheryl Johnson and Peggy Salazar have been speaking out against pollution and environmental injustice for decades, but the city of Chicago sees their South Side neighborhoods as sacrifice zones. They are demanding change.

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The environmental justice movement-championed primarily by Black people, Latines, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Indigenous People-was born of a statistical fact: Those who live, work, and play in America's most polluted environments are commonly people of color and those living in poverty. Because of environmental justice advocates, we now know this as environmental racism, and it's precisely what communities of color have been battling for decades.

What is environmental justice?

Environmental justice essentially means that everyone-regardless of race, color, national origin, or income-has the right to the same environmental protections and benefits, as well as meaningful involvement in the policies that shape their communities. But rarely has this been the reality for people of color and those with low incomes. That's because virtually all environmental injustice is shaped by the same patterns of racism and inequality that have existed in the United States since its founding and continue to influence every facet of our society, from education to housing to health care.

For example, to this day, majority-white and wealthy communities are where investments into infrastructure are more likely to be made, where environmental laws are more likely to be properly enforced, and where polluters are more likely to be held accountable or kept away entirely. By comparison, the most marginalized communities are routinely treated as the areas where highways can be built, waste can be stored, industrial warehouses and facilities can be concentrated, and where natural resources can be readily exploited or destroyed.

What's worse, the most affected communities often experience multiple environmental threats at once. A single resident may drink lead-contaminated tap water and go to school near a soot-producing, coal-fired power plant. When such threats compound, and are exacerbated by other social and economic vulnerabilities, residents face even higher health risks. This is why the environmental justice movement has long worked to change these unjust patterns.

How Warren County protests led to a national movement

The story of how the environmental justice movement became a national one can generally be traced back to Warren County, North Carolina. In the late 1970s, the state's government was deliberating where it could store 6,000 truckloads of soil laced with toxic PCBs. It decided on rural, poor, and overwhelmingly Black Warren County. That quickly became the focus of national attention.

Residents were furious that state officials had dismissed concerns over PCBs leaching into drinking water supplies. Many veterans of the Civil Rights Movement-often affiliated with Black churches-shared their sentiments and showed up. Among them were Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. and Reverend Joseph Lowery, then of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Reverend Leon White of the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice. The dump trucks still rolled into Warren County in mid-September 1982, headed for a newly constructed hazardous waste landfill in the small community of Afton. But the same frustrated residents and their allies stopped the trucks by lying down on roads leading into the landfill. Six weeks of marches and nonviolent street protests followed, and more than 500 were arrested-the first arrests in U.S. history over the siting of a landfill.

Other communities of color had organized to oppose environmental threats before Warren County. In the early 1960s, Latine farmworkers organized by Cesar Chavez fought for workplace rights. In 1967, Black students took to the streets of Houston to oppose a city garbage dump in their community that had claimed the lives of two children. In 1968, residents of West Harlem, in New York City, fought unsuccessfully against the siting of a sewage treatment plant in their community. But the Warren County protests and accompanying legal challenges are considered by many to be the first major milestone in the national movement for environmental justice.

The people of Warren County ultimately lost the battle, and the toxic waste was deposited in that landfill. But their story-one of ordinary residents driven to protect their homes from a toxic assault-fired the imagination of many across the country who had lived through similar injustices. These events even inspired a new faction within the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, several early environmental justice leaders came out of it. They understood that the environment was another front in the struggle for justice, and they brought with them many of the same tactics-like marches, petitions, coalition building, community empowerment, litigation, and nonviolent direct action.

The mounting facts of environmental racism

In the wake of Afton, the newly energized environmental justice activists noticed a clear pattern. Corporations, regulatory agencies, and local planning and zoning boards consistently targeted low-income communities of color when siting polluting facilities like landfills, waste transfer stations, incinerators, garbage dumps, diesel bus and truck garages, auto body shops, smokestack industries, industrial hog and chicken processors, oil refineries, chemical manufacturers, and radioactive waste storage areas.

Activists also found some common factors among the most affected communities. For example, these communities typically had lower property values due to long histories of redlining. They often lacked connections to decision makers on zoning boards or city councils that could protect their interests. They usually couldn't afford to hire the technical and legal expertise necessary to fight a siting. And polluting companies intentionally withheld information from them about how the pollution could affect their health, something that was exacerbated in non-English-speaking communities.

Several studies in the late 1980s and early '90s gave these accounts of environmental racism new credibility. Walter Fauntroy, the District of Columbia's congressional delegate and then chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, took part in the Warren County protests. When he returned to Washington, he tasked Congress's General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office or GAO) with determining whether communities of color suffered disproportionate negative impacts from the siting and construction of hazardous waste landfills within them. That GAO study was published in 1983 and revealed that three-quarters of the hazardous waste landfill sites in eight southeastern states were located in primarily low-income, Black, and Latine communities.

More evidence of widespread environmental racism soon followed. In 1987, the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice (CRJ), under the leadership of executive director Chavis, who had been at Afton, published the landmark Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States report. Researched by Charles Lee, CRJ's director of the Special Project on Toxic Injustice, the report showed that race was the single-most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States. It also found that the placement of these facilities was the intentional result of local, state, and federal land use policies. And in 1990, sociologist Dr. Robert Bullard published what is considered to be the first overarching book on environmental injustice, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality, which underscored the importance of race as a factor in the siting of unwanted facilities that produce toxic chemicals.

The push to advance the environmental justice agenda nationally

By 1990, leaders of the growing environmental justice movement, who had chiefly relied on coalition building and community empowerment, began to look for allies among the traditional, primarily white-and more well-resourced-environmental organizations. These were groups that had long fought to protect the wilderness, endangered species, clean air, and clean water. But they had had little or no involvement in the environmental struggles of people of color. That year, several environmental justice leaders cosigned a widely publicized letter to the "Big 10" environmental groups, including NRDC, accusing them of racial bias in policy development, hiring, and the makeup of their boards, and challenging them to address toxic contamination in the communities and workplaces of people of color and the poor. As a result, some mainstream environmental organizations developed their first environmental justice initiatives, added people of color to their staff, and resolved to take environmental justice into account when making policy decisions. All of this remains a serious work in progress.

Environmental justice leaders also pushed their agenda within the government. In 1990, a meeting between a group of prominent academics and advocates within the movement and a top official in the first Bush administration led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Equity Workgroup . The following year, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit brought together hundreds of environmental justice leaders from around the world to Washington, D.C., to network and strategize for the first time. The list of attendees-which included Reverend Jesse Jackson, Dolores Huerta, Cherokee Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller, and the heads of NRDC and the Sierra Club-demonstrated that environmental justice was beginning to be taken up by many in the American mainstream. What's more, the summit produced the " Principles of Environmental Justice " and the "Call to Action," two foundational documents of the environmental justice movement.

By 1992, when Bill Clinton became president, it was clear that environmental justice was becoming important to leaders of a core constituency of the Democratic Party. Clinton appointed two leaders, Chavis and Bullard, to his natural resources transition team, where they helped make environmental justice an important part of the president's stated environmental policy. And then, on February 11, 1994, Clinton signed Executive Order 12898-a groundbreaking order directing federal agencies to identify and address the disproportionately high adverse health or environmental effects of their policies or programs on low-income people and people of color. It also directed federal agencies to look for ways to prevent discrimination by race, color, or national origin in any federally funded programs dealing with health or the environment. What began in the streets of Warren County had made it to the White House.

The legacy and future of environmental justice

In the roughly 40 years since the dump trucks first rolled into Afton, hundreds of environmental justice grassroots groups-like WE Act for Environmental Justice , the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Poverty , Asian Pacific Environmental Network , and the Southeast Environmental Task Force -have formed. They represent strong and enduring forces for environmental protection and social change in their communities. Their work has also continued to ensure that environmental justice is a central issue within environmentalism and progressive politics.

Now, environmental justice leaders who once influenced policy as outsiders are more likely to have seats at decision-making tables. Take LaTricea Adams , who founded Black Millennials for Flint and also sits on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC). Plus, environmental justice has become more embedded across federal policy. The Justice40 Initiative , which directs 40 percent of federal investments in climate and clean energy toward disadvantaged communities, is a prime example. And mainstream environmental groups have also learned from and increasingly worked alongside environmental justice organizations. For example, NRDC often provides technical advice and resources, supplies expert testimony at hearings, and joins in litigation.

Of course, there is plenty of work that remains. Wide-ranging research continues to show the ubiquitousness of environmental injustice in everything from drinking water violations to the impacts of climate change, like extreme heat vulnerability . Even in the face of those continued challenges, what remains clear is this: The work of the environmental justice movement has already reshaped how so many experience the environment; it has saved lives; and it represents the power of sustained collective action.

This NRDC.org story is available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as grammar); you can't resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you can't republish our material wholesale or automatically-you need to select stories individually; you can't republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should to let us know when you've used one of our stories.

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Environmental justice is an important part of the struggle to improve and maintain a clean and healthful environment, especially for communities of color who have been forced to live, work, and play closest to sources of pollution.