Author: GTC Staff Published: 7/31/2023 Green The Church
Greetings Ronald,
Here’s what’s new at Green The Church the week of July 31, 2023.
Pastors, Your Community Needs You
Pastors and church leaders know the power of a unified voice. As a people we have a history of mobilizing to create change, and we have the opportunity today to help cut pollution in half by 2030. The Biden administration is committed to ensuring we #CutClimatePollution, and to ensure this issue gets the attention it deserves, we need your voice. Our partners at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) need to be able to demonstrate they have the support of the communities impacted most by environmental racism. That’s where your comment of support for pollution-ravaged communities will make a difference. We know the power of strength in numbers. Add your voice to help ensure these standards are adopted. Click here to show your support.
HBCU Climate Change Conference in Louisiana
The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in collaboration with Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University will host the Ninth Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference October 11-15, 2023. This conference will bring together HBCU faculty and students, researchers, climate professionals, and environmental justice and community residents impacted by toxic facilities and severe weather events related to climate change in order to bridge the gap between theory and the experiential realities of climate change.
Topics to be addressed include issues related to climate justice, adaptation, community resilience, global climate issues, and other major climate change topics (i.e. transportation, energy sources, carbon emissions, green jobs/green economy, just transition, and community economic development). The conference will also engage college-bound high school students and introduce them to climate science, within the context of how their daily life activities affect climate. Learn more and register here.
- Student abstracts are being accepted for oral and poster presentations
- Travel scholarships are available to students whose abstract has been accepted
- Deadline to submit student abstracts is September 1, 2023
An Environmental Justice Quest in Alabama
A historic Black neighborhood in Elba, Alabama, began flooding after the state widened nearby Highway 84. The Shiloh community becomes a lake during heavy rainfall and has been waiting on the state of Alabama to resolve the flooding issue, but no help has come.
Elba is the hometown of Robert D. Bullard, PhD, often known as the “father of environmental justice”. The distinguished professor at Texas Southern University has won prestigious awards for his decades of work examining and unveiling the nation’s persistent racial disparities and has written more than a dozen books on the topic. Dr. Bullard is leading a team of environmental justice and transportation equity experts on a “Fact-Finding Journey to Justice” to investigate intersecting consequences for Elba of highway widening and climate change, which research has shown disproportionately impacts people of color. Read the full story here.