How failures of democracy fuel the environmental crisis
“The environmental justice movement was born in the Black, brown, tribal and Indigenous communities that have long borne the brunt of pollution and climate disaster. Today, despite being sidelined in many mainstream climate spaces, these and other communities on the expanding frontlines of environmental crisis are building a powerful movement for change.
For example, New York Renews — a coalition of over 200 grassroots organizations, including environmental justice, faith, labor, and community groups — helped pass one of the world’s most ambitious climate plans in 2019. More recently, several members of that alliance formed the PEAK Coalition, which is working to shut down New York City’s dirtiest power plants and replace them with clean energy solutions — and winning. In Cancer Alley last year, community groups won a David-and-Goliath legal battle to block construction of the world’s largest plastics plant.
These efforts increasingly include people who were not previously civically engaged, or who didn’t think of themselves as environmentalists. In Maine, farmers whose livelihoods were destroyed by PFAS-contaminated soil and water won groundbreaking legislation to restrict use of that toxic compound. And, across the U.S., conservative Republicans impacted by flooding have joined with others to fight climate change and harmful development.”
