When I first heard the phrase “environmental justice,” I couldn’t wrap my head around what it really meant. Did it have to do spreading awareness of the harmful effects of pollution on our climates? Was it a means of encouraging people to reduce, reuse, and recycle? Or was it meant to (I don’t know) stop people from plucking flowers from the ground? Though these speculations might play a part in the movement, I learned after taking DEA 1500 last semester that environmental justice involves more than just how humans treat the environment. Rather, environmental justice is actively designing and maintaining environments so that people (all people) can live life without facing the barriers of homelessness, food scarcity, and toxic poisoning– it’s about promoting human equality by means of making environments safe, accessible, and beneficial.

Believe it or not, where you live changes who you become. The panelists at the LWYL Café on Climate (In)justice, experts on environmental justice and its deep-rooted connection to climate change, gave important insights into what still needs to be done to truly accomplish environmental justice. It begins with uplifting the concerns of those who have been directly affected by climate change and have not received the support they need to overcome it. It turns out that these people are more often than not a part of the Latinx or African American communities and are poor. Yes, it makes sense that as the climate evolves (as in more natural disasters, increasing temperatures, and increased carbon levels), people will be affected by it. But why is it that underrepresented, lower-income communities are the ones bearing the weight and blame of these affects, and not others? You guessed it: systemic racism. Land that used to be owned and taken care of by Latinxs and African Americans was taken away by colonialists, and now many of these environments are food deserts. Poor neighborhoods that were gentrified in order to bring in wealthier populations have left the original residents homeless and without community. The list goes on, and the panelists at this talk encouraged us to get involved in uplifting these voices so that, finally, our politicians may be able to consider how to implement policies that actively address the pains of hurting communities. There is more to be done for sure, but being educated on environmental justice is one step we all need to take in making life worth living, no matter who you are and where you are.