The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life [1st ed.] 9783030559502, 9783030559519

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xxv
Climate Change, Ecology, and Justice (Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers et al.)....Pages 1-12
Water, Air, and Land: The Foundation of Life, Food, and Society (Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers et al.)....Pages 13-25
Celebrating and Preserving the Ecology of Life (Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers et al.)....Pages 27-38
Environmental Injustice: Transformative Change Toward Justice (Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers et al.)....Pages 39-56
Human Health and Well-Being in Times of Global Environmental Crisis (Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers et al.)....Pages 57-66
Power and Politics: Decision-Making, Protection, Rebuilding, and Justice (Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers et al.)....Pages 67-81
Pathways to Change: Community and Environmental Transformation (Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers et al.)....Pages 83-104
Decolonizing Nature: The Potential of Nature to Heal (Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers et al.)....Pages 105-134
Back Matter ....Pages 135-162

Citation preview

Ande A. Nesmith · Cathryne L. Schmitz  Yolanda Machado-Escudero  Shanondora Billiot · Rachel A. Forbes  Meredith C. F. Powers · Nikita Buckhoy  Lucy A. Lawrence

The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life

The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life

Ande A. Nesmith • Cathryne L. Schmitz Yolanda Machado-Escudero Shanondora Billiot • Rachel A. Forbes Meredith C. F. Powers • Nikita Buckhoy Lucy A. Lawrence

The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life With Contributions by Lacey Sloan Foreword by Ike Mana

Ande A. Nesmith School of Social Work Morrison Family College of Health University of St. Thomas Saint Paul, MN, USA Yolanda Machado-Escudero Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work University of North Florida Jacksonville, FL, USA Rachel A. Forbes Graduate School of Social Work University of Denver Glenwood Springs, CO, USA Nikita Buckhoy School of Social Work Wayne State University Detroit, MI, USA

Cathryne L. Schmitz Department of Social Work University of North Carolina Greensboro Greensboro, NC, USA Shanondora Billiot School of Social Work Arizona State University Phoenix, AZ, USA Meredith C. F. Powers Department of Social Work University of North Carolina Greensboro Greensboro, NC, USA Lucy A. Lawrence Department of Social Work Warren Wilson College Asheville, NC, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-55950-2    ISBN 978-3-030-55951-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

We dedicate this book to our families, our communities, and all life on this planet, both current and those to come in future generations. While we take seriously the gravity of the climate crisis, we hold on to hope that through individual and collective action we can address the global environmental crisis; heal the natural world; redress environmental, economic, and social injustices; and find ways to create a sense of hope and action moving forward.

Foreword

Ande A. Nesmith, Cathryne L. Schmitz, Yolanda Machado-Escudero, Shanondora Billiot, Rachel A. Forbes, Meredith C. F. Powers, Nikita Buckhoy, Lucy A. Lawrence, and Lacey Sloan — we speak your names with deepest of gratitude for your masterful creation of this work The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life. It takes courage to live honestly, to speak your truth, to point out the truth, and to take on the responsibility as human beings to nurture and protect our home, Earth, and all of its habitants. This work queries the questions: What happens at the intersection of justice, change, and ecology? How do they co-exist for the benefit of human beings and the environment? In response to the invitation to introduce this most critical work during a time of crises, most notably the Coronavirus pandemic, as culturally diverse women of a writing circle called ‘Ike Mana named by Ms. Kuʻuipo Kumukahi of Hawai‘i, we enter from a place of hope and anticipation for greater opportunities in the horizon as a result of this life changing work. We speak from the ‘āina (land) of Kanaka Maoli, whose ancestors we honor as both natives and visitors to this land. We embrace a collective kuleana (responsibility) for protecting the environment as a lifeline for indigenous communities and revitalizing culture and the environment in which culture exists with a renewed commitment to justice for all life forces. In alignment with the focus and spirit of this work on environmental justice and the reciprocal responsibility between living organisms and the environment, we acknowledge and simultaneously condemn the devastating impacts of colonization, oppression, and trauma on indigenous land and people in nations across the globe. The consequences of the destruction of sovereignty, the right to self-governance, is a form of injustice that can live on for generations as part of the psyche and community identity. We align with the commitment of these authors as allies, and this work towards justice for the environment and the sacredness of life itself. As reflected in this work, the beauty of life is that healing can occur among all life forces, even in the midst of crises. Evidence of such healing occurred in Hawai‘i during the COVID-19 crisis in which restoration and renewal occurred in the ‘āina (land), wai (water), and ‘ai (food). A healthier physical surrounding was apparent in the color of the ocean, the smell of plants and trees, and the warmth of families supvii

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porting keiki (children) and kūpuna (elders) spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Despite human genius and innovation, pre-COVID-19 unhealthy environmental conditions occurred at the intersection of human carelessness, recklessness, and disrespect for land, water, air, and all of nature’s creations. However, COVID-19 brings a renewed commitment to cultivating a healthier Earth for present and future generations. As the renowned Hanauma Bay located on the island of O’ahu, Hawai‘i was closed to human contact, all of its inhabitants were visibly restored and renewed. This crisis gave us pause and an opportunity for our communities to reset environmental protection. It gave Earth the needed time for healing and restoring with human beings absent from nature for a period of time. The crisis also gave us time to quarantine toxic worldviews and behaviors, marginalizing and containing them in order to avoid infecting others with such toxicity. As stewards of our environment, we must pledge to not return to our old ways, not to forget the lessons learned, and use this opportunity to move forward in healthier and just ways. As emphasized by the authors of this work, we live in a hyphenated world of justice and injustice, equity and inequity, thus we must navigate that hyphen carefully for the benefit of generations to come. This masterful work underscores our collective responsibility for the Earth and all of its inhabitants. First, Chap. 1 offers an overview of climate change, ecology, and justice as a call to action. The current human-initiated global environmental crisis has resulted in devastating conditions in land, air, and water, particularly in vulnerable communities. Interdisciplinary responses are urgently needed with leadership from communities across cultural spectrums. It is our collective kuleana to leverage existing climate science to enact policies that protect our planet and all life forces. Chapter 2 discusses water, air, and land as the foundation of life underscoring the delicate balance of life and life supporting elements as essential to the health and well-being of our planet and ecosystems. Healthy land, air, and water are critical to sustain life and eliminate threats such as degrading freshwater, pollution of ocean and air, destruction of natural resources, and detrimental human behavior. Also emphasized is the interdependency of the physical, social, cultural, and economic well-being of humans and a healthy planet. Chapter 3 speaks of the importance of celebrating and preserving the ecology of life as a way of honoring and preserving our planet for generations to come. The health of the Earth and ecology, as well as the health of human beings, are interconnected and can be threatened by power, privilege, and control. There is a need to find balance and restore the Earth with an eco-centric worldview that promotes ecological justice and celebrate and protect the ecology of all life. Efforts must be on both local and global levels. Chapter 4 denounces environmental injustice and encourages transformative change. Such environmental injustice occurs at the intersection of deeply rooted systemic and structural oppression linked to racial, gender, and socioeconomic forces that have negatively impacted communities. Chapter 5 focuses on threats to human health and well-being during global environmental crises such as climate change, ecological loss, and human-induced disasters. Nonetheless, the resilience and strengths of the human spirit can mitigate injustice and vulnerability of people and their environments. Likewise, Chap. 6

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advocates for decision-making power and politics as methods for rebuilding and sustaining communities and their environments. Whereas, Chap. 7 examines pathways to transform community and environment through a holistic and cross-­ disciplinary approach which embraces systems-level changes that confront the consequences of race, class, and gender injustice. Finally, Chap. 8 is a call to action to decolonize nature and promote health. The complexity of environmental justice was underscored by the impacts of COVID-19, which was felt worldwide. The pandemic accentuated the relationship between human health and environmental health, and facilitated healing and decolonizing people to rethink the future. We come in full circle with our ancestral obligation to the ‘āina and all of its inhabitants and the responsibility of social work as a profession to stand up and speak up for environmental justice. Social work is positioned to lead interdisciplinary teams, collaborations, and partnerships with communities to address complex issues such as environmental justice. Social work values and ethics serve as anchors for advocating change and rethinking today’s global crises. This is a call to action for social work and its allies to strengthen the resolve to build relationships of trust among communities, develop leaders that reflect society’s rich tapestry, and integrate the environment and ecology into national and international conversations to promote justice for all. By ‘Ike Mana1: Halaevalu Vakalahi, Adrienne Dillard, Momilani Marshall, Tammy Martin, Sophia Kim, Poki’i Balaz, and Puni Kekauoha

1  ‘Ike Mana is a writing hui, named by Ku’uipo Kumukahi, sweetheart of Hawaiian music, that was established as part of an initiative to empower and cultivate writing among women in Hawai’i. Formidable women ever connected by the ‘ike (knowledge) attained, resulting in the mana (power) sustained, propelled by love for people, and shared for the advancement of the lāhui.

Preface

Humans are storytelling animals. This ability is part of what makes us a unique species. Gottschall (2013) suggests that our species in fact is addicted to story, noting that even during sleep, our minds continue to tell stories. We are all part of an ongoing story, tightly interwoven with the ever evolving chronicle of plants, animals, and Planet Earth. It is a narrative full of comedy, tragedy, birth, death, and rebirth. The writing of this book began as a way to present our fears and passions on ecological and environmental justice issues that engaged us empathetically, intellectually, and professionally. The process of writing this book has changed us in ways we did not foresee. As we began our journey, the urgency became even clearer. And, because of the complexity, we began to understand the difficulty of sharing ecological and environmental concepts and issues in ways that bring us together to be part of the process of creating the pressing and necessary changes. We hope that together we can be part of finding ways to move forward personally and communally to address these dire issues. Within the chapters, we present a variety of narratives as we explore complex and challenging topics. We worked to create a relatable, interesting, and understandable approach to exploring the richness of the ecology and the complexity of environmental injustice. We invite you to unpack and process the information through reflection questions designed to engage personal and collective growth; we offer activities and additional resources to support continued learning. We approach environmental injustice and the climate crisis from a position that is ecologically centered rather than human-centered. Throughout this book, respect is paid to all forms of life inclusive of – and beyond – humans. The reason for this is twofold. First, we acknowledge the interdependence of all life within our biosphere. To some extent, it is our effort to distinguish ourselves from our environment and our devaluing of other life forms that led us into this existential crisis. Second, we believe that all life has value and deserves a healthy planet, free from exploitation, to live on regardless of species. The authors of this book bring a wealth of experiences, identities, and worldviews. We are all justice workers, many working across disciplines in the community and on university campuses. We bring a values-based, social justice–centered xi

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focus which we all represent. Some of us started our careers with a focus on the ecology and environmental justice. Others of us started our work in critical analysis and the struggle for equity and justice. All of us have been forever changed in recognizing, along with much of the world, that the impact of climate change has occurred and continues to occur. The injustices and the devastation created by the human-caused ecological destruction, environmental injustice, and the climate crisis demand a response from all of us as humans on the planet. Therefore, you find that our tone and approach is very much influenced by and embedded in justice. The stories we offer in the Appendices come from our personal and professional experiences, conveying ideas for active roles in the change process at the local level, while always recognizing the global context. We also present stories we have heard or encountered when working with service users and communities that face an array of ecological and environmental injustices. We recognize that the current climate crisis and the related injustices are severe, infuriating, and heartbreaking. At the writing of this book, a coronavirus pandemic and a focus on gross racial and gendered inequality are sweeping the world, the damage and disparities of which have not yet been fully calculated. Yet, we have to be informed and face these realities if we hope to spark change. But rest assured, we do not stop there. We try to wrap up with hope and strategies for action. As such, we present models and strategies for action with the potential for success and explore solutions for positive transformation. The concerns are often so big and complex that they are sometimes referred to as wicked problems, which are complex problems we cannot easily solve. Yet they are so important that we must all do our part individually as we come together to create and engage in change. We cannot remain in denial or paralyzed by grief and overwhelm. Though these are valid emotions, we must continue to heal as we act to resolve the things that are causing us stress and grief in the first place. Throughout each chapter we direct the reader towards reflections and actions that focus on their own personal experiences and expertise, other stories they have heard, and ways they may move forward with the information they learn about in this book. Finally, situated within this position of hope, we invite readers to join us as we collectively continue creating the story of a future of possibilities, together.

Our Story We, the authors of this book, each had our own path for coming together. Some of us have studied and researched this topic for a decade or more. Others are newer to it. Some of us were heavily engaged in sustainability or living lightly on the Earth long before we became involved in research and writing on the topic. For others it was the other way around. Several of us have served on the Committee on Environmental Justice of our professional organization, the Council on Social Work

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Education, working to infuse our educational standards with the language of environmental justice – while others have worked from the outside in. We have a history of addressing ecological concerns (e.g., researching toxic environments in urban spaces, enhancing green spaces for health and mental health, advocating for environmental justice) and a focus on issues of justice. The climate crisis demands an engaged response from us, as humans and as global citizens. These are personal, interpersonal, community, structural, and professional concerns. We must be part of the solutions, lending our expertise to interdisciplinary teams for action. This is not simply for those in social work and other social service professionals who are passionate about the environment, rather it is for every person interested in justice at any level of service, research, or education, with any population. The climate crisis and mass ecological destruction affects us all. With this book, we aim to move the conversation forward and contribute to the ongoing story of our work with the intersecting issues that come together under the umbrella of the global environmental crisis – ecological justice, climate change, environmental justice, and sustainability.

Your Story Before launching into this book, we invite you to consider your own story. We present you with many questions here. Write down your answers and then revisit them after you complete the book. Ask yourself in what respect your answers have changed and where you may seek to grow and act in the future. First, pause to answer these broad questions: • How did you come to read this book? What do environment and ecology mean to you? How concerned are you about the environment? • If you had to tell someone the story of your life, where would you begin? What would you highlight? • What stories do you have about your special connections to place? • What are your connections to the ecological environment that are not immediately surrounding you? The path to awareness is personal and contextual, we hope you are open to reflecting on what we share, as well as your own experiences and context. We invite you to take a different turn on an old saying, don’t just do something, sit there. Sit there mindfully, that is. Think of your own stories as you engage with the materials presented in the book. Identify your connections with the environment (natural and built) surrounding you. How do you begin? Start with right now. Consider your surroundings as you read this page and briefly answer these specific questions: If you are outside:

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Is it sunny or cloudy? Are you alone or around others? Are there any plants, animals, or birds around? Describe them. Describe the air. How comfortable is the temperature? Is there wind? Is it raining or snowing? Is it smoggy or clear? If you are inside:

• Describe the lighting. Is there natural light? Is it bright? Dim? • Is the space you are in comfortable, inviting, loud, congested? Regardless of where you are: • Do you want to be in this space or do you wish you were elsewhere? • Where else would you like to be? • And if you could be anywhere in the world out in nature, where would you be? Why? The here-and-now is as much a part of your story as where you came from. Importantly, your story is a collective one, in which you are an integral and unique part. We also invite you to not just sit there, do something. We encourage you to join a network, in-person group, social media, some place where you can engage in dialogue – or even just silently observe. Reflect on topics of climate, nature, and ecological justice or any narrower related topic. What are you hearing? What are you learning? What do you already do to either limit your personal impact on the planet or the address the impacts of humanity? If your answer is either “nothing” or “I’m not sure, I have not really thought about this,” no worries! This is a starting place. Think about, as you read this book, where you fit and what you can do.

Our Dream of the Future Finally, let’s think about the future. Now more than ever before, humans must consider the reality of a radically different future and a planet altered from the one we grew up on. Yes, we are even talking about our youthful readers. You too will live on a different planet in your adulthood than you are currently experiencing because, as the saying goes, the train has already left the station. Climate change is moving that fast and interacting with the human-initiated ecological degradation. It is not about our future children or grandchildren or the generations to come. We are living in it and with it already, right here and right now. The ecological balance is at a critical tipping point and picking up steam. All life, including we humans, are strapped into our seats, on a journey whether we like it or not. We invite you to be both realistic and a dreamer. Start with your dreams. What is important to you? What do you love that you want to protect? It can be a place or a person; it could also be a memory. Shall we dare to dream of a future that will be

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full of snowy winters and sledding, barefoot summers on beaches? Of dense forests and clear air? Birds and wildlife? And then the realistic part. As you read this book, determine realistically where you can start as you join with others in making our dream a reality.

Reference Gottschall, J. (2013). The storytelling animal: How stories make us human. New York: Mariner Books. Saint Paul, MN, USA  Ande A. Nesmith Greensboro, NC, USA  Cathryne L. Schmitz Jacksonville, FL, USA  Yolanda Machado-Escudero Phoenix, AZ, USA  Shanondora Billiot Glenwood Springs, CO, USA  Rachel A. Forbes Greensboro, NC, USA  Meredith C. F. Powers Detroit, MI, USA  Nikita Buckhoy Asheville, NC, USA  Lucy A. Lawrence

Contents

1 Climate Change, Ecology, and Justice ��������������������������������������������������    1 Climate Change and the Importance of 1.5 °C����������������������������������������     3 The Anthropocene Age����������������������������������������������������������������������������     4 What Are We Doing About Climate Change? The Paris Agreement������     4 Not Only About Climate Change������������������������������������������������������������     5 Mobilize Change: A Call to Action����������������������������������������������������������     7 This Is No Time to Give Up: Action Can Yield Real Change��������������     7 Wicked Problems ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������     8 Complexity and Interdisciplinary Responses��������������������������������������     9 Book Outline and Rationale��������������������������������������������������������������������     9 Discussion Questions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������    10 Activity������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    10 References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    11 2 Water, Air, and Land: The Foundation of Life, Food, and Society�����   13 Land, Air, and Water: The Foundation of Life����������������������������������������    13 Water��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    14 Fresh Water������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    14 Oceans��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    16 Land ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    17 Natural resource extraction������������������������������������������������������������������    18 Deforestation and wildfires������������������������������������������������������������������    18 Fracking ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    19 Air������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    20 Food: The Intersection of Land, Air, and Water��������������������������������������    20 Food Justice ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    21 Eating for a Cooler Planet��������������������������������������������������������������������    21 The Clean Energy Movement: A Just Transition Toward Wind and Solar Energy��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    22 Discussion Questions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������    22 Activity������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    23 References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    23 xvii

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Contents

3 Celebrating and Preserving the Ecology of Life ����������������������������������   27 Loss and Preservation������������������������������������������������������������������������������    29 Shifting Worldview����������������������������������������������������������������������������������    31 The Human-Centric Model������������������������������������������������������������������    31 The Eco-centric Model������������������������������������������������������������������������    31 Building a Future ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    32 Examples Around the World����������������������������������������������������������������    33 Lessons and Possibilities���������������������������������������������������������������������    34 Discussion Questions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������    35 Activities����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    36 References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    36 4 Environmental Injustice: Transformative Change Toward Justice����   39 Intersectionality and Environmental Injustice ����������������������������������������    39 Environmental Injustice Intersected by Colonialism ��������������������������    41 Environmental Racism������������������������������������������������������������������������    43 Environmental Impact Studies and Community Voice������������������������    44 Community Vulnerability and Environmental Conflict ����������������������    46 Climate Change and Migration: Heightened Vulnerability ��������������������    49 Environmental Justice������������������������������������������������������������������������������    50 Discussion Questions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������    52 Activity������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    52 References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    53 5 Human Health and Well-Being in Times of Global Environmental Crisis ������������������������������������������������������������������������������   57 The Global Environmental Changes and Human Health������������������������    58 Heatwaves��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    58 Access to Clean Water ������������������������������������������������������������������������    59 Food Systems ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    59 Air Quality ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    60 Chronic and Infectious Diseases����������������������������������������������������������    61 Mental Health and Well-Being����������������������������������������������������������������    62 Adaptation and Mitigation ����������������������������������������������������������������������    63 Discussion Questions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������    64 Activity������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    64 References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    64 6 Power and Politics: Decision-Making, Protection, Rebuilding, and Justice������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   67 Policy in the Context of the Environment������������������������������������������������    67 Global Policy ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    68 National-Level Policies������������������������������������������������������������������������    69 US Federal Policy Organizations That Address Environmental Justice��������������������������������������������������������������������������    70 State Laws��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    72 Tribal Policies��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    72

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Dakota Access Pipeline and the Standing Rock Sioux����������������������������    73 Local Policy ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    74 Policy Participation������������������������������������������������������������������������������    74 Voter Engagement��������������������������������������������������������������������������������    75 Advocacy and Lobbying����������������������������������������������������������������������    76 Policy Development and Analysis ������������������������������������������������������    76 Discussion Questions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������    78 Activity������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    78 References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    78 7 Pathways to Change: Community and Environmental Transformation����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   83 Complexity at the Juncture of Climate Change, an Endangered Ecology, and Injustice������������������������������������������������������������������������������    85 Intersecting Issues��������������������������������������������������������������������������������    86 Case Examples ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    87 Pathways to Change ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������    89 Systemic Change����������������������������������������������������������������������������������    89 Rebuilding Community������������������������������������������������������������������������    91 Individual Actions��������������������������������������������������������������������������������    94 Community Change ����������������������������������������������������������������������������    95 Interdisciplinary Responses ����������������������������������������������������������������    95 Social Work������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    96 Education ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    97 Integration of the Environmental and Ecological: Warren Wilson College����������������������������������������������������������������������������    98 Educational Support����������������������������������������������������������������������������    99 Discussion Questions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������   100 Activity������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   100 References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   101 8 Decolonizing Nature: The Potential of Nature to Heal������������������������  105 The COVID-19 Pandemic������������������������������������������������������������������������   105 Impact of Colonization on the Environment��������������������������������������������   108 Loss of People and Culture������������������������������������������������������������������   109 Environmental Impact��������������������������������������������������������������������������   110 Decolonization ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   113 Decolonizing Relationships with Ourselves and Others����������������������   114 Decolonizing Relationships with Nature ��������������������������������������������   116 Decolonizing Agriculture and Food����������������������������������������������������   117 Decolonizing Leadership ��������������������������������������������������������������������   118 Decolonizing Economic Systems��������������������������������������������������������   120 Decolonizing Environmental Movements��������������������������������������������   122 Pathways Forward������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   123 Discussion Questions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������   126 Activity������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   126 References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   127

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Contents

Epilogue������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  135 Appendices��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  139 Appendix A: The Story of Grand Bois����������������������������������������������������������  139 Appendix B: Puerto Rico: Inequality, Environmental Injustice, and Resistance����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  141 Appendix C: The Flint Water Crisis��������������������������������������������������������������  144 Appendix D: Camino Seguro (Safe Passage)������������������������������������������������  147 Appendix E: Impacting Human Health and Well-Being������������������������������  149 Appendix F: Warren Wilson College: A Case Study in Environment Education������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  150 Appendix G: Creating Change: From Critical Self-Reflection to Knowledge Building to Personal and Collective Action������������������������������  154 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  159

About the Authors

Ande A. Nesmith, PhD, MSW  is an Associate Professor and the BSW Program Director at the University of St. Thomas (UST) in the Morrison Family College of Health in St. Paul, Minnesota. She researches environmental justice in the United States, how to integrate it into social work education, and how social workers help clients who live with environmental hazards in rural areas. For the past 10 years, she has served on the St. Thomas Sustainability Committee, working to develop interdisciplinary approaches to address environmental inequalities and engage students in climate action and sustainable living. She served on the university’s office of Global and Local Engagement Advisory Panel for the previous St. Thomas sustainability initiative and continues work with the university’s new initiative. When she is not working on environmental justice, Dr. Nesmith studies outcomes for youth aging out of foster care, and was recently awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study this in the Czech Republic. Currently, she serves the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) as co-chair of the Committee on Environmental Justice and a commissioner of the Commission on Global Social Work Education. Cathryne L. Schmitz, PhD, MSW  is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Social Work at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). Her scholarship focuses on environmental justice, critical multiculturalism, analysis of the privilege/oppression nexus, global engagement, leadership, interdisciplinary ­education, organizational development and community building, and peacebuilding. She has been engaged in intercultural global education, environmental education, knowledge building, and curriculum development. Dr. Schmitz has numerous publications and is currently focusing in the areas of environmental justice, identity and culture, interdisciplinary knowledge building, and organizational/community transformation. She has expanded her focus through her cross-disciplinary appointments with the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and the Program in Women and Gender Studies. Dr. Schmitz also contributes to and learns from her work in the community and with the UNCG Center for New North Carolinians. Dr. Schmitz served on the CSWE Commission on Diversity and Social and Economic Justice from 2010 to 2016 and on the CSWE Committee on Environmental Justice from 2015 to present, serving as Chair from 2015 to 2019. xxi

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About the Authors

Yolanda  Machado-Escudero, PhD, MSW  is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Florida (UNF) in Jacksonville. Her research interests include social work feminist ecology, environmental injustice, migration and climate change, disability, socioeconomic development, Latin American social work education, social welfare policy, and healthcare disparities among minorities of color, among others. She teaches from a critical race feminist framework, focusing on issues affecting Latinx populations living in vulnerable contexts. Dr. Machado-­ Escudero has served as a board member in various grassroots coalitions aiming to improve the quality of life of Latinos in the United States. Currently, she is working on developing interdisciplinary projects: 1) addressing the aftermath of natural disasters in Puerto Rico, including forced migration and collective trauma, and 2) reaching out to Latinx migrant families affected by separations due to deportation proceedings. Shanondora Billiot, PhD, MSW  is an enrolled citizen of United Houma Nation and works as an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University in Phoenix. She earned a PhD in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and holds a Master’s of Social Work from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Her research explores the intersection of health, environment, and culture among Indigenous peoples and is informed by post-MSW practice experience in disaster recovery community development and national policy analysis. Her current research uses mixed methods to explore indigenous-specific sensitivities to global environmental change exposure and pathways to health outcomes within vulnerable Indigenous populations with the goal to develop mitigation and adaptation activities and inform communities, policymakers, and researchers. Rachel A. Forbes, MSW  is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Social Work and the Western Colorado MSW Program Director at the University of Denver (DU) Graduate School of Social Work. Her scholarship and research focuses on the intersections of community, climate change, and environmental justice, especially within rural and mountain regions. Rachel is a graduate of Monmouth University School of Social Work in West Long Branch, New Jersey, where she studied international and community development. Rachel supported the development and launch of the Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability Studies degree program at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, where she was also an instructor. Rachel supports the Social Work Grand Challenges Creating Social Responses to a Changing Environment. She also is a faculty committee member of the Sustainable Development and Global Practice MSW concentration at DU GSSW.  Rachel was the interning representative to the United Nations for the International Federation of Social Workers and has done energy equity consulting for the City of Aspen, Colorado.

About the Authors

xxiii

Meredith C. F. Powers, PhD, MSW  is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where she serves on the Sustainability Council and the Study Abroad Faculty Committee. Nationally, she serves as a member of the Environmental Justice Committee for the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and the Grand Challenges for Social Work committee, Create Social Responses to a Changing Environment. Internationally, she serves as the Founder and Director of the Climate Justice Program for the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW). She also established and co-administers the global Green/Environmental Social Work Collaborative Network. Presently, she teaches environmental justice, field seminar, and diversity and work with vulnerable populations. Her research focuses on the professional socialization of social workers, climate justice, and environmental migration. She has presented her research nationally and internationally, at professional conferences, including being invited as a keynote speaker at the United Nations for World Social Work Day (2018), speaking on climate justice, social work, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She is co-editor of a series of workbooks for global social workers and educators: Social Work Promoting Community and Environmental Sustainability published by the IFSW. Nikita Buckhoy, LMSW  is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan; she has a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration in Illinois. Her dissertation research focuses on the pursuit of environmental justice and health equity in U.S. cities engaged in revitalization or other forms of transformation. She is an experienced macro-practitioner. Her work in Chicago included HIV-related maternal-­child health, housing, and prevention interventions and research management; and program administration, resource development, and policy advocacy with vulnerable, marginalized communities. In Detroit, she works on community health policy and system-change initiatives, evaluation, and cross-sector collaboration management. Ms. Buckhoy is also a field instructor, supervises social workers preparing for licensure, and serves on a non-profit board of directors.  Her research interests include  environmental justice and health equity policy in U.S. cities ­undergoing transformation processes (growth, shrinkage, revitalization), urban air quality, and women and people of color’s experiences with asthma. Lucy  A.  Lawrence, MSW, PhD  is Social Work Program Director at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. She earned her BS in social work from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, MSW from Boston University in Massachusetts, and PhD from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Her interest in environmental justice began when she worked as student affairs manager at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies in Costa Rica, where one of her projects was reforesting the property of a rural public high school. Her other professional experiences include in-patient mental health, family visitation, death penalty mitigation, and international disaster relief and food security. At Warren Wilson, she has led short-term study abroad courses to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Cuba, Latvia,

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About the Authors

Sweden, and Tanzania. Dr. Lawrence regularly teaches in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, which brings together traditional liberal arts students from Warren Wilson with incarcerated students for semester-long courses. Her research interests include intercultural communication, study abroad, and horticultural therapy with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Dr. Lawrence has served on CSWE's  Commission on Global Education since 2014 and is the Environmental Justice Committee's liaison to the Commission.

About the Contributor

Lacey  Sloan,  BSW, MSSW, PhD,  Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, University of Vermont (UVM), is a wanderer who also works as a UNICEF-­ Somalia consultant. Her three intertwining areas of scholarship are social work education in Islamic contexts, critical multiculturalism, and environmental justice. Her earlier work was in sexual rights. Over the last 10 years, she facilitated the development and accreditation of 2 MSW programs (New York City [NYC] & Abu Dhabi [UAE]) and 3 BSW programs (NYC; Somalia; & Qatar). She is currently the President-Elect of NASW-Vermont. Lacey is also a UVM Sustainability Fellow and a steering committee member for development of the Council on Social Work Education’s specialized practice in Environmental Justice. Last summer, she rode her Harley across the United States, with plans to ride from Vermont to Vancouver this summer.

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Chapter 1

Climate Change, Ecology, and Justice

Youth climate activist Greta Thunberg did not mince her words as she spoke before the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in front of world leaders in 2018, telling them boldly that her generation was done with asking world leaders to take action and that change would be coming with or without their approval (World Economic Forum, 2018). Thunberg demonstrated to the world and particularly to young people that the devastating and lasting impacts of climate change would land in the laps of today’s children and that children can and do have a voice. She began a global school climate strike movement bringing over six million people into the streets in September 2019 (Taylor, Watts, & Bartlett, 2019). When she was accused of pulling children out of their educational environments, Thunberg noted that the case for attending school is weak if there is to be no future for youth. She bluntly argued that we—the adults and those in power—are stealing our children’s future by not acting quickly to preserve the delicate balance of our ecosystems. The science tells us that the planet is warming faster than predicted or imagined; the rate is so dangerous that scientists have already predicted a CO2 tipping point—the point of no return when our earth will be irrevocably warmed beyond repair affecting nearly all life. Importantly, the brunt of the initial environmental crises are borne by the poorest countries and most vulnerable communities (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2018). They are usually hit the hardest by ecological destruction and subsequent disasters, which is exacerbated by the fact that these populations have the fewest resources for combating them. Often those who are currently paying the highest price are not those who created the problem. This is known as environmental injustice, a concept further explored in coming chapters. We say initial crises because eventually everyone, including the wealthy, the privileged, and those living in the safest regions of the world, will suffer under the impact; that point is rapidly approaching. Climate change and other human-caused ecological destruction are global issues. Polluted air circulates and becomes the air all of us breathe, and the permanent loss of potable drinking water affects the viability for all life. The health of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil is critical not only to © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9_1

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1  Climate Change, Ecology, and Justice

Brazil but to the entire planet as a major absorber of carbon and producer of oxygen. This is how the forest got its nickname as the “lungs” of the Earth. Even if we were not concerned with the poor and the vulnerable, the state of our planet’s health and habitability is worthy of attention and concern to every person on Earth. In fact, a majority of people now believe what science has proven, climate change exists, and humans are responsible for this phenomenon. Yet the impact can feel amorphous, making it difficult to link the effects and see the possibilities for change. We are faced with record heat, increasingly turbulent weather, loss of ecology, the degrading of air and water, and the loss of land to water or extreme dryness. Climate change is the new normal which ironically means there is no static normal to adjust to as long as we are not acting to slow the change. A place of fear exists about the future of our children, our grandchildren, and those that come after them. While it is true that future generations will suffer terribly if we do not take stronger action, this is not an issue resting solely with future generations. It is a crisis here and now for all of us. As Greta Thunberg expressed so powerfully to global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in 2018: I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house was on fire—because it is. (World Economic Forum, 2018)

At the same time, with all of the impending doom that today’s climate-induced crises present, an ounce of hope emerges as we listen to youth like Greta Thunberg, calling on world leaders to step up or step aside and reminding an older generation of leaders, and all who listen, that we, the people, are the ones with the power to create change. Our youth are forging a path by facing the global environmental crisis occurring at the intersection of climate change, ecological degradation, and environmental injustice, which includes human-induced environmental destruction, including a wide range of activities such as dumping toxic waste or building in fragile habitats. As the earth heats, all the forecasts predict increasing ecological destruction that will impact our daily lives in large and small ways: from the type and quantity of energy we can use to combat summer heat and violent storms to immigration crises as homelands become uninhabitable, food and water shortages become the norm, and war breaks out as we have seen in places like Syria. Climate change impacts our social, economic, and political systems. For decades, the prevailing message about climate change was that it was unfolding slowly, a concern that was more about our grandchildren than us. However, the pace at which our planet is increasingly stress with lasting effects is repeatedly described by scientists as greatly outpacing their predictions. The consequences are far-reaching with rising seas, raging forest and prairie fires, droughts in some places, and floods in others. This is to name only a few results. The context for life has to be reformed (Wallace-Wells, 2019). Each new scientific report reveals that the estimates were too conservative, underestimating the magnitude and pace of at which it is warming. This attitude permitted our denial to mask the urgency of the situation, leading us to believe palpable change was but a distant possibility.

Climate Change and the Importance of 1.5 °C

3

Climate Change and the Importance of 1.5 °C You may have heard references to an increase of 1.5 °C and wondered what that means; it does not seem like much of an increase. First, the increase is a comparison to preindustrial global temperatures (IPCC, 2018), referring to the global climate before we began pumping carbon into the atmosphere. Second, an increase of 1.5 °C converts to 2.7 °F. This is not the same as warming your living room or yard or even your city by 1.5 °C. Image instead all the warming that must take place, of the air, the land, and of the vast expanse and depth of the oceans; all must be heated up to accumulate to a measurable global increase. Or image having an increase of 2.7 °F in the body creating a fever of 101.3 °F and that it is projected to continue rising. We would likely be concerned and we would likely do something about it. Our planet has a fever and it will keep rising until we take global action to address it. The consequences of temperatures rising 1.5 or perhaps 2.0 °C are unimaginable for most of us. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2018), however, we cannot sustain more than a 1.5 °C increase without devastating impacts worldwide. It is the line we should not cross to avoid the worst effects of climate change. While there will be regional differences, overall even at 1.5 °C, we will experience the impact of heat increases across the land and the ocean with extreme heat in most regions that are inhabited. You may have already observed changes in your own community. Perhaps you are seeing warmer summers or increases in rain, droughts, or wildfires. Depending on where you live, you may also be seeing bigger snowstorms. In fact, that is precisely what scientists predict, increasingly uneven distributions of precipitation and more dramatic weather, including snow in some places. Warmer air is capable of holding more moisture which leads to more intense weather events. Sea level rise due to melting polar ice sheets will destroy countless coastal communities, especially those dependent on the sea for food and their livelihoods. The more we can limit sea level rise, the more likely we are to adapt to the changes. Coral ecosystems will be dramatically impacted and possibly gone entirely; this has already started. If the temperature rises to 2.0 °C, the consequences will be more drastic, lowering our odds of adaptation. The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Petteri Taalas, stated at a news conference during a United Nations conference in November 2018 that greenhouse gas concentrations, instead of decreasing since the Paris Agreement, have reached record high levels. We are quite literally moving in the opposite direction from what is needed. He warned that if we continue this trend, we will reach temperature increases of 3–5 °C by the end of the century. For those more familiar with Fahrenheit, a 3–5 °C increase is equivalent to 5.4–9.0 °F. Our planet has seen this before and it resulted in mass extinction. The late Triassic period was sparked by global temperature increase of 5–11 °F. Such increases would yield devastating results, making vast regions of the world inhospitable (Wallace-Wells, 2019, p. 6). Perhaps the end of the century feels too far away to worry about. When is all this expected to occur? If we do not reduce our carbon emissions, we are on track to hit

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1.5 °C as early as 10 years from the production of this book, in 2030. This is not about our grandchildren. This is about us. Right here. Right now.

The Anthropocene Age We are now in a geologic age called the Anthropocene. Anthro means human. It was named by scientists based on the overwhelming evidence that humans have caused substantial and lasting changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, water systems, and biosphere—the diversity of life (Ellis, 2013). Geologic periods, eras, and epochs define major shifts for the earth in terms of life-forms and extinctions, climate, topography, and other aspects of the planet. Many of us are familiar with terms like Jurassic, the time of the big dinosaurs, and are aware that the era of dinosaurs likely ended with a sudden and cataclysmic asteroid that abruptly and dramatically changed the climate. Similarly, the Anthropocene marks the end of the era that most of us were born into and begins a new one named in honor of the impact humans have had on every part of the environment (Gornitz, 2013; Wallace-Wells, 2019). In geologic terms, the pace at which humans have impacted the planet is unimaginably fast, and that rate is increasing. The heating planet alone, ignoring pollution and other destruction, has already resulted in increases in severe weather events which means more and stronger hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and forest fires, to name a few. These in turn will have, and in some cases already have, created devastating economic, social, and personal losses to communities and sometimes to entire countries (Kemp, 2011). The coming chaos will result in major social, political, and economic changes for the human community. For example, as a result of climate change, conflicts over resources, and environmental damage caused by industrial air, ground, and water pollution, we are now witnessing global migration and violent conflicts as has played out in Syria (Wallace-Wells, 2019). There are surging crises in the Global South increasing the destabilization. It is communities marginalized by color, poverty, gender, and locale which are impacted, ignored, and demonized. Power, race, and wealth influence who contributes to and benefits from environmental degradation and who suffers as a result (Wallace-Wells, 2019).

 hat Are We Doing About Climate Change? The Paris W Agreement What are we doing about this crisis? The answer is frustrating: a lot and not nearly enough. This book explores many activities for combating climate change and other environmental destruction, but let’s start with one of the biggest global efforts: The Paris Agreement. It is nearly impossible to read anything about climate change without mention of the Paris Agreement.

Not Only About Climate Change

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In December 2015  in Paris, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 2016) reached a global agreement about greenhouse gas emissions in response to climate change. The goal was to obtain buy-in from nations around the globe. So rather than set any specific goals for nations, they asked each nation to determine what they could contribute. On Earth Day, April 22, 2016, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, 55 countries that produced 55% of global emissions ratified the agreement to reduce emissions. This has since increased to 125 countries. The Paris Agreement’s central aim was: To strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. (UNFCCC, 2016)

Under the agreement, the United States pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 26–28% below our 2005 levels. We agreed to achieve this by 2025 and committed up to $3 billion in aid for poorer countries by 2020. As part of this effort, participating states agreed to track and report progress to the global community and push new and existing policies to reduce carbon pollution and promote clean energy at both state and federal levels (United States Climate Alliance, 2019). As of 2019, 197 states plus the European Union had signed and ratified the Paris Agreement which represents nearly every country in the world, save a few important holdouts like Russia (Apparicio & Sauer, 2018). It is important to note that on June 1, 2017, President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement (Shear, 2017). Nevertheless, the withdrawal cannot take place until after the 2020 elections which could result in a reversal of that decision, depending on the outcome of that race.

Not Only About Climate Change The global environmental crisis expands beyond climate change to include human-­ induced ecological and environmental destruction. Not only have humans dramatically increased global temperatures by putting carbon, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the air at unprecedented rates, but we have also created other changes, many of which may be permanent. Species are going extinct at a rate more rapid than ever recorded since humans walked the planet. For example, in the oceans, we have depleted fish populations—many to the point of collapse— destroyed major animal habitats through deforestation and growing cities, and polluted our waterways, air, and land (Kemp, 2011). There is virtually no ecosystem that has not been negatively impacted by human activity. An old phrase referring to a canary in a coal mine provides an ominous warning. Coal miners brought canaries into mines because they were more sensitive to poisonous carbon monoxide than humans; when the canary stopped singing (died), humans knew it is time to exit quickly. This metaphor is now before us as a reality

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Fig. 1.1  Seabirds: northern gannets. (Published with kind permission of © Ande A.  Nesmith 2020. All Rights Reserved)

on a global scale. To highlight just one of many possible examples, in September 2019, it was discovered that North America has lost three billion birds since 1970, largely due to habitat loss (Rosenberg et  al., 2019). These are not the already-­ threatened birds. These are everyday common birds like the red-winged black bird, which have thrived in abundance (Fig. 1.1). This is a loss of 29% of all birds in North America in less than a half century (48 years). The proverbial canary is silent. However, we have no option to exit like a coal miner; action is our only hope. As individuals and professionals, we are now called to action. A defining characteristic of the Anthropocene age is mass extinction. Earth’s geologic and ecological history is replete with extinctions. We have had five major extinctions caused by naturally occurring events in which nearly 75% of all living species disappeared (Richter, n.d.; Kolbert, 2014). These were caused by events like an asteroid and volcanic activity. True, extinction is a natural part of our evolutionary cycle; in fact, 99% of all species to ever exist are extinct (Greshko et al., 2019). However, we are in the middle of a sixth extinction that is human-caused through pollution, habitat loss, overharvesting, and climate change. Extinctions of species today are occurring at hundreds of times faster than under natural conditions. It is complicated to measure because we do not actually know precisely how many species there are on the planet, though we have currently identified from 1.4 to 1.8 million species. According to the United Nations, currently nearly one million species are threatened with extinction (United Nations, 2018). More specifically, the average number of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at

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least 20%, mostly since industrialization. And more than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals, and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened (United Nations, 2018). Much of this speaks to the future. Critically, we are currently already experiencing devastating impacts of climate change. At the writing of this book, the last 5  years were among the hottest ever recorded (Dennis, Freedman, & Muyskens, 2020). Winter Arctic temperatures (critical for sustaining the polar ice sheet) have already risen 3 °C, and we are quickly facing ice-free seasons in the Arctic with the end of polar bears and other Arctic wildlife.

Mobilize Change: A Call to Action This is the moment to move into action. The planet “was brought to the brink of climate catastrophe within the lifetime of a single generation, the responsibility to avoid it belongs with a single generation, too” (Wallace-Wells, 2019, p. 6). Denial of course interferes with our ability to take action. Even when we know cognitively that climate change is real and urgent, the immensity of it can seem unimaginable (Norgaard, 2011). As professionals and individual human beings, however, we owe it to our collective children to do something given that denial is threatening their future (Mann & Toles, 2018). Ironically, our capacity for creativity and change has established roadblocks for us. Our rapid technological advances have in fact led us to this climate crisis.

This Is No Time to Give Up: Action Can Yield Real Change Despite the bleakness of this message, it is no time to throw in the towel. In fact, we sit on the brink right now, and while the fate of life on earth is on the line, there is still time to thwart the worst impacts of climate change (Romm, 2016). At 1.5 °C, we need to make rapid changes in land use, urban planning, industrial policies, infrastructure, and energy policy and use (IPCC, 2018). Adaptations, if carefully implemented, have the potential to benefit sustainable development and poverty reduction (IPCC, 2018). Change requires a commitment to stop this spiral and be a part of creating transformative change. In order to accomplish this, we must maintain optimism to guide and energize us. We begin this journey without a map and with limited resources (Orr, 2016); but we must remember, there are some models for change. McKibben (2019) encourages optimism in the ongoing struggle to disrupt destructive climate change. He finds hope in the technological developments including solar and wind power, activism engaging nonviolent action, and the nature of humans as team players who value community. Human survival is linked to our collective nature over individualism.

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The political turmoil of nation states and cooptation by individualistic shortsighted goals based on greed brings to the fore the necessity for local control and action. And there are indeed local and global models for action. With the United States pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, more localized entities have stepped in as states, cities, and organizations have developed plans and are taking action (Beaumont, Bonfiglio, & Beaumont, 2019). These entities “must cascade up to change the larger systems of governance and economy” (Orr, 2016, p. xi). For example, 25 states have joined the United States Climate Alliance (2019), which is setting its own standards more in line with the Paris Agreement, toward mitigating climate change. Many in the United States are mobilizing to create change at the local level. When the US President, President Trump, announced his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, cities, states, and organizations stepped up to fill that void. As of mid-2019, there were 75 cities and 25 states committed to meeting and exceeding the Paris Agreement thresholds for the United States.

Wicked Problems We must recognize the complexity of real-world problems and the multidimensional and interdisciplinary efforts required to address them. Wicked problems are complex, large-scale, multilayered, dynamic, value-laden, highly contested issues that cross multiple natural and human-created systems and strata (Rittel & Webber, 1973). Climate change, not surprisingly, is a wicked problem. Climate change amplifies the intersectionality of risk, identity (gender, race/ethnicity, poor), and vulnerability. This expands the multidimensional complexing of responding to the cumulative risks and exposures as people who suffer under the vulnerability of poverty, sexism, racism, and geography are most burdened by environmental hazards (Bullard, Mohai, Saha, & Wright, 2007; Klinenberg, 2002; Peeples, 2003; Sexton & Linder, 2010). While we tend to think about climate change in terms of meteorological statistics, there is a very human side to it as well. As Gus Speth, cofounder of the Natural Resources Defense Council explained, “the top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy…and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. And we as scientists don’t know how to do that” (Hickman, 2019, para. 4). This occurs within a global sociopolitical context that inherently supports unsustainable growth models: Unsustainable models of development, unequal power dynamics and unequal distribution of resources … exacerbate structural inequalities and affect most poor and low-income people. (Dominelli, 2013, p. 431)

Hence the problem must be tackled at multiple levels, including structural, political, and economic inequality, access to resources, and the relationship between greed, power, and culture.

Book Outline and Rationale

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Complexity and Interdisciplinary Responses Climate change at the complicated juncture with human-induced ecological destruction and the resulting environmental injustice is a deeply complex issue that likely can only be resolved through interdisciplinary collaboration. Essentially, at this juncture, we need all hands on deck to resolve it. While the natural, biological, and technological sciences have an extensive history of working on these issues, the social sciences have remained on the sidelines until recently (Schmitz, Matyók, Sloan, & James, 2012). Change means expanding the lens of the social sciences to embrace the ecological environment. This requires drawing on the strengths of collaborative, justice-based, community practice as we join with communities and educate for interdisciplinary response (Nesmith & Smyth, 2015; Schmitz, Stinson, & James, 2010). Interdisciplinary partnerships, embedded in relational association with local communities facing environmental threats and inequality, are required (Kemp, 2011). The complexity and immediacy necessitate the multifaceted response. The individual and community are the central actors at the core of the issues and are vital to change. Response, ideally, is interdisciplinary engaging the social, biological, physical, and natural sciences along with technology (Schmitz et al., 2012). Social work, peace, and conflict studies and critical studies bring complimentary lens to the analysis and action. As we continue to partner with biological, geologic, environmental, chemical, and social scientists; medical professionals; engineering; policy-­makers, lawyers, planners, and economists; and artists, the potential for creative response expands.

Book Outline and Rationale Throughout this book, we use several ecological, environmental, and environmental justice-related terms. We support learning that crosses the personal, communal, and professional as we progress through this book. In Chap. 2, Water, Air, Land: The Foundation for Life, explores the role of place and belonging which is anchored in the land, water, and air upon which we depend to meet our personal, communal, and physical needs. Chapter 3 further scrutinizes the web of life recognizing that human life is not at the center. The survival of humans is dependent upon the same needs as all of ecology. In Chap. 4, Environmental Justice: Injustice and Transformative Change, we tackle vulnerability of marginalized communities and populations that occur at the intersection of race, poverty, geography, and gender. In Chap. 5, human health and well-being are studied in more depth, highlighting the interconnection across global environmental crisis. Chapter 6, with the focus on power and politics, considers the role of engagement in political decision-making processes and potential opportunities for change and empowerment. In Chap. 7, the struggles to create

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change at the local within the global context are explored from the perspective of individuals, the community, and the professions committed to transformative change. Finally, in Chap. 8, we explore the global pandemic of 2020 as it comes from and provides lessons for engaging the global environmental crisis.

Discussion Questions In order to grasp the significance of the issues and their centrality in your community, you must first grapple with your personal history. The following questions guide that reflection: 1. Consider your history of awareness about climate change. When were you first aware of climate change? Environmental injustice? How has your understanding changed over time? 2. How much of the information presented in this chapter is new to you? What stands out? What is your reaction to it? 3. What is happening in your community/state/country in regard to action to protect (or degrade) the environment? 4. What role can you play in your community to ameliorate the impact of climate change? 5. What steps can your community take to adapt and mitigate the increasing risk?

Activity Think about our changing climate and its relationship to an environmental injustice in your community or region. Answer the following questions and then discuss with a peer, colleague, or community group: • What changes are occurring in the climate, weather, or storms that you are aware of? • Why is environmental injustice? How do changes in weather interact with vulnerability? • Who and what is immediately impacted? • Who and what will be impacted in the future if it is allowed to persist? • What actions are underway to address this environmental injustice? • What are the steps you can or have taken to come alongside your community (either as an insider or outsider) to take action for climate justice?

References

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References Apparicio, S., & Sauer, N. (2018). Which countries have not ratified the Paris climate agreement? Retrieved from: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/12/ countries-yet-ratify-paris-agreement/ Beaumont, S. (Producer), Bonfiglio, M., & Beaumont, S. (Directors). (2019). Paris to Pittsburgh. Radical Media. Retrieved from https://www.paristopittsburgh.com/ Bullard, R. D., Mohai, P., Saha, R., & Wright, B. (2007). Toxic wastes and race at twenty, 1987-­ 2007. Grassroots struggles to dismantle environmental racism in the U.S. A report prepared for the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries. Retrieved from http://www.ejrc. cau.edu/TWARTFinal.htm Dennis, F., & Muyskens, J. (2020, January 15). 2019 capped world’s hottest decade in record Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/ 01/15/2010s-hottest-decade-world/?arc404=true Dominelli, L. (2013). Environmental justice at the heart of social work practice: Greening the profession. International Journal of Social Welfare, 22, 431–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/ ijsw.12024 Ellis, E. (2013). Anthropocene. The Encyclopedia of the Earth. Retrieved from https://editors.eol. org/eoearth/wiki/Anthropocene Gornitz, V. (2013). Rising seas: Past, present, and future. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Greshko, M., & National Geographic Staff. (2019). What are mass extinctions, and what causes them? National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/ prehistoric-world/mass-extinction/ Hickman, C. (2019, June 7). What psychotherapy can do for the climate and biodiversity crises. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/ what-psychotherapy-can-do-for-the-climate-and-biodiversity-crises-116977 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. (2018). Special report: Global warming of 1.5 °C. Retrieved from https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ Kemp, S. P. (2011). Recentring environment in social work practice: Necessity, opportunity, challenge. British Journal of Social Work, 41, 1198–1210. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcr119 Klinenberg, E. (2002). Heat wave: A social autopsy of disaster in Chicago. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Kolbert, E. (2014). The sixth extinction: An unnatural history. New York, NY: Henry Holt & Co. Mann, M. E., & Toles, T. (2018). The madhouse effect: How climate change denial is threatening our planet, destroying our politics, and driving us crazy. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. McKibben, B. (2019). Falter: Has the human game begun to play itself out? New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company. Nesmith, A., & Smyth, N. (2015). Environmental justice and social work education: Social worker professional perspectives. Social Work Education: The International Journal, 34(5), 484–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2015.1063600 Norgaard, K. M. (2011). Living in denial: Climate change, emotions, and everyday life. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Orr, D. W. (2016). Dangerous years: Climate change, the long emergency and the way forward. New Haven, CT: Yale University press. Peeples, J.  A. (2003). Trashing sSouth-central: Place and identity in a community-level environmental justice dispute. Southern Communication Journal, 69(1), 82–95. https://doi. org/10.1080/10417940309373280 Richter, V. (n.d.). The five big mass extinctions. Cosmos: The Science of Everything. Retrieved from: https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/big-five-extinctions Rittel, H.  W. J., & Webber, M.  M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4, 155–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405730

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Romm, J. (2016). Climate change: What everyone needs to know. New  York, NY: Oxford University Press. Rosenberg, K., Dokter, A. M., Blancher, P. J., Sauer, J. R., Smith, A. C., Smith, P. A., et al. (2019). Decline of the North American avifauna. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw1313 Schmitz, C. L., Matyók, T., Sloan, L., & James, C. D. (2012). The relationship between social work and environmental sustainability: Implications for interdisciplinary practice. International Journal of Social Work, 21(3), 278–286. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00855.x Schmitz, C. L., Stinson, C. H., & James, C. D. (2010). Community and environmental sustainability: Collaboration and interdisciplinary education. Critical Social Work, 11(3), 83–100. (http:// www.uwindsor.ca/criticalsocialwork/2010-volume-11-no-3) Sexton, K., & Linder, S. H. (2010). The role of cumulative risk assessments in decisions about environmental justice. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 7, 4037–4049. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph7114037 Shear, M.  D. (2017, June 1). Trump will withdraw U.S. from Paris Climate Agreement. The New  York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/climate/trump-paris-climate agreement.html Taylor, M., Watts, J., & Bartlett, J. (2019, September 27). Climate crisis: 6 million people join latest wave of global protests. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/­ environment/2019/sep/27/climate-crisis-6-million-people-join-latest-wave-of-worldwide-­ protests United Nations. (2018). Nature’s dangerous decline “unprecedented”; species extinction rates “accelerating”. Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC]. (2016). What is the Paris Agreement. United Nations Climate Change. Retrieved from: https://unfccc.int/ process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/what-is-the-paris-agreement United States Climate Alliance. (2019). Retrieved from: http://www.usclimatealliance.org/ Wallace-Wells, D. (2019). The uninhabitable earth: Life after warming. New  York, NY: Tim Duggan Books. World Economic Forum. (2018). Greta Thunberg Speech. Retrieved from https://www.weforum. org/agenda/2020/01/greta-thunberg-davos-message-climate-change/

Chapter 2

Water, Air, and Land: The Foundation of Life, Food, and Society

To understand just how much peril humans and other life face, we must first consider what healthy land, water, and air provide. Land, water, and air, as interacting elements of our planet, provide the foundation of life. While we often think of them as geography and the source of our most basic physical needs for survival, they are also critical to our social and emotional well-being and are a basis for our identity and cultural beliefs. Bell hooks (2009) noted that the natural environment is the source of creating meaning in our lives. Perhaps most critical is the interconnection of life with the planet and the natural resources. Often the roots of our connection to the earth are hidden from us as history is recreated in the writing (Glave, 2010; hooks, 2009). Our sense of interconnection can be tempered by cultures and religions that condone or promote the domination over or stewardship of natural resources, as it is in a human-centric model. This is based on the assumption that natural resources are solely for the benefit of humans and that humans are not part of the planet, but rather they are separate.

Land, Air, and Water: The Foundation of Life The land on which we live, the water on which we depend, and the air we breathe determine the quality of our lives and, quite literally, whether or not we will continue to survive as a species. As these move out of balance, our hold on life becomes more precarious. These resources have been squandered in ways that are varied and pervasive at the urban and rural, local, and global levels.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9_2

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Water Water and life are inseparable. No known living thing can function without water, and there is life wherever there is water on Earth. (Alpert, 2005, p. 683)

Water is critical to all life. While the tolerance of how long an organism can survive without water varies dramatically (particularly when we get to the microbial level), all life as we know it ultimately depends on it. Without water, there is no food; animals and plants that humans depend on for food, as well as the plants consumed by the animals we raise for food, all need substantial water to thrive (Alpert, 2005). That said, some food choices require outsized amounts of water relative to the nutrition they provide while others are much more sustainable. It can be argued not only that water is necessary to sustain life, but also that water is life. The human body itself is 60% water; we are comprised of more water than anything else. When it is clean, water’s ability to dissolve substances is a property that benefits life; dissolved nutrients and minerals provide sustenance for plant life and animals. As will be discussed, it also allows for the transportation of dangerous chemicals that contaminate multiple ecosystems.

Fresh Water Although about 70% of Earth’s surface is covered in water, the vast majority is ocean saltwater, leaving only 2.5% fresh water. If this seems an impossibly small amount to sustain 7.5 billion people as well as all land-based animals and plants, consider this: only an even tinier sliver is accessible, about 1%—not of the total, but of the already tiny share of fresh water. That amounts to a miniscule 0.0007 percent of all the world’s water that is fresh and available for use (A Clean Water Crisis, n.d.). The remainder is deep in the ground or bedrock or locked into frozen glaciers and icebergs (Fig. 2.1). As these melt, they sink into the ocean, no longer accessible as fresh water. More still of this precious resource is no longer potable due to chemical toxins that are either impossible or unrealistically expensive and complicated to remove. Animals depend on clean fresh water to drink and bathe in, plant life needs it for sustenance, and humans also need it for cooking, crop irrigation, and many other uses. In recognition of these facts, the United Nations declared through resolution 64/292 that access to safe and clean water for drinking and sanitation is a human right considered vital for life and a base for other human rights (United Nations Media Brief, 2010). Threats to fresh water All of the planet’s water systems are confronting three broad causes of water scarcity: lack of availability, contamination, and uneven distribution (Tata, n.d.). What this boils down to is an issue of water security. Water security is defined by the United Nations as follows:

Land, Air, and Water: The Foundation of Life

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Fig. 2.1  Melting iceberg, Twillingate, Newfoundland. (Published with kind permission of © Ande A. Nesmith 2020. All Rights Reserved) The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability. (United Nations, 2013)

Indeed, water security is a significant threat. For each degree Celsius increase in global temperature, 7% of the global population will experience a 20% decrease of renewable water resources (United Nations Water, 2016). Right now, one-fourth of the entire human population is at risk of running out of water—our groundwater is drying up and is not being replaced (Sengupta & Cai, 2019). Lack of availability and uneven distribution is significantly affected by water privatization. Water privatization is when rights to water that were previously in the hands of a community or the government are purchased by private companies. This has, on the whole, resulted in significantly more expensive water, job losses, service disconnections in poor communities that cannot afford to pay it, and inadequate investments in the water systems to keep them safe and functioning (Food & Water Watch, 2011). The World Bank has been a big player in promoting global privatization of water and sanitation services. It has been accused of prioritizing profits over health and safety despite substantial evidence pointing to failed improvements and negative impacts on communities (Global Policy Forum, 2012). Water scarcity continues to put pressure on the world’s most vulnerable communities, as access becomes more restricted and corporate accountability has been reduced. Further, research on rainwater collected in the Rocky Mountains found that rain and snow all contained large amounts of plastic fibers, beads, and plastic

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shares. These findings are shocking and have grave implications for human health and air quality in the region (Singh, 2019). Countries that are home to one-fourth of Earth’s population face an increasingly urgent risk: the prospect of running out of water. Globally, 17 countries are under extreme water stress as they are using almost all of the water they have. Cape Town, South Africa, for example, recently only narrowly beat Day Zero, the day when all of its dams would run dry. Globally an increasing number of Day Zeros are forecast (Hofste, Reig, & Schleifer, 2019).

Oceans The oceans account for 99% of the living space on the planet and are home to 1000 species—up to 80% of all life on earth—from its surface to the bottom of its deepest trenches (Marinebio, n.d.; National Park Service, n.d.). Our oceans provide food, medicine, and vast economic benefits to humans. They are critical to biodiversity, regulate global temperatures, and provide a home and sense of place for coastal communities. Moreover, we depend heavily on the oceans to absorb our carbon and our heat. In fact, since the 1950s, the oceans have absorbed about 93% of the excess heat caused by fossil fuels and other heat-trapping gases that humans are putting into the atmosphere (Pierre-Louis, 2020). Coastal threats A heating planet means melting polar ice, which in turn is causing rising sea levels. Rising sea levels due to melting glacial ice are rapidly affecting coastal communities in a very tangible way. Quite literally, melting ice is erasing coastal communities and islands across the planet. The most current data available shows that 2019 was the hottest ocean temperature year on record, breaking the 2018 hottest year on record, along with 2017 before that (Cheng et al., 2020). It is difficult to ignore such a pattern. But if that is not convincing enough, consider that the last ten record high ocean temperatures have occurred in the last 10  years. The implications extend to land as well. The warmest parts of the ocean draw moisture into the air and create huge storms and heavy rains while leaving other regions, like Australia, dry and facing wildfires (Pierre-Louis, 2020). At first, scientists were only measuring the impact of melting mountain glacial ice which eventually finds its way to the sea. But those early estimates did not take into consideration—because it seemed outrageous as a possibility—that the world’s biggest sources of ice could melt the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (Jones, 2013). These two ice sheets by themselves could raise sea levels by 65 meters (71 yards) if they were to melt entirely. It is challenging to measure because it does not rise evenly, and it is not simply a matter of the amount of ice that melts. Liquid water is also not all the same. Warmer water expands and takes up more space than

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cooler water—so the existing warmer water also contributes to diminishing coastal lands. Scientists have found that the rate of melting is accelerating. The most current estimates suggest that by 2100, sea levels will rise by 26 inches (65 centimeters) (Weeman & Lynch, 2018). To offer a sense of scale to the acceleration, consider measurements from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, n.d.). From Greenland alone, in the 9 years from 1992 to 2001, we lost 34 billion tons of freshwater ice to melting. In less than half that time (2012–2016), we lost more than seven times this amount, 247 billion tons of ice (Lindsey, 2019). This has grave implications for communities that rely on coastal lands for their livelihoods and overall health and well-being. Coastal dwelling communities that have thrived on the oceans for generations are now in the position of moving their entire towns inward and upward to higher ground as oceans continue to submerge shorelines. Big cities are at risk as well. Of the world’s ten largest cities, eight are along coasts, and in the United States, nearly 40% of the population lives in high-­ density coastal areas (Lindsey, 2019). The rising levels are not evenly distributed around the world—some areas will rise much faster than others. At 10 feet of rise, which is projected over the next two centuries, one-third of all housing in Florida and over 700,000 residents of New York City will be under water at high tide (Strauss, 2014). Other oceanic threats It is not just melting ice and carbon absorption we care about, but also what we dump into the oceans: chemicals, fertilizers, and plastic to name a few. Let’s look at just plastics as an example. First, it is important to recognize that plastics do not biodegrade. The plastic we produce, use every day, and throw away is here to stay. Humans create four billion tons of trash every day, of which nearly 13% is plastic (Mambra, 2020). Plastics have gotten so bad that 60% of all seabirds and 100% of all turtle species have consumed plastic, mistaking it for food (Ocean Conservancy, 2020). We are now learning that rather than dissolving or breaking down, plastics break into smaller and smaller pieces without actually going away, creating a sludge below the surface of the ocean. These plastic particles are so small in some cases that nanoplastics can get into the bloodstream.

Land The relationship humans have with the land has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. This change has been more dramatic across the last century as humans have used land in new ways to extract various forms of fuels, minerals, and other natural resources to accumulate wealth and build a modern economy. As such, prosperity and freedom cannot be separated from the health of the land (Berry, 2010). When in balance, this can support our well-being and sustain our ability to have a sense of community, place, and belonging. Humans currently face a moment of reckoning with how we use the planet’s resources (United Nations Environment, 2016).

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For some, respect for and connection to the land is passed forward by prior generations who teach us that we must serve as a custodian of the land (hooks, 2009). bell hooks, a feminist and social activist, learned that it is important to “create a culture of belonging rooted in the earth” and respectful of the earth (hooks, 2009 p. 46). This is particularly true for Indigenous peoples of the world who oftentimes have been the championing voices for the planet, reminding others to be mindful and respectful of these intimate connections (Billiot & Parfait, 2019; Gilio-­ Whitaker, 2019). Land of course is intimately tied to food. The ecological value of food is significant in Indigenous communities; community health is anchored in traditional knowledge and relationships with land and food (Isaac et al., 2018). This relationship has been disrupted by the settler-colonial relationships that were established hundreds of years ago (Daigle, 2017; Whyte, 2017). As Indigenous peoples were disconnected from traditional foods, the reliance on food assistance programs has increased (Vernon, 2015). Moving from reliance on these programs, which provide unhealthy foods, involves decolonizing settler-colonial relationships (Pindus & Hafford, 2019). Health is intertwined with control of food resources (First Nations Development Institute, [FNDI], 2013). Claiming food sovereignty requires a reconnection with the land and community identity (Daigle, 2017; Whyte, 2017).

Natural resource extraction The relationship between natural resource extraction, specifically within the oil and gas energy sector in the United States, and economic security has been studied by economists and sociologists in recent years. Understanding the relationship between communities of place, which are dependent on the boom and bust economic cycles of extractive industries like oil and gas, has been the center of a study by Jacobson and Parker (2014). Researchers found that in the western United States, the busts were worse if they followed an oil and gas boom; these busts included decreases in income per capita and higher unemployment.

Deforestation and wildfires Deforestation and wildfires are major contributors to climate change, reduction in food, and loss of wildlife habitats, to name a few. It is impossible to separate the impact these problems have on our land, in air quality, and on climate change. Here we briefly discuss the impact on land and revisit it again in the next section on air. Wildfires are occurring at a vast and rapid pace. It is challenging to keep up with the wildfires devastating our forests and prairie lands. Quite literally during the writing of this book, every time we wrote about massive fires, a newer set arose. For example, in 2018, the biggest news was fires that devastated the town of Paradise in

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Northern California which lost 90% of the population due to fires (Sellers, 2019). At the time, we thought this was one of the most devastating fire events ever seen. That is, until the following year when Australian bushfires covering eight times the California fire acreage and nearly as much more than forest fires in the Amazon basin which hit the headlines. Then starting in the fall of 2019 and into 2020, 16 million acres of Australia, including Kangaroo Island, went up in flames (Tarabay, 2020). “Hundreds of millions of animals, by some estimates, have perished or are facing starvation or dehydration in devastated habitats” (Tarabay, 2020. Para. 14). Wildfires have multiplicative effects. They destroy the vegetation, wildlife, and human habitation in their paths. They also remove food sources for surviving animals and insects. If that were not devastating enough, the smoke releases massive amounts of additional carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming, while causing hazardous conditions for breathing. Wildfires have always existed, but these are at a magnitude and frequency never before seen. It stands to reason this kind of news will continue to surface as other regions of the world affected by severe drought, quite literally, go up in smoke. Practices like deforestation further threaten to undermine the role nature has played in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (United Nations Environment, 2016). As global demand for food has increased, food producers have converted forests into agricultural land, which has impacted the ability of forests to absorb CO2 at lower levels (Worland, 2019). The fires destroying the Amazon illustrate a global political system increasingly moving toward environmental devastation and the need for urgent action. The Amazon Rainforest has acted as a carbon sink and regulator for the environment, which is being destroyed and lost forever. The fires further accelerate climate warming as the destroyed forests release vast stores of carbon back into the atmosphere. Burnt soil, stripped of essential nutrients for regrowth, critically limit future climate stabilization as does the incineration of the ground-dwelling animals and birds that play a vital role in maintaining life-giving ecosystems. Indigenous representatives, community members, environmental groups, social workers, human rights activists, peace workers, and nation/states committed to climate justice call for ground up as well as intergovernmental global solidarity in creating climate justice and working toward a sustainable future. In order to maximize efforts to protect the future, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW, 2019) is calling for immediate action to end the destruction of natural forests while recognizing the rights of people, environments, and ecological systems.

Fracking Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as fracking, is a method for extracting natural gas and petroleum from deep in the earth. It entails injecting liquid at high pressure to create small fractures in shale to release these sources of fuel. The liquid includes huge amounts of fresh water combined with chemicals that make the

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p­ rocess more efficient. Fracking also releases other poisonous chemicals like benzines. The water is permanently contaminated and often kept in open pools, having the dual effect of wasting a precious resource and causing additional health problems. Over 700 studies have examined the health risks of fracking, and of those, 80% documented significant risks and harms (Stone, 2017).

Air We are all intimately involved with the air needed to breathe. On August 19, 2019, thick black clouds of smoke covered much of Brazil in what appeared to be an apocalyptic nightmare. The Amazon Rainforest was on fire. This Rainforest exhales one-fifth of the world’s oxygen, stores tremendous amounts of carbon, and consumes a significant amount of heat. A fifth of the world’s fresh water runs through its rivers, soil, and air. But over the last 50 years, one-fifth of the forest (about the size of Texas) has been intentionally cut and burned. Science tells us that deforestation and destruction on this level will trigger dieback, which is when the forest dries and burns, leading to cascading systems collapse (Zaitchik, 2019). Air quality has become a more mainstream issue in recent years as global attention to the impact of air quality on human health is better understood. Almost every single person worldwide breathes in toxic air on a regular basis, although the consequences for those living in developing regions are more deadly (World Health Organization [WHO], 2018). We know that the impacts of breathing unhealthy air are manifested in health outcomes, including the activation of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and kidney disease (LaMotte, 2018).

Food: The Intersection of Land, Air, and Water Climate change and food production have reciprocal effects on each other. That is, a warming climate is stressing our global food system, while the choices in foods we eat impact the pace of climate change. Feeding 7.6 billion people has resulted in the degradation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, dramatically depleting our water supplies and contributing to climate change (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). The four biggest ways that food affects climate change are (a) deforestation leading to fewer trees to sequester carbon; (b) increasing livestock which burp and pass gas filled with methane, a powerful greenhouse gas; (c) expanding manure and rice paddies, big methane producers; and (d) rising use of fossil fuels from farm machinery (Moskin, Plumer, Lieberman, & Weingart, 2019).

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Food Justice Food justice sits at the intersecting issues of policy, health, social justice, economic development, and the natural environment (Kaiser, Himmelheber, Miller, & Hayward, 2015). Over the past three generations, much of the world has seen drastic changes in their relationship to food. Subsistence communities that rely on agriculture for nutritional and economic purposes observe environmental changes and experience decreased crop seasons due to warming temperatures (Cunsolo, Harper, & Edge, 2013; Moran, 2010). Mass-produced items and big agriculture not only have separated meaning from foods for most cultures but have also contributed to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted each day. At the same time, they are using inordinate amounts of water and fossil fuels to accommodate mammoth infrastructures and transportation needs (Moran, 2010). As such, the mass availability of food has ironically contributed to the increasing shortage of food. At the local level, community gardens have long been a part of community development models and sustainability efforts at the grassroots level. Indicators of community garden success include not only the production of healthy and nutritious food but also the process and experience of tending to a garden with one’s neighbors. Many scholars have written about the intervention of the community garden across a multitude of settings—from low-income housing developments to college campuses to brown-space initiatives where community gardens have helped to replenish once depleted and desolate community areas. Depending on the scope and need for the community garden, the garden may serve multiple functions, including health benefits, food security, economic development, youth education and employment, preservation of open space, crime prevention, neighborhood beautification, cultural preservation and expression, relationship building, and community organizing and empowerment (Draper & Freedman, 2010).

Eating for a Cooler Planet The global food system is responsible for a quarter of the plant-warming greenhouse gases produced by humans each year (Moskin et al., 2019). By changing the food we eat as well as the way it is grown and produced, humans can help stop the devastating impacts of climate change according to a recent report from the United Nations body on climate science. More than 100 scientists from 52 countries compiled the report published through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2020). Altered land-use practices resulting in deforestation and destructive agricultural practices, along with other human activities, threaten the world’s ability to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C, the goal of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Some dietary choices require more land and water, causing increasing emission of heat-trapping gases. Even the lowest-impact animal products (cheeses, eggs, poultry) have a larger negative impact on global warming than vegetarian

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a­ lternatives, suggesting we need to rethink our diet (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). Shifting diets toward increased plant-based foods, supplemented by smaller quantities of sustainably produced food from animals, present major opportunities for adaptation and mitigation of ongoing risk. This generates significant co-benefits for human health. Meats are particularly inefficient to produce because the livestock need lots of space to graze and the land needed is often space used to be covered by forests. Beef and dairy livestock account for 14.5% of all the world’s greenhouse gas emissions each year. Lowering the number of people eating meat and the amount of meat eaten would decrease livestock emissions while also decreasing the fertilizer required. Only about 25% of the world eats great quantities of meat (mostly wealthy nations like the United States), but as countries with historically low meat consumption get wealthier, they will eat more meat and put even more strain on the environment. According to the IPCC (2020), adopting these kinds of changes in diets globally would reduce carbon emissions by eight gigatons annually by 2050. The takeaways of this report are that humans need to reduce the amount of land used to produce meat and use land more efficiently and thoughtfully (Abrams, 2019).

 he Clean Energy Movement: A Just Transition Toward Wind T and Solar Energy Solar and wind energy are not just important for protecting the environment; they are increasingly important for protecting life, including human health. The negative implications of extractive industries, such as fracking, are well documented and felt deeply and broadly by vulnerable communities around the world. Scientists and justice workers alike have long called for a just transition to the production of clean energy. The provision of retraining is needed as vulnerable populations lose jobs in extractive industries including mining, oil, and gas development and enter emerging industries including solar and wind development. A just transition is central to sustainable development (Cartwright, n.d.)

Discussion Questions 1. How do you and your community interact with the land? What are the local risks? 2. What issues of food security do you see in your community? What is food justice? 3. What is the quality of the drinking water in your community? 4. What are the consequences of natural resource extraction? 5. Are there risks your community faces due to storms, floods, and erosion? Or due to lack of water? How are they being addressed and what are the ongoing risks?

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Activity Spend the next 7 days paying close attention to how much disposable plastic you encounter. Document all the single-use plastics you come into contact with regardless of whether you used it or not. 1. What kinds of single-use plastics were you offered? 2. What plastics did you use? 3. What plastics did you intentionally reject? 4. Were you able to recycle any of the plastics? How much of it? Why or why not? 5. What did you learn from your observations?

References A Clean Water Crisis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/ freshwater/freshwater-crisis/ Abrams, A. (2019). How eating less meat could help protect the planet from climate change. Retrieved from https://time.com/5648082/un-climate-report-less-meat/ Alpert, P. (2005). Sharing the secrets of life without water. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 45, 683–684. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/45.5.683 Berry, W. (2010). The hidden wound (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint. Billiot, S., & Parfait, J. (2019). Reclaiming land: Adaptation activities and global environmental change challenges within Indigenous communities. In L. Mason & J. Rigg (Eds.), People and climate change: Vulnerability, adaptation, and social justice (pp. 108–121). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Cartwright, J. (n.d.). Toward a just transitions. World Resources Institute. Retrieved from https:// www.wri.org/climate/expert-perspective/toward-just-transition Cheng, L., Abraham, J., Zhu, J., Trenberth, K., Fasulli, J., Boyer, T., … Mann, M.  E. (2020). Record-setting ocean warmth continued in 2019. Advanced Atmospheric Science, 37, 137–142. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-020-9283-7 Cunsolo, A., Harper, S. L., & Edge, V. L. (2013). Storytelling in a digital age: Digital storytelling as an emerging narrative method for preserving and promoting indigenous oral wisdom. Qualitative Research, 13(2), 127–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112446105 Daigle, M. (2017). Tracing the terrain of Indigenous food sovereignties. Journal of Peasant Studies, 46(2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2017.1324423 Draper, C., & Freedman, D. (2010). Review and analysis of the benefits, purposes, and motivations associated with community gardening in the United States. Journal of Community Practice, 18, 458–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2010.519682 First Nations Development Institute [FNDI]. (2013). Reclaiming native food systems—Part 1: Indigenous knowledge and innovation for supporting health and food sovereignty. Longmont, CO: First Nations Development Institute. Retrieved from https://www.firstnations.org/wp-content/uploads/publication-attachments/2013_Reclaiming_Native_Food_Systems_Part_I.pdf Food & Water Watch. (2011). Water equals life: How privatization undermines the human right to water. Issue Brief. Retrieved from https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/ Water%20Equals%20Life%20IB%20July%202011.pdf Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2019). As long as grass grows: The Indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock. Boston, MA: Beacon.

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Glave, D. D. (2010). Rooted in the earth: Reclaiming the African American environmental heritage. Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books. Global Policy Forum. (2012). Group to World Bank: Stop funding water privatization. Retrieved from https://www.globalpolicy.org/home/98-links-and-resources/51513-group-to-world-bankstop-funding-water-privatization-.html Hofste, R.W., Reig, P., & Schleifer, L. (2019, August 6). 17 countries, home to one-quarter of the world’s population, face extremely high water stress. World Resources Institute. Retrieved from https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/08/17-countries-home-one-quarter-world-population-faceextremely-high-water-stress Hooks, B. (2009). Belonging: A culture of place. New York, NY: Routledge. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. (2020). Special report: Climate change and land. Retrieved from https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2020/02/SPM_UpdatedJan20.pdf International Federation of Social Workers [IFSW]. (2019). IFSW statement on Amazon fires. Retrieved from https://www.ifsw.org/ifsw-statement-on-amazon-fires/ Isaac, G., Finn, S., Joe, J. R., Hoover, E., Gone, J. P., Lefthand-Begay, C., & Hill, S. (2018). Native American perspectives on health and traditional ecological knowledge. Environmental Health Perspectives, 126(12), 125002–125010. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1944 Jacobson, G. D., & Parker, D. P. (2014). The economic aftermath of resources booms: Evidence from boomtowns in the American West. The Economic Journal, 126(593), 1092–1128. https:// doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12173 Jones, N. (2013). How fast and how far will sea levels rise? YaleEnvironment360. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Retrieved from https://e360.yale.edu/features/ rising_waters_how_fast_and_how_far_will_sea_levels_rise Kaiser, M. L., Himmelheber, S., Miller, S., & Hayward, R. A. (2015). Cultivators of change: Food justice in social work education. Social Work Education, 34(5), 544–557. https://doi.org/10.10 80/02615479.2015.1063599 LaMotte, S. (2018, July 28). Air pollution linked to 3.2 million new diabetes cases in one year. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/health/air-pollution-diabetes-study/ index.html Lindsey, R. (2019). Climate change: Global sea level. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved from https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/ climate-change-global-sea-level Mambra, S. (2020). How is plastic totally ruining the oceans in the worst way possible? Retrieved from https://www.marineinsight.com/environment/how-is-plastic-ruining-the-ocean/ Marinebio. (n.d.). Marine life. Retrieved from https://marinebio.org/creatures/ Moran, E. (2010). Environmental social science: Human-environmental interactions and sustainability. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Moskin, J., Plumer, B., Lieberman, R., & Weingart, E. (2019, April 3). Your questions about food and climate change, answered. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/ interactive/2019/04/30/dining/climate-change-food-eating-habits.html National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/why-care-about-ocean.html National Park Service. (n.d.). Ocean life. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/subjects/oceans/ ocean-life.htm Ocean Conservancy. (2020). Fighting for trash-free seas. Retrieved from https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/plastics-in-the-ocean/ Pierre-Louis, K. (2020, January 3). 2019 was a record year for ocean temperatures, data show. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/climate/ocean-temperatures-climate-change.html Pindus, N., & Hafford, C. (2019). Food security and access to healthy foods in Indian country: Learning from the food distribution program on Indian reservations. Journal of Public Affairs, 19(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1876

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Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987–992. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216 Sellers, F.  S. (2019, June 20). Driven from Paradise by fire, evacuees worry that gentrification will prevent them from coming home. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://wapo. st/2x6gpKr?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.2860af5f2b7f Sengupta, S., & Cai, W. (2019, August 6). A quarter of humanity faces looming water crises. The New  York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/06/climate/world-water-stress.html?te=1&nl=climate-fwd:&emc=edit_clim_20191225?campaign_ id=54&instance_id=14791&segment_id=19871&user_id=d2896a4fb254420415f54360ba81e 944®i_id=6508224120191225 Singh, M. (2019). It’s raining plastic: Microscopic fibers fall from the sky in the Rocky Mountains. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com Stone, J. (2017, February 23). Fracking is dangerous to your health  – Here’s why. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2017/02/23/ fracking-is-dangerous-to-your-health-heres-why/#7b8451155945 Strauss, B. (2014). What does U.S. look like with 10 feet of sea level rise? Climate Central. Retrieved from https://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-with-10-feet-of-sea-level-rise-17428 Tarabay, J. (2020, January 21). Why these Australia fires are like nothing we’ve seen before. The New  York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/world/australia/firessize-climate.html Tata. (n.d.). Why the global water crisis needs a moonshot. Retrieved from https://unfoundation. org/blog/post/why-the-global-water-crisis-needs-a-moonshot/ United Nations. (2013). What is water security? [Infographic]. UN Water. Retrieved from https:// www.unwater.org/publications/water-security-infographic/ United Nations Environment. (2016). Engaging people to protect the planet. United Nations Annual Report 2016. Author. Retrieved from https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/19529/UN%20Environment%202016%20Annual%20Report.pdf?sequence =1&isAllowed=y United Nations Media Brief. (2010). The human right to water and sanitation. UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication and Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/pdf/human_right_to_water_ and_sanitation_media_brief.pdf United Nations Water. (2016). World water development report. United Nations World Water Assessment Programme. Retrieved from https://www.unwater.org/publications/ world-water-development-report-2016/ Vernon, R. V. (2015). A native perspective: Food is more than consumption. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development, 5(4), 137–142. https://doi.org/10.5304/ jafscd.2015.054.024 Weeman, K. & Lynch, P. (2018). New study finds sea level rise accelerating. NASA. Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2680/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating/ Whyte, K.  P. (2017). Indigenous food sovereignty, renewal and U.S. settler colonialism. In M.  Rawlinson & C.  Ward (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of food ethics (pp.  354–365). New York, NY: Routledge. Worland, J. (2019). If we want to stop climate change, now is a moment of reckoning for how we use the planet warns U.N. report. Retrieved from https://time.com/5646787/ ipcc-climate-change-land-report/ World Health Organization [WHO]. (2018). 9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air, but more countries are taking action. [online] Retrieved from http://www.who.int/news-room/ detail/02-05-2018-9-out-of-10-people-worldwide-breathe-polluted-air-but-more-countriesare-taking-action. Zaitchik, A. (2019). Rainforest on fire. Retrieved from https://theintercept.com/2019/07/06/ brazil-amazon-rainforest-indigenous-conservation-agribusiness-ranching/

Chapter 3

Celebrating and Preserving the Ecology of Life

As we enter this discussion, we are experiencing an ecological imbalance. Our collective health relies on the connection of our local ecology with an intricate and balanced ecosystem. Investing in the restoration of the planet is a benefit to all life, including humans, in a way that was unimaginable not that long ago. If we each do our best, we can build collective hope that change is possible. Small efforts can bring forward substantial changes for the ecology and our physical well-being (Tallamy, 2020). Yet, the imbalance is rapidly growing. Not only have we changed our local ecologies, but we (humans) have moved into fragile ecologies. As we expand our presence, we threaten the ability of other species to find food and safe habitats, increasing the risk for all of life, including humans. Some wildlife has found ways to live in our neighborhoods, including predators such as foxes, raccoons, and even coyotes (see Fig. 3.1). Too often, rather than learning ways to live in peace, our fear takes over, and we immediately move into action to find ways to eliminate the wildlife. We have framed the coexistence of humans and wildlife as a negative conflict but that framing can be misleading. As humans, we may consider various animals and reptiles dangerous (e.g., venomous snakes, predatory cats), when in fact humans are the most dangerous species. With proactive planning, coexistence is possible (Shankar Raman, 2018). Imagine walking into your backyard soon after you have taken your small child and dog into the house to find a beautiful cougar has climbed your nine-foot fence. This actually happened to one of our co-authors while working on this book. As humans have begun to develop and live in what were once remote areas, they are negatively impacting the ecosystem (Kimmerer, 2015). This might occur in multiple ways including urban sprawl and resort development. To clear the space for homes and roads, animal habitats are removed or encroached upon; some are forced to migrate due to food insecurity, heightened risk, and threats to safety. They may need to flee human traffic or those who are fearful. Their natural instincts for survival

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9_3

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Fig. 3.1  Fox Kit Living Among Humans. (Published with kind permission of © Ande A. Nesmith 2020. All Rights Reserved)

lead to competition with humans for food and the territory we have invaded. Perhaps they see small humans or pets as food, competing with our need to protect our family. Areas they once roamed are now our yards. How would we define our role? Perhaps we are an invasive species that spreads to regions in which we were not native, reproducing quickly, and destroying much of what is in our path (National Geographic, n.d.). Humans count as an invasive species by this definition. Some descriptions, however, are careful to specifically omit humans from the definition. Based on territorial incursion alone, humans are in fact an invasive species. When not handled with respect toward all of life, these situations can become unsafe for all involved. From a sustainable development perspective, the human-centric, economic model focused on growth contributes to the inevitable vanishing of the habitats that can sustain life for humans and other living beings (Powers & Rinkel, 2019). Life is interconnected, with intricate relationships, and it stands to reason that injustice for one ultimately ends up being injustice for all. Even as the wind blows across the deserts and plains, it carries with it dust particles into the atmosphere, eventually floating down to the ocean, feeding marine life. Microbes in the soil communicate with plants and help provide for their needs and ultimately for the needs of those in the food chain that eat the plants. For many of us, being in nature can be relaxing. Even photos of wildlife can bring smiles. There is affection in connecting with nature, with wildlife, with hearing the birds. However, when we imagine the pain of death and destruction o­ ccurring in the natural world, we instinctively recoil from the loss of relationship. The sense

Loss and Preservation

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of loss, and perhaps fear, can result in us closing our eyes and denying the problems. However, there is hope, and there are ways to be involved in forward change. In facing the dangers, we can find possibilities for transformation. Even if you do not enjoy the flora and fauna of the natural world, there is incentive to be a part of the rebuilding as it is necessary for human survival.

Loss and Preservation In order to celebrate and preserve all of life, we must first recognize our connections with nature and examine the false dichotomy separating people from the planet. We can never truly be disconnected from nature, as humans are part of nature. We cannot possibly hope to address social, political, economic, and environmental justice concerns if we are not promoting a healthy, flourishing natural world. As the land, air, and water degrade, the natural world (including humans) struggles. Our children are exposed to increasing dangers and a bleak future unless we change direction and invest in mitigating the damage. The intricate, intimate, and inextricable relationships between humans and in relationship with all of the life (sentient and non-sentient beings) make up the future world we face together. Our human systems (social, political, and economic) operate in interacting circles on the earth and within the ecology (Schmitz, Matyók, Sloan, & James, 2012); these human systems are spiraling us toward further destruction. Systems created by humans, not only impact humans, but also extend to all of life, including species currently facing extinction (Fears, 2019). A million species are facing extinction including our closest relatives, primates; climate change is threatening the way of life for nearly 40% of primates around the world (Fears, 2019; Green, 2019; Kaplan, 2019). We are facing mass extinctions which occurs when a huge proportion of the world’s biological life is wiped out in a tiny proportion of time—in the context of geologic time scales (Kolbert, 2014). During this time, previously dominant organisms can suddenly either die out or lose their status to other species that better adapt to the new situation (Kolbert, 2014). The diversity and localities of species are rapidly reorganizing as a result of climate change, extinctions, migration, and invasions (Blowes et al., 2019; Eriksson & Hillebrand, 2019; Kaplan, 2019). These shifts impact the functioning of the ecosystems. Some areas are changing so rapidly that we may need to explore adaptations; in those that are slower to change, we can institute protections (Blowes et al., 2019; Kaplan, 2019). The harms inflicted are creating sadness and grief among human who feel the losses of wildlife and ecosystems (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018). Wildlife species, as well as domesticated animals, are suffering. Both are at risk on multiple fronts resulting from the proliferation of chemicals used throughout the countryside and in the cities, poisoning the land and the water. Then there are the dangers they pose to each other; wildlife predators can hurt our pets, and our pets can become predators, further endangering wildlife unless we accommodate the diversity.

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Marine ecosystems are changing faster than the global average; tropical systems are also hard hit (Kaplan, 2019). The oceans are warming, forcing changes in migration patterns for sea life whose food sources can no longer be sustained in changing climates (Cao, 2000; Koelmans, Gouin, Thompson, Wallace, & Arthur, 2014; Taylor, 2019). Sea life is also contaminated by pollution, including the massive amounts of plastics that have invaded our oceans. The plastics are choking turtles and birds and filling the stomachs of sea lions and whales, eventually killing them (Cao, 2000; Koelmans et al., 2014; Taylor, 2019). In spite of protections, whales and dolphins, who play a vital role in the food chain, are still at risk with at least 300,000 killed annually; they face additional risk due to ecological degradation and habitat loss (WWF, 2019). Conservation efforts, however, do make a difference. Papastavrou (2019) studied whale and dolphin conservation efforts over a 50-year period concluding that these efforts have made a difference in their preservation (Fig. 3.2). Conservation efforts must evolve as conditions change in order to be effective. The west coast of Scotland provides a rich environment for marine mammals. There we see a unique eco-centric community mobilization as citizen scientists come together to gather data needed to protect whales and dolphins (Ecologist, 2020).

Fig. 3.2  Dusky Dolphins, New Zealand. (Published with kind permission of © Ande A. Nesmith 2020. All Rights Reserved)

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Shifting Worldview The Human-Centric Model Within the human-centered worldview, the false dichotomy of people as separate from the planet is embraced, not recognizing that the well-being of the planet is one and the same with human well-being. The human-centric, or Anthropocentric, worldview promotes the idea that humans are separate from, outside of, and destined to dominate over the ecosystem. It is a worldview that supports a paradigm of power and privilege with humans often considering themselves as separate and superior to other forms of life in our ecosystem. These patterns have dogged us since European colonization which was based on a model of power-over, leading to systems of control and domination over women, populations of color, and the ecology (Sloan & Schmitz, 2019).

The Eco-centric Model Conversely an eco-centric view is centered on nature and the world’s ecosystems; it is a worldview that values all of nature (Cryer, Kopnina, Piccolo, Taylor, & Washington, 2017). From an eco-centric perspective, values and ethical decisions prioritize the health and well-being of all living organisms and all environmental systems, both living and nonliving, regardless of their value to humans (Washington, Taylor, Kopnina, Cryer, & Piccolo, 2017). The eco-centric model draws lessons from Indigenous models; it has been at the core of environmental learning with Aldo Leopold in Sand Country Almanac (1986) expanding community to include animals (Cryer et al., 2017). The eco-centric worldview provides a wholistic framework for sustainable development in recognizing the need to consider factors well beyond narrow economic policies (Cryer et al., 2017; Gorobets, 2013). This allows us to develop an understanding of the complexity and interconnection of life and the health of the planet. Keeping ecosystems in balance impacts current and future generations at the local and the global. It creates the space for us to recognize our actions as having a holistic and lasting impact. Through this lens, we consider our impact on and responsibility for the care of our bodies of water, all species of life, the air, and the land. Within eco-centrism, we consider ecological and environmental justice. In expanding to include the ecological justice lens, we account for the benefits or the burdens of human decisions on the whole ecology of life. Thus, the discussions about eliminating plastic straws or plastic bags and switching to reusable options is about making personal, political, social, and economic choices and policies as reflected through an eco-centric worldview. No longer can we just consider that we like straws, we must also consider the impact on other life. Our consideration must

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now include the impact of our decisions on all life and ecosystems (Cryer et al., 2017). It is necessary to move away from nature versus humans to embrace us as a part of nature facing the same future. This model, in broadening our lens, increases our potential for creating longer-­ lasting sustainable solutions to environmental issues that plague us. For instance, we often resort to poisonous chemicals sprayed in our neighborhood and on our roads to rid us of mosquitos. In fact, the impact is very short term, and repeat application increases the problem. Mosquitos return quickly, and we have managed to kill the predators (butterflies, birds, bats) that would help keep them in check (Tallamy, 2020). Further, the chemicals used to kill insects such as mosquitos increase the cancer risks in humans; and, there are more effective ways to control mosquitos (Tallamy, 2020). Rats also provide us with a good example. Rats are empathetic, smart, adapt quickly, are nocturnal, have short life spans, and reproduce quickly (Parsons & Munshi-South, 2020). Because they have been driven to the edges, they are a significant health risk to humans because of the food and harmful pathogens they come in contact with. The poisons we use in an effort to control them are not effective and are very dangerous to humans, pets, and wildlife. Rats proliferate because humans provide food. By understanding their strengths, we can find ways to change their presence and behaviors. In order to do this, we have to change human behaviors, patterns, and habits (Parsons & Munshi-South, 2020). This is the only solution and can be done by changing individual, organizational, and governmental patterns and structures. We can work with the ecology in changing natural and built environments.

Building a Future Envisioning a future that includes humans requires embracing our responsibilities for ecological respect, protection, and rebuilding (Tallamy, 2020). When the land is abused, wherever in the world that occurs, the impacts travel the globe. Whether that means burning the Amazon forests, the melting of glaciers, storms increasing in intensity, or temperatures rising. Each in turn contributes to the quickened rate of climate change along with expanded ecological destruction and environmental injustice. This can be turned around by adopting a different relationship between humans and nature, in which we recognize that we are in fact part of nature rather than separate from or above it (Tallamy, 2020). Many people around the globe, especially Indigenous peoples, have maintained a deep awareness of and respect for human connections with the natural world, seeing people in relationship to place (hooks, 2009; Zapf, 2009). Indigenous peoples have led the way in understanding and honoring the connection between the health of the earth, respect for learning from plant and animal life, and impact on human health and well-being, including spiritual health (Gilio-Whitaker, 2019; Kimmerer, 2015; Moyer & Mark, 2016). Kimmerer brings together the lenses of science and indigenous knowledge gathered from living close to the earth highlighting the reciprocal relationships that support the quality of all of life.

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There are a number of indigenous languages that continually remind people of these connections; losing such languages has contributed to collective forgetfulness (Kimmerer, 2015; Scott, 2018). Miriama Scott speaks of the ways her Indigenous Māori language conveys the significant meaning of the connections and thus the need for respect for all life, not just human. The connection is apparent in the language with one word, whenus, meaning both land and placenta (Scott, 2018). In fact, some indigenous languages use the word for “plant” to mean caretakers (Kimmerer, 2015). Language itself is part of and can reinforce and shape one’s worldview. Disruption of this connection to the land can cause a deep loss and grief such as experienced by Indigenous peoples as a result assaults on Uluru, a sacred place, by tourists hiking what they see as a mere geological formation they call Ayers Rock (Somvichian-Clausen, 2017). The grief caused by this chronic loss of our ecosystems is further documented by Cunsolo and Ellis (2018). While plants store carbon, build and hold topsoil, and create our landscape, animals control pests while pollinating plants, including our crops (Tallamy, 2020). Healing is interactive. Plants are the source of much of our medicine, produce the air we breathe, and clean our water systems. Nature can be central to healing and the focus of building community. Through the decolonization of the ecological space, possibilities are created for rebuilding the life giving processes of the natural world.

Examples Around the World We can find many examples around the globe that demonstrate the importance of, and in some cases the success of, an eco-centric perspective. There are multiple points of entry for beginning the process of recovery. It can begin with efforts to preserve wildlife or perhaps with projects that explore resilience in the face of disaster. Conservation movements can engage decolonizing efforts to reclaim land; it can also focus on neighborhood action. The eco-centric worldview is evident in the work of Wangari Maathai and the development of the Green Belt Movement (Maathai, 2003). Under the weight of colonialism, the ecology of Kenya was devastated (Sloan & Schmitz, 2020). With the Green Belt Movement, the social, economic, and political empowerment of women (and community) occurred alongside the restoration of the natural environment (see expanded description in Chap. 4). As the women were taught to grow and plant trees, they changed their ecosystem, bringing food to feed themselves and their families, generated economic opportunities, and, with it, political clout (Merton & Dater, 2008). Processes for healing the natural world involved rebuilding the human relationships with natural world and all of life. Costa Rica provides lessons to guide us in wildlife preservation. As a country, it provides leadership across multiple, overlapping systems including peacebuilding, environmental tourism, sustainability, conservation, and creating and relying on renewable energy sources (Snyder, 2019). Beginning in the 1990s, after a decade of environmental degradation, concerted, coordinated efforts were made to create change. It has been a process that links global and local policy and regulations along

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with environmental commitments. Government and community movements have worked together. They have built natural corridors that cross parks as well as private lands. As a result, Costa Rica now has some of the planet’s richest biodiversity (Snyder, 2019). The process is ongoing. The inadequate attention to marine habitats and financial concerns have been raised. Puerto Rico offers another example. It is an island, which is at the epicenter of climate change with land, seas, people, wildlife, and plants already suffering under the weight of the global environmental crisis (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2016). As sea levels rise, the shoreline is being eaten away, while storms of increasing intensity are impacting the entire ecosystem, including humans. Yet, out of the devastation, Puerto Rico can provide lessons in resilience. Research by Tana Woods, a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service’s International Institute of Tropical Forestry, is monitoring the impact of climate change and natural disasters on the El Yunque tropical forest. Studying the interaction between rising temperatures and the impact of hurricanes on forests is invaluable (Kelleher, n.d.). In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Tiritiri Matangi Island, once decimated through colonization, has now been healed through conservation efforts. After 120 years of farming that cleared the island of indigenous wildlife, a rebuilding process started with the planting of trees between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s coordinated with the removal of invasive mammalian predators from the island. These actions were followed by reintroduction of bird and reptilian life indigenous to the region. Birds once thought to be extinct, such as the korimako, now thrive (100% Pure New Zealand, n.d.). It is a successful conservation project and a thriving wildlife sanctuary using the process of rewilding to reclaim natural areas. Neighborhood conservation can also provide an avenue to healing. The adversarial relationship we have developed with the natural world has resulted in failed attempts at environmental stewardship. While we have established the National Park System, we have experienced losses of birds, plants, and animals as we have chopped up ecosystems and relegated the responsibility to advocacy organizations and identified governmental agencies (Tallamy, 2020). Rebuilding requires local investment and rebuilding habitat links. As with successful conservation efforts, we must rebuild healthy habitats while removing intrusive flora and fauna. This includes addressing the negative impact of the immaculate and manicured lawns which require excess water and chemical management and disrupt the creation of linked habitats (Tallamy, 2020).

Lessons and Possibilities A common theme is community. There is power in communities coming together to learn and transform. This can occur at the neighborhood level or within/across local cities, towns, and villages; or perhaps it starts with coalition building. As we look at the Green Belt Movement, they built community while rebuilding the ecology. It was the community investment and leadership that supported the rebuilding of the

Building a Future

35

ecology and the relationships. There are movements that have invested in planting trees to rebuild the environment. Without community leadership and investment/ commitment of the people, they have struggled to create lasting change (Guarino, 2019). There are also ties to decolonizing structures that oppress the ecology and the people. This can be seen in the work of Gilio-Whitaker (2019) and Maathai (2003). Tallamy (2020) highlights the need to decolonize lawns which ties to bringing back indigenous plants and wildlife, including beneficial insects. This has the added benefit of disrupting the destruction of our water supply with poisonous chemicals. Ecological systems are generally self-healing when their processes are allowed to unfold rather than being controlled. Given the chance, nature will help with the healing as invasive species of plants and animals are removed and native species are reintroduced. On Tiritiri Matangi Island, a successful rewilding has occurred. Building corridors for linking habitats, plants, animals, and birds requires the planting of trees, bushes, and undergrowth that support animals, insects, and birds, all of which help us produce gases that counter the planetary heating. It can also involve creating changes in the build environment such as bridges and tunnels that facilitate the migrations of wildlife as we expand roads and cities. The loss of wildlife not only threatens our survival; it also creates profound loss as wildlife disappears (Bourgoin, 2020). The pain of it comes into full view during disasters. But it also occurs as we look away, perhaps through flawed wildlife management. One example is supporting the killing of wolves who are important predators in the web of life. Still, there are communities, groups, and organizations committed to protection and rebuilding, all of which require a long-term commitment. The World Wildlife Fund is one fighting for endangered species. Recently, Save the Redwoods League, a nonprofit, after a 20-year process, was able to buy the last large sequoia forest that was privately owned. This will serve as a site for research and education. Eventually, this resource will be turned over to the US Forest Service as protected wilderness (McLendon, 2020). It has been argued that the root causes of our current environmental crisis are selfishness, greed, and apathy and that the only way we can address these is through a spiritual and cultural transformation (Living on Earth, 2015). This is possible with a shift in worldview toward a more eco-centric one. This leads to changes not only in our personal behaviors, but also in framing policies that can celebrate, as well as preserve, life for future generations. Through our reciprocal relationship with nature, with life, we can learn, transform, and heal (Kimmerer, 2015).

Discussion Questions 1. What is your connection to the natural world? 2. In your neighborhood, on your block, or in your home, what plants and animals do you interact with? Do they bring you pleasure?

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3  Celebrating and Preserving the Ecology of Life

3. Do they contribute to rebuilding our natural world? If not, are there changes you can envision that facilitate this change? 4. What are your thoughts about ways we might change the relationship between people and the local ecology? 5. Are there regional and national conservation efforts that you think are vital? If so, what are those?

Activities Take a photo, create a drawing, or find a picture in a magazine that conveys the natural world from your perspective. Join a partner or small group, and discuss your understanding of the totality of life; and compare and contrast with their understanding. Within the natural world, what do you celebrate? What do you want to preserve? What is something that is a concern that you want to bring attention to? What can you do to work toward effecting positive change?

References 100% Pure New Zealand. (n.d.). Tiritiri Matangi Island. Retrieved from https://www.newzealand.com/us/tiritiri-matangi/?cid=p:sem:US:FY19:Pure_H2:Google:DSA_Des tinations:Text:auckland&kwid=dsa-425930918066&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhL_ Xvabz4gIVD7azCh3ZUw4SEAAYASAAEgJqOPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Blowes, S., Supp, S.  R., Antão, L.  H., Bates, A., Bruelheide, H., & Chase, J.  M. (2019). The geography of biodiversity change in marine and terrestrial assemblages. Science, 366(6463), 339–345. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw1620 Bourgoin, C. (2020, January 23). What we lose when we lose wildlife. Common Dreams. Retrieved from https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/23/what-we-lose-when-we-losewildlife?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=email_this Cao, H. (2000). El Nino-La Nina events, precipitation, flood-drought events, and their environmental impacts in the Suwannee river watershed, Florida. Environmental Geosciences, 7(2), 90–98. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1526-0984.2000.72002.x Cryer, P., Kopnina, H., Piccolo, J. L., Taylor, B., & Washington, H. (2017, July 4). Why ecocentrism is the key pathway to sustainability. MAHB. Retrieved from https://mahb.stanford.edu/ blog/statement-ecocentrism/ Cunsolo, A., & Ellis, N. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-­ related loss. Nature Climate Change, 8(4), 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2 Ecologist. (2020, February 27). Our spectacular Hebridean marine wildlife. Ecologist: The Journal for the Post-Industrial Age. Retrieved from https://theecologist.org/2020/feb/27/ our-spectacular-hebridean-marine-wildlife Environmental Protection Agency [EPA]. (2016, August). What climate change means for Puerto Rico. EPA. Retrieved from https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/sites/production/files/201609/documents/climate-change-pr.pdf Eriksson, B. K., & Hillebrand, H. (2019, October 18). Rapid reorganization of global biodiversity. Science, 366(6463), 308–309. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw1620

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Fears, D. (2019, May 6). One million species face extinction, U.N. report says. And humans will suffer as a result. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost. com/climate-environment/2019/05/06/one-million-species-face-extinction-un-panel-sayshumans-will-suffer-result/ Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2019). As long as grass grows: The Indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock. Boston, MA: Beacon. Gorobets, A. (2013). Eco-centric policy for sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 64, 645–655. https://mahb.stanford.edu/blog/statement-ecocentrism/ Green, N. (2019, June 15). Opinion: These are the faces of tranquility. The New  York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/opinion/photography-nature-green.html Guarino, B. (2019). The audacious effort to reforest the planet. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/climate-solutions/trillion-tree-reforestationclimate-change-philippines/ Hooks, B. (2009). Belonging: A culture of place. New York, NY: Routledge. Kaplan, S. (2019, October 17). The world’s ecosystems are being fundamentally transformed in the human era. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/ science/2019/10/17/worlds-ecosystems-are-being-fundamentally-transfigured-human-era/ Kelleher, S. (n.d.). Hurricane Maria may help scientists predict how rainforests respond to climate change. Climate Change Resource Center. United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service. Retrieved from https://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/climate-projects/stories/ hurricane-maria-may-help-scientists-predict-how-rainforests-respond Kimmerer, R. W. (2015). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions. Koelmans, A. A., Gouin, T., Thompson, R., Wallace, N., & Arthur, C. (2014). Plastics in the marine environment. Environmental Toxicology Chemistry, 33, 5–10. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.2426 Kolbert, E. (2014). The sixth extinction. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co., LLC. Leopold, A. (1986). Sand country almanac. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. Living on Earth. (2015). Gus Speth calls for ‘new’ environmentalism. Retrieved from https://loe. org/shows/segments.html?programID=15-P13-00007&segmentID=6 Maathai, W. (2003). The green belt movement: Sharing the approach and the experience. New York, NY: Lantern Books. McLendon, R. (2020, February 28). The world’s largest privately owned giant sequoia forest is now protected. MNN.com. Retrieved from https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/ wilderness-resources/blogs/alder-creek-giant-sequoia-grove-save-redwoods-league?utm_ source=Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d465cee760Merton, L. & Dater, A. (Producer and Director). (2008). Taking root: The vision of Wangari Maathai [DVD]. United States: Marlboro Productions. Retrieved from https://m.youtube.com/ watch?v=BQU7JoxkGvo Moyer, E., & Mark, H. M. D. (2016). Our earth, our species, our selves: How to thrive while creating a sustainable world. Virginia Beach, VA: Greenvironment Press. National Geographic. (n.d.). Invasive species. Resource Library. Retrieved from https://www. nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/invasive-species/ Papastavrou, V. (2019, April). Turning the tide: 50 years of collaboration for whale and dolphin conservation. WWF. Retrieved from https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/whale Parsons, M. H., & Munshi-South, J. (2020, March 1). Better rat control in cities starts by changing human behavior. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/ better-rat-control-in-cities-starts-by-changing-human-behavior/2020/02/28/e646b898-581511ea-9b35-def5a027d470_story.html Powers, M.  C. F., & Rinkel, M. (2019). Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability, within and beyond the UN sustainable development goals: A degrowth critique. In M.  Rinkel & M.  Powers (Eds.), Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability: A workbook for social work practitioners and educators (Vol. 3). Retrieved from https://www.ifsw.org/product/books/ social-work-promoting-community-and-environmental-sustainability-volume-3/

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Schmitz, C. L., Matyók, T., Sloan, L., & James, C. D. (2012). The relationship between social work and environmental sustainability: Implications for interdisciplinary practice. International Journal of Social Work, 21(3), 278–286. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00855.x Scott, M. (2018). Embracing Whenua, Manaakitanga, and Ukaipo in social work practice. In M.  Rinkel & M.  Powers (Eds.), Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability: A workbook for social work practitioners and educators (Vol. 2, pp.  12–22). Retrieved from https://www.ifsw.org/product/books/social-work-promoting-community-andenvironmental-sustainability-volume-2/ Shankar Raman, T. R. (2018). Expanding nature conservation: Considering wide landscapes and deep histories. In G. Cederlöf & M. Rangarajan (Eds.), At nature’s edge: The global present and long-term history. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Sloan, L. M., & Schmitz, C. L. (2019). Environmental degradation: Communities forging a path forward. Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis, 1, 1. Retrieved from http://jtpp.uk Sloan, L.M. & Schmitz, C.L. (2020, forthcoming). Resilience and the claiming of voice by marginalized communities. In K. Standish, D. Devere, R. Rafferty, & A.E. Suazo (Eds.), Springer Handbook of positive peace. New York, NY: Springer. Snyder, N. (2019, June 21).Why Costa Rica is a really great place to be a wild animal. Huffpost. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/costa-rica-wildlife-conservation-endangered-animals_n _5d0a8e72e4b0f7b7442b499b Somvichian-Clausen, A. (2017, November 1). Hikers now banned from climbing this iconic natural wonder. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/ destinations/oceania/australia/australia-uluru-ban-climb-anangu-spd/ Tallamy, D. W. (2020). Nature’s best hope: A new approach to conservation that starts in your yard. Portland, OR: Timber Press. Taylor, S. A. (2019). One health: How the health of the oceans and humans connect. In M. Rinkel & M. Powers (Eds.), Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability: A workbook for social work practitioners and educators (Vol. 3, pp.  297–314). Rheinfelden, Switzerland: International Federation of Social Work [IFSW]. Retrieved from https://www. ifsw.org/product/books/social-work-promoting-community-and-environmental-sustainabilityvolume-3/ Washington, H., Taylor, B., Kopnina, H., Cryer, P., & Piccolo, J. (2017). Why ecocentrism is the key pathway to sustainability. Ecological Citizen, 1(1), 35–41. Retrieved from https://www. ecologicalcitizen.net/pdfs/v01n1-08.pdf WWF. (2019). Facts. WWF report. Retrieved from https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/whale Zapf, M. K. (2009). Social work and the environment: Understanding people and place. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars Press.

Chapter 4

Environmental Injustice: Transformative Change Toward Justice

The global environmental crisis impacts marginalized communities the hardest. Vulnerable populations in developed countries and those in developing countries first and foremost experience the catastrophic impacts of climate change (Beg et al., 2002). The impact varies widely with low-income communities and communities of color often hardest hit. They are the most likely to experience toxic waste and air, water, and land pollution (Teixeria & Krings, 2015); and their communities are more likely to have been ravaged for resources and used as a dumping ground for trash and chemical waste. As Faber (2018) posited, we are seeing environmental inequality growing more rapidly than income inequality. This is true both in the United States and abroad. The preservation of our human habitats is threatened not only by economic interests but also by local power differentials that precipitate unequal quality of life for vulnerable populations (Skillington, 2017). The distribution of usable and clean land, water, and air is not equitable; and, those with power and privilege often determine access to and interaction with resources. Further, when disaster hits or the environment becomes toxic, poverty limits mobility. It also impedes the ability to obtain health care, develop adaptation methods, and access to political power (Skillington, 2017).

Intersectionality and Environmental Injustice Environmental injustice is inevitably intersected by racial, gender, and socioeconomic forces. Populations most impacted by environmental crises and degradation are more often poor, First Nation or Indigenous, communities of color, women, and/ or residents of the global South. They have less access to resources and are more likely to live in environmentally precarious locations such as coastal lowlands, island nations, dryland regions, and less developed countries (Eckstein, Künzel, © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9_4

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Schäfer, & Winges, 2019). Consequently, they are vulnerable to multiple systems of oppression with limited resources for self-advocacy. Further, scholars such as Faber (2018) and Muldoon (2006) have found through their research that state officials and corporate leaders target vulnerable marginalized communities. Communities of color have historically experienced systemic barriers such as racist housing policies, inadequate funding for local schools, systematic removal of children from families, employment and health-care discrimination, and a lack of representation in government and policy decisions. As a result, they are disproportionately affected by climate change and environmental degradation but are also the least poised to address them (Holifield, Chakraborty, & Walker, 2018; Muldoon, 2006). Consequently, adjustment to climate change, recovery from natural disasters, and mobilizing in the face of ecological degradation are all the more difficult. This intersectionality gives rise to unique environmental experiences and perspectives on environmental justice. Thus, an appropriate way to frame environmental justice is to rely on ideas shared by the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit of 1991 (First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, 2015). At this summit held in Washington DC, October 24–27, 1991, 17 environmental justice principles were adopted which continue to frame the grassroots environmental justice movement. These principles represent a commonality of experience and consensus across nations, cultures, and languages for the international environmental justice movement. With a grounding in spirituality, ecological rights and human rights, social justice, a belief in the interconnectedness of human beings to the earth, and common experiences of colonization and devastation of lands and people, Leadership Summit members call for liberation from cultural, political, and economic oppression. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderland/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza (2012), the notion of environmental injustice is intersected by gendered roles, spiritual and indigenous beliefs, pastoral migration, and the love for the land (Anzaldúa). Anzaldúa’s borderland theory describes the lives of the Chicano/Chicana Peoples across the southern border of the United States as their lives are intersected by their locality, described by Anzaldúa as a physical but also a metaphorical borderland. The ways of living for Chicano/Chicana peoples and others from Indigenous and Latin American heritage are intrinsically linked to who they are in terms of their cultural identity and also by their environmental surroundings. Anzaldúa’s (2012) categorical use of the US borderland as an open wound is a reminder of how the environmental context and racial tensions critically intersect each other. Borderlands as an Indigenous theory emphasizes a perpetual resistance of those trying to remain on and live off their lands, resisting the loss of their traditional ways of living. The history of Chicano/Chicana and Latinx peoples in the United States as one of being dispossessed of their land echoes the poignant experiences of Indigenous peoples. The United States has a long history of stealing indigenous land and forcing Native Americans onto barren, unwanted properties. Even so, their land is still used by the government and private companies against their will (see Sloan & Schmitz, 2019). A common denominator across Indigenous Peoples on both sides of the borderland is poverty. Once forcibly removed from their land and its natural

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resources, poverty strikes at extremely high levels among Native Americans. This prevents social mobility and the ability to obtain health care, limits adaptation, and inhibits political voices (Billiot & Parfait, 2019).

Environmental Injustice Intersected by Colonialism Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement can offer lessons. Wangari Maathai’s childhood home was in a land that was lush and supported the local needs for food and water. Her village was wrapped in forest with a rich undergrowth and a river running through it. The village had a tree of life that was a spiritual center for the community. Wangari Maathai went abroad to pursue her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. When she returned, it was to a much different place. The ecology had been destroyed: the river had dried up, the forest was gone, and the tree of life had been cut down. Because Wangari Maathai had developed a broad worldview, she recognized that the women must stand for their rights and environmental rights (Sloan & Schmitz, 2019). So she organized the women to find and germinate seeds. They then planted the seedlings; they were only paid for those they planted. As the trees grew, they anchored the earth and claimed the water, rebuilding the ecology (Fig. 4.1). This was the start of the Green Belt Movement, which was ultimately shared community to community (Merton & Dater, 2008).

Fig. 4.1  Early morning in the forest. (Published with kind permission of © Ande A.  Nesmith 2020. All Rights Reserved)

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The Green Belt Movement is an indigenous non-governmental organization in Kenya that provides a roadmap for recovery from the impact of colonialism on people and the environment (Sloan & Schmitz, 2019). Deforestation destroyed the ecology, disrupting the food production and water systems (Maathai, 2006; Merton & Dater, 2008; Opido, Odwe, Oulu, & Omollo, 2017). As they came together to rebuild the ecology, the women empowered themselves, resisted gendered oppression, built community, and fought government repression. The Green Belt Movement became the site for the development and running of the Community Empowerment and Education Seminars (CEE) (Green Belt Movement, 2018). The CEE was designed to educate community members on civic engagement and train them on ways to nonviolently confront government violence and reclaim their power. Latin American countries, not unlike African nations, have endured the continuous decimation of their natural resources financed by foreign capital from wealthy countries in the Global North. Two examples are discussed here: one from South America and the other one from Central America. The first example of environmental conflict and its aftermath is the case of Chico Mendes and his efforts to save the Amazonian rainforest. What started in Brazil as a fight over natural resources and land use between rubber tappers, foreign landowners, and cattle farmers eventually became one of the most organized and globally recognized efforts to preserve the Amazon and the way of living for its inhabitants. This environmental conflict was caused by the increasing demands for rubber by developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom (Equipo Técnico de Ecología Política, 2013). Large sums of foreign capital were invested in the Amazon region to force seringueiros (rubber tappers) to work the land but to sell their product exclusively to the landowner at lower prices. The abusive methods used by the landowners towards the rubber tappers provoked serious conflict in remote parts of the Amazon. Among the methods used by the landowners was to burn the workers’ houses, forcing them to live on the owners’ property and pay for rent and utilities. These oppressive measures left seringueiros no choice than to work with almost no remuneration. In the 1970s and 1980s Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper and union organizer, led collective and collaborative strategies alliances among seringueiros, Indigenous people, and environmental preservation groups. The main goal of these strategies was to extract the rubber without having to burn trees that caused deforestation. Mendes and other organizers developed a workers’ union to manage the forest collectively among the seringueiros and the native people (Revkin, 2004). He taught native communities and workers to use nonviolent actions to defend their land and its resources which continues to this day in Brazil. Despite the global impact of his work denouncing the environmental and social conflict in Amazonia, Mendes was assassinated in December of 1988. The second case revisits the environmental conflict caused by the construction of various dams to facilitate the extraction of water from Indigenous lands in Honduras. After the coup d’états following the elections of 2009, Honduras entered a period of rapid development. The government gave permission to an affluent family to begin dam projects in remote communities to develop logging companies. Considerable

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financing for the construction was secured by foreign capital from the Netherlands, Finland, and other European countries (García & Avila, 2016; Mendez, 2018). Berta Cáceres, an environmental activist and community organizer, co-founded a coalition called Concilio de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas Nacionales de Honduras (COPINH). This group was formed to unite rural and Indigenous communities and support each other through education and the preservation of the rivers and other natural resources (Mendez, 2018). Cáceres used an ecofeminist model of education where women leaders learned about pacifist protests and ways to protect their land and their river from foreign threats. For the Lenca people, all rivers, including the Gualcarque River or Rio Blanco, were sacred and needed to be protected. The river was a source of life and resources for Indigenous and Black families across the generations. When the dam project began, families were dispossessed of their land by expropriation or by being offered an amount much lower than the value of the land. The community asked for help from Cáceres and other leaders to stop the dams from being built. Berta promptly became a target of death threats from the companies and other armed groups. After receiving the 2015 Goldman Prize for her environmental protection efforts, Cáceres became an international symbol of an Indigenous movement created to preserve their land and their ways of living (Col-lectiu de Periodistes Contrast i Entrepobles, 2019). Berta Cáceres followed the same fate as Chico Mendes; she was assassinated in March of 2016 at her home in La Esperanza, Honduras. The environmental activism engaged in by both Cáceres and Mendes was based on respect for local communities and their ways of knowing, the use of peaceful strategies to protect natural resources from the threat of destruction, and the need to educate the global community about the consequences for the planet of destroying these ecological habitats and the cultures of the people who inhabited them, even while risking their own lives. These movements do not end with the violent and tragic death of these beloved and brave environmental leaders. Families and friends of Berta Cáceres and Chico Mendes continue to protect their legacy by funding educational programs and disseminating their environmental activist work locally and globally.

Environmental Racism The notion of environmental racism is of particular importance to environmental justice. Bryant (1995) defines environmental racism as an extension of racism: It refers to those institutional rules, regulations, and policies of government or corporate decisions that deliberately target certain communities for least desirable land uses, resulting in the disproportionate exposure of toxins and hazardous waste on communities based upon prescribed biological characteristics. Environmental racism is the unequal protection against toxic and hazardous waste exposure and the systematic exclusion of people of color from decisions affecting their communities. (p. 6)

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Historical analysis of colonialism, which degraded and abused people of color, women, and the ecology, offers important insight into understanding its roots and the ramifications of environmental injustice. The connection of racism with gender oppression and ecological degradation has accelerated with the forces of climate change. For instance, the European conquest of the West Hemisphere began the decimation of First Nations’ peoples and their ways of living, including the occupation of their lands and destruction of their natural resources (Spickard, 2007). The beginning of the United States as a country was grounded in violence against humans and non-humans alike, exemplified by the destruction of the rich ecology that sustained First Nation peoples’ ways of living for centuries prior to their colonization (Gilio-Whitaker, 2019). Settler colonialism, with the goal of westward expansion, required the elimination of Native People and their way of life. Indigenous People had to be separated from their land and therefore their means of survival. The moving destroyed cultures and lands/ecologies leading to the deaths of Native peoples. “Acknowledging environmental injustice as a process of settler colonialism means recognizing the larger historical arc of contact between Native and settler people and how the environmental disruptions imposed on Native people by that process linger today” (Gilio-Whitaker, 2019, p. 51). These dynamics are still present and can be seen as the Members of the Grand Bois Community of the United Houma Nation are struggling under generations of abuse resulting from US Government control (see Appendix A, The Story of Grand Bois). This iteration of abusive dumping was noticed in the 1990s when residents became aware of the horrid smell of toxic sludge dumped in their community. They discovered that it was the by product from the production of oil and gas. Even worse, the sludge was poisoning the children and families. It was occurring on their land and without their permission. The courts have ordered the companies to stop and to cover the costs; they have not complied. When this was exposed by CBS News in the late 1990s, it was aired one time when viewership was limited and has been otherwise held from public view. Twenty years later residents continue to live with this threat. The people of the Houma Nation are paying with their lives, their children’s health, and their land for the oil consumption patterns of our society.

Environmental Impact Studies and Community Voice The disproportionate exposure to high-risk environmental toxins (including pesticides), waste, metals, and other pathogens that pollute the land, air, water, and agriculture in communities of color produces personal, family, and community trauma and loss. The damage is physical and mental/cognitive, robbing us all of the potential for living a healthy life (Washington, 2019). Two significant studies, among many others, support the existence of environmental racism in the United States. A report from the Government Accounting Office (GAO, 1983) found that African Americans comprised the majority population in three of the four communities where hazardous waste landfills were located. The United Church of Christ’s

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(UCC, 1987) Commission for Racial Justice (CRJ) sponsored a landmark study, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, documenting race as the strongest predictor of toxic waste site placement (UCC, 1987). It was pivotal for galvanizing the environmental justice movement in the late 1980s in the United States. The followup report, Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987–2007, documents the successes and ongoing challenges of the environmental justice movement (Buckingham & Kulcur, 2010). The 1987 CRJ report contributed significantly to the public awareness of environmental racism, thus arose the traditional definition of environmental injustice— that certain minority populations are forced, through lack of access to decision-making and policy-making processes, to live with a disproportionate share of environmental destruction, suffering related public health problems and quality of life burdens (Agyeman, Bullard, & Evans, 2003). There is evidence that, compared with White people, African Americans are 79 percent more likely to live in  locations with industrial pollution that causes some of the highest health problems (Faber, 2018). Another study, presented in the 1984 Cerrell Report, demonstrates how place, identity, and power influence major environmental decisions (Peeples, 2003). This report identified optimal sites for a trash incinerator, demographic summaries of communities categorized as least or most likely to oppose an industrial site, and optimal geographic sites. Peeples (2003) found that place (idyllic countryside vs. inner city public housing complex) and identity constructs (gender, race, ethnicity) influenced dispute communications, dynamics, and outcomes. In this case, south-­ central Los Angeles was perceived to be poor, Black, and Latino enough to lack resistance capacity and therefore would be less inclined to protest the incinerator if offered economic incentives. Community members were notified after the site was selected, environmental impact reports were submitted, and the site was approved. Poor Black and Latina women took the moral high ground and role of concerned mothers, asserting and affirming their credibility to speak and engage in the public domain, despite not having advanced education or years of professional experience. These activists worked to dispel the idea that their neighborhood was an appropriate place for trash and toxic releases and contended that it was not a natural site given geographic and demographic markers. Ultimately, they worked in coalition with other community groups across the state, crossing race and class boundaries to prevent the incinerator siting. We see similar patterns with Superfund Sites. These sites are the result of human-­ induced environmental devastation as the land is contaminated by hazardous waste that is not properly managed and now threatens human health (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], n.d.). Racial segregation or economic deprivation is closely linked to the dumping as has been found in Detroit, Michigan, and Portland, Oregon (Smith, 2009). A dynamic example of the intersection between environmental injustice and racism is Roaring Fork Valley, a rural community in Western Colorado (Park & Pellow, 2011). This geographic region highlights the social inequity that mirrors the disproportionate impacts that communities of color and working class people face in a rural resort region that thrives on catering to the wealthy, at the expense of both the

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local workforce and the natural landscape. Here, nativist, anti-immigrant thinking aligns with being pro-environment, under the false premise that immigrants created the environmental crisis. Economic inequality with the lack of affordable housing for the workers in Aspen, a resort community, results in migrant workers having to commute 90 miles to work (Park & Pellow, 2011). Environmental racism is a social phenomenon that inhibits persons and populations of color, denying them access to green spaces available to the white majority (Park & Pellow, 2011). In the example of pollution-stricken Roaring Fork Valley and its wealthy neighbor Aspen, the idea of environmental racism is situated within the context of the natural landscape in Western Colorado. The haves and have nots are clearly defined along racial [and class] lines in one of the most polarized economic climates in the nation (Park & Pellow, 2011).

Community Vulnerability and Environmental Conflict With climate change comes increasingly destructive weather that is disrupting community agriculture and access to safe water and other pivotal resources. Environmental conflicts will continue to arise as environmental injustices keep emerging in the aftermath of climate change, including climate disasters, rising sea levels, and lack of resources for adapting to the resulting changes (Ciplet, Roberts, & Khan, 2015; Sicotte & Brulle, 2018). While our weather, water, land, and air are changing across the global, those who are more vulnerable feel the impact more directly and immediately. They will likely be forced to flee or fight for their survival. Simply put, environmental injustice means that people (a) do not have the same access to the benefits of a safe environment that includes amenities such as clean air and water, access to healthy food, and green spaces for physical and mental health and (b) experience more of the burden from environmental degradation and disasters, such as only being able to afford housing in high-risk areas or having to take jobs that subject them to industrial toxins. These environmental injustices play out in ways that result in some communities being more vulnerable to risks such as storms and flooding. Further, these communities (a) may not be able to sufficiently prepare or evacuate, (b) are hampered in recovery due to economic constraints, or (c) are being further neglected as others are prioritized (often due to environmental racism). We have already seen environmental conflicts evolve from the destabilizing interference in the ecosystem’s equilibrium, as described in prior examples from the African nation of Kenya to Colorado in the United States to Central and South American countries (Reimer et al., 2015). Environmental conflicts come from divergent sources. Conflicts due to the environment are complex, dealing with countless issues including migration, natural resources, loss of biodiversity, human security, as well as business (Reimer et al., 2015). Many of these conflicts escalate into violence as vulnerable communities resist the interference of government attempts to overuse and take over renewable resources which are intrinsic to their sustainability.

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The impact of changing conditions is predicted to be greater where there are concentrations of higher levels of poverty, intersected by scarcity of resources, racism, geography, and gender (Alston, 2019). For instance, when disasters such as a powerful hurricane occur, those with financial resources can leave and are also more likely to have access to adequate housing. People who are White and wealthier have access to recovery resources at the political, economic, social, and geographic levels. As we look at the areas hardest hit by hurricanes Harvey and Imelda, for example, these are lowlands that were settled by families with more limited income. In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey inundated the Houston area with over 50 inches of rain, resulting in over $100 billion in damage. Tropical storm Imelda drenched Houston with over 41 inches of rain in September 2019 (Fernandez, 2019). Examining real data and resident survey results, Chakraborty, Collins, and Grineski (2019) found that non-Hispanic Blacks, followed by all other racial/ethnic groups, experienced worse Hurricane Harvey-related flooding, than non-Hispanic Whites. Influencing factors include racial segregation, city planning, over-development, limited flood preparedness, and infrastructure (dis)investment. Flooding disproportionately impacted homes occupied by people of color and households with lower socioeconomic status, resulting in disparate economic and health (mental and physical) impacts and hampered ability to recover (Chakraborty et al., 2019). Puerto Rico  The unequal political and economic relations between Puerto Rico and the US Government have resulted in the development of structures and systems undergirding a long history of environmental injustice and social, political, and economic vulnerabilities (See Appendix B, Puerto Rico: Inequality, Environmental Injustice, and Resistance). The vulnerability of the island and its populations set the stage for the devastating effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico; they also framed the response that was devastating and resulted in more deaths, ecological destruction, and increasing poverty (Klein, 2018). The early responses, recovery efforts, and rebuilding plans for Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the recent natural disasters, Hurricanes Irma and María, are dire as the US federal government continues delaying the distribution of allocated funds to pay for the Island’s rebuilding efforts. In the aftermath of more frequent and powerful storms due to climate change, it is imperative for Puerto Rico to come forward with solutions for its political future, either demanding more representation in Congress or gaining independence from its colonial status with the United States. In the aftermath of near total decimation of pivotal resources, those in impoverished areas lost access to transportation, food, water, and health services and were not able to escape the massive destruction. Those who could not leave had to stay watching their elderly and ill family members decline or perish, without any hope of help in sight for weeks and months in most cases (Bubar, 2018). Bahamas  A small island-nation in the Caribbean, the Bahamas witnessed the fury of Hurricane Dorian with 185 mph winds for almost 48  hours on September 1, 2019. This atmospheric phenomenon was the largest one ever recorded in this country. The official death toll from the Category 5 storm that slammed into the islands

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remains at 70, with more than 240 people still missing (Harris, 2019). Officials have said they expect that number to rise, indicating more than 3000 may be reported as dying as a result of Dorian. The islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama were completely flattened, leaving 13,000 families homeless and 60,000 people suffering with food insecurity for many months (Law, 2019). The storm left almost 30,000 people jobless since the main income sources involve industries related to tourism. Initial efforts to clean up an estimated $7 billion in damages across the northern Bahamas were slowed by the possibility of finding even more bodies in the debris. Damage estimates for the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian have been estimated at $3.4 billion. According to the Miami Herald, this amount is equal to the economies of Florida, California, and Texas combined for 2019 (Harris, 2019). It is a long road to full recovery. Hundreds of families are experiencing extended stays in shelters, some for months, many for years. Rebuilding efforts are just beginning, with substantial assistance from international entities (Hill, 2016). Climate change has exacerbated the fragility of the Caribbean nations, which have experienced larger, stronger, and deadlier atmospheric phenomena in recent years (Milman, 2018). These nations have seen the effects of climate change, including coastal erosion, less tourism, loss of jobs and infrastructure, and a subsequent stagnation of the economy. In 2015, prior to storms Irma, Maria, Dorian, and others, the Bahamian government joined other Caribbean states for the Paris climate change talks, demanding a tangible commitment from post-developed countries to reduce their greenhouse emissions and help minimize the staggering consequences of environmental injustice for inhabitants from these nations. Ironically, Caribbean nations’ concerns were ignored by the United States and other large polluting countries. The Bahamas, along with neighboring island nations, struggle to adapt to rising tides, as they struggle to protect their land and their people. The sea level keeps rising, pushing people out of their coastal homes. Some are pushed to migrate to other geographical regions, as the safest areas in their countries are already populated (Milman, 2018). Nepal  We know that the effects of climate change tend to be more severe in communities where people rely on the land to support their livelihoods. Such is the case in the rural mountain communities of Nepal where researchers Gentle and Naraseni (2012) worked in partnership with the remote mountainous Jumla District using community participatory social research methods. They sought to explore the impacts of climate change on the economic well-being of the community. Results from this work show that changing weather patterns have significantly challenged the livelihood of the community where they are experiencing resource degradation, food scarcity, lack of basic services, and increasing social inequalities. The changing climate is an additional burden for people in the mountains who are already vulnerable, excluded, and living in poverty. They now face additional risks to their livelihood and increasing inequality in the future.

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Climate Change and Migration: Heightened Vulnerability The global environmental crisis is fueling the movement of populations within or across borders as part of forced migratory situations. This occurs at the nexus of climate change with environmental injustice and ecological degradation. The correlation between increasing temperatures, uncertain weather patterns, extreme seasons of rain and drought, and subsequent lack of sustainable resources predicate these movements. Deteriorating ecological and environmental conditions along with extreme events are the major drivers of the decision to leave home either temporarily or permanently whether within their country or abroad (International Organization for Migration [IOM], 2018). Estimates range from 25  million to 1 billion with 200 million as a widely accepted estimate (IOM, 2015). Climate change and environmental degradation are driving a huge increase in the number of migrants seeking asylum in Europe (Missirian & Schlender, 2017). The number of migrants attempting to settle in Europe each year will triple by the end of the century based on current climate trends alone, independent of other political and economic factors, according to the research. Patterns of migration in sub-Saharan Africa reveal similar migration trends (Morrissey, 2014). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that since 2008, 22.5  million people have been displaced by climate-related or extreme weather events. This includes tragedies like the widespread famine in Darfur, monsoons and flooding in Bangladesh, and the catastrophic hurricanes in Puerto Rico (Markham, 2018). Climate volatility is known to deepen poverty vulnerability in developing countries worldwide. Economic-climate analysts around the world have long studied the impacts of extreme climate events on poverty, agricultural productivity, and subsequent costs of food. A study by Ahmed, Diffenbaugh, and Hertel (2009) applied an economic-climate analysis framework to assess how poverty impacts climate volatility for seven socioeconomic groups in 16 developing countries. It was discovered that climate volatility increases poverty across the countries sampled—particularly Bangladesh, Mexico, Indonesia, and Africa—with urban wage earners being the most vulnerable group. Threats to the environment and the ways of living for Indigenous People in Latin America come from powerful forces. Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador have a 500 plus year history of colonialism, exacerbated by the decimation of Indigenous inhabitants, and more recently, the violent extraction of resources that keep local communities dispossessed of their ancestral lands and resources. These three countries, known in the United States as The Northern Triangle (Arnson & Olson, 2011), have suffered continuous environmental injustices interspersed with internal conflicts such as civil wars and coup d’états, low socioeconomic development, and human rights violations, among others. Environmental catastrophes such as drought, hurricanes, climate change, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes are another source of conflict for these countries. The combination of these factors increases the scarcity of resources, which fuels the

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ongoing violent conflicts across the region. Climate change disproportionately impacts rural farmers who tend to be poor, uneducated, and with no other sources of accessible income aside from farm labor. In a recent study, undocumented Latinx women from Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala described violent experiences that forced them to leave their country of origin. Participants in the study were able to identify, to varying degrees, the reasons behind their decision to migrate. Among the reasons mentioned for leaving their homes were the loss of land, living wages, food scarcity, extreme poverty, financial and sexual exploitation, intra-partner violence, and fear of mafia-like groups that extorted them for money and threatened to harm their families (Machado-Escudero, 2019). These factors effectively leave families unable to fend for themselves, forcing them to take the dangerous journey to the North to cross the border into the United States. This story repeats itself in Mexico, as well as in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, where people cannot afford food and other necessities due to the precarious economy and land unable to support crops needed for survival. Climate change accelerates the urgency of addressing environmental injustices. The global disparities are well-documented, revealing dramatic changes that impact already vulnerable communities. While it is tempting to view climate injustice as something that only occurs in developing nations, in actuality, it is local and transnational, crossing local, national, and international policy decisions. These decisions target vulnerable communities at the intersection of race and class (Sicotte & Brulle, 2018). Kurtz (2010) argued that unless “the racialized nature of the state” is considered in our analysis, the response will be inadequate (p. 95).

Environmental Justice When justice is prioritized, policymakers address basic needs of the most vulnerable and aim to equalize opportunities for all. –Mason & Rigg, 2019, p. 216

The transnational nature of the environmental injustice and ecological degradation is evident through actions such as the exporting plastic waste and banned pesticides and through the supersized influence of the fossil fuel industry (Sicotte & Brulle, 2018, p. 31). Successful processes to reclaim power have occurred at the local when communities have reclaimed control (Maddow, 2019). Examination of the global influence and impact of the fossil fuel (oil and gas) industry shines a light on the multi-level devastation caused; it also highlights that responsibility for containment is local and requires citizen activism and mobilization (Maddow, 2019). Efforts to address the crisis often begins at the local. This is true whether we are looking at neighborhood ecology, political action, tackling environmental injustices, community development, or coalition building and advocacy. Some communities of color have started responding to this collaboratively and, despite a lack of wealth or political influence, have gained some traction in transforming the environment and health of those under attack as they become the dumping ground for toxic

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waste and garbage (Washington, 2019). As we tackle adjustment and the d­ ismantling of unjust practices and structure, we are contributing to the collective commitment to mitigate the impact of climate change. Many populations of color have strong ties to community and the land. There is an assumption that people who are Black are not invested in the land or the fate of the earth (Glave, 2010; hooks, 2009). This denies the historical relationship African Americans have to the land. In fact, land ownership and agrarian roots are deeply embedded in the history of African Americans. Sometimes the strengths of communities have been hidden by the rewriting of history. hooks (2009) further highlights the connection to the land and the value of education as she builds community in rural Kentucky. Wangari Maathai understood the links between the ecology, the oppression of women, and the structural economic and political oppression (Sloan, Joyner, Stakeman, & Schmitz, 2018). Problems started long ago were deeply seeded, embedded with European colonialism. The locally led grassroot movement to rebuild the ecology and the community took root and made a difference. It was a female-led movement that was empowering as structural oppression was confronted and challenged nonviolently but persistently: The persistently unequal position of women, even in the technologically advanced countries of North America and Europe, is both highlighted and reinforced by environmental problems. Unless the gender dimension of these problems is addressed in strategies put forward to overcome them, the social injustice of gender inequality, compounded with inequalities of race, ethnicity, poverty and age, will endure. (Buckingham & Kulcur, 2010, p. 88)

With the denial of gender, the development and remediation of environmental injustice are inadequately explored (Buckingham & Kulcur, 2010). Within the environmental justice movement, it is women who lead, comprising 60–90% of environmental justice workers (Gaard, 2018). Women, however, are too often not included in related policy and economic decisions and are left out of discourse about environmental justice (Gaard, 2018). Ecofeminism exists at the intersection of gender and the environment; joining feminist theory and environmental justice expands the lens for analysis and action (Gaard, 2018). Both movements emerged from the lives of women who recognized their experiences with injustice. Women exist at the juncture of gender, race, class, and the natural world. From this intersection comes their role as eco-activists. Women across the globe are leading environmental movements and at the same time marginalized from the sites of political and economic activity (Gaard, 2018). To meet Indigenous needs across the globe, environmental justice definitions must acknowledge and validate the role of embedded racism and sexism. In recognizing the struggle against settler colonialism, the centrality of sovereignty, and the significant connection to the land for Indigenous peoples, environmental justice framing becomes inclusive of Indigenous peoples (Gilio-Whitaker, 2019). As activists fight the powers of industry, patriarchy, and colonialism, they face violence, even in their nonviolence. The level of violence crosses race and gender with the highest rates for Indigenous women. Women of color have been leaders in

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the fight toward environmental justice combining philosophies of civil rights and environmental activism (Shrader-Frechett, 2005). While there are varied definitions of environmental justice, what is most consistent is the two-part focus on equity in distribution and empowering the public voice of those historically silenced and marginalized (Shrader-Frechette; Walker, 2012). It is a global movement requiring collective action at the local which includes a focus on policy. The roots of the US environmental justice movement can be traced to citizen revolts against the placement of toxic waste and hazardous by polluting industries in areas inhabited by predominantly marginalized populations. Specifically, in the United States, the environmental justice movement is said to have originated in 1982  in Warren County, Alabama. African American community members in Warren County fought an unsuccessful battle against the placement of a toxic waste dump in their county (Rogge, 2012). But the movement was started and has an ongoing impact at the voice expands. Researching a US southern community’s use of environmental justice and collective action frameworks, Rogge, Davis, Maddox, and Jackson (2006) documented the transformation of an environmental contamination problem into a community empowerment and economic development opportunity. Justice must move from distributive to restorative and in order to rebalance power includes the voices of those who have been colonized alongside of those of the colonizer (Gilio-Whitaker, 2019). The systemic change needed requires recognizing and empowering “the importance of the community’s voice in developing policies and adaptation regarding lands adjacent to and inside of tribal lands” (Billiot & Parfait, 2019, p. 118).

Discussion Questions 1. What is environmental injustice? How does that relate to environmental racism and environmental migration? 2. How do the deep roots of oppression that is gendered and racialized impact vulnerability to environmental and climate injustice? Which individuals and communities have the highest vulnerability in the immediate? 3. What could environmental justice look like? 4. Who have been the leaders in the environmental justice movement? What can we learn from them? 5. What changes would contribute to adaptation and mitigation?

Activity Read the case study on Flint, Michigan, in Appendix C, Flint Water Crisis. Flint is a town still ravaged by environmental injustices as families continue living with unsafe drinking water and major medical issues which have been intentionally

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neglected by governmental leadership. The community is struggling to get change as conditions continue to cause devastating medical conditions, death, and political inaction. As you read this case study, reflect on the following questions then discuss with peers, colleagues, and/or community groups. (See also http://flintwaterstudy. org/about-page/about-us/.) 1. What are the risks for the families and communities? 2. What long-term impacts are the children and families facing? 3. What are the family and community strengths? 4. What barriers are they facing? How can they tackle the crisis and on what levels? 5. How do the Principles of Environmental Justice and Climate Justice apply?

References Agyeman, J., Bullard, R.  D., & Evans, B. (2003). Introduction: Joined-up thinking: Bringing together sustainability, environmental justice and equity. In J.  Agyeman, R.  D. Bullard, & B. Evans (Eds.), Just sustainabilities: Development in an unequal world (pp. 1–18). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Ahmed, S., Diffenbaugh, N., & Hertel, T. (2009). Climate volatility deepens poverty vulnerability in developing countries. Environmental Research Letters, 4, 1–8. https://doi. org/10.1088/1748-9326/4/3/034004 Alston, M. (2019). Gender, politics, and water in Australia and Bangladesh. In L. R. Mason & J.  Rigg (Eds.), People and climate change: Vulnerability, adaptation, and social justice (pp. 165–183). New York, NY: Oxford. Anzaldúa, G. (2012). Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books. Arnson, C. J., & Olson, E. L. (2011). Organized crime in Central America: The Northern Triangle. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: Latin American Program. www.wilsoncenter.org/lap Beg, N., Morlot, J. C., Davidson, O., Afrane-Okesse, Y., Tyani, L., Denton, F., … Rahman, A. A. (2002). Linkages between climate change and sustainable development. Climate Policy, 2, 129–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1469-3062(02)00028-1 Billiot, S., & Parfait, J. (2019). Reclaiming land: Adaptation activities and global environmental change challenges within indigenous communities. In L. Mason & J. Rigg (Eds.), People and climate change: Vulnerability, adaptation, and social justice (pp. 108–121). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Bryant, B. (1995). Introduction. In B. Bryant (Ed.), Environmental justice: Issues, policies, and solutions. Washington, DC: Island Press. Bubar, J. (2018). Puerto Rico one year later. New York Times Upfront Magazine, pp. 14–17. https:// upfront.scholastic.com Buckingham, S., & Kulcur, R. (2010). Gender geographies of environmental injustices. In R.  Bullard, R.D., Mohai, P., Saha, R., Wright, B. (2007), Toxic wastes and race at twenty, 1987–2007. Grassroots struggles to dismantle environmental racism in the U.S. A report prepared for the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries. Chakraborty, J., Collins, T.  W., & Grineski, S.  E. (2019). Exploring the environmental justice implications of Hurricane Harvey flooding in greater Houston, Texas. American Journal of Public Health, 109(2), 244–250. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304846

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Ciplet, D., Roberts, J.  T., & Khan, M.  R. (2015). Power in a warming world: The new global politics of climate change and the remaking of environmental inequality. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Col-lectiu de Periodistes Contrast i Entrepobles. Corporació Catalana de Mitjans. (2019). Les llavors de Berta Cáceres (The seeds of Berta Céaceres). Catalonia, Spain. Retrieved from https://www.ccma.cat/tv3/alacarta/latituds/les-llavors-de-berta-caceres/video/5912827/ Eckstein, D., Künzel, V., Schäfer, L., & Winges, M. (2019, December). Who suffers most from extreme weather events? Weather-related loss events in 2018 and 1999 to 2018. Global Climate Risk Index Briefing Report. Retrieved from https://germanwatch.org/sites/germanwatch.org/ files/20-2-01e%20Global%20Climate%20Risk%20Index%20200_10.pdf Environmental Protection Agency [EPA]. (n.d.). What is Superfund? Retrieved from https://www. epa.gov/superfund/what-superfund Equipo Técnico de Ecología Política. (2013). Chico Mendes: 25 años después. Ecología Política, 46, 136–147. Retrieved from https://www.ecologiapolitica.info/?p=1289 Faber, D. (2018). The political economy of environmental justice. In R. Holifield, J. Chakraborty, & G. Walker (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of environmental justice (pp. 61–73). New York, NY: Routledge. Fernandez, S. (2019, September 19). Tropical storm Imelda’s flooding turns deadly as southeast Texas is swamped by rain. The Texas Tribune. Retrieved from https://www.texastribune. org/2019/09/19/tropical-storm-imelda-flooding-disaster-declaration First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (1991). (2015). In S. Vanderheiden (Ed.), Environmental justice (p. 119). London, UK: Routledge. Gaard, G. (2018). Feminism and environmental justice. In R.  Holifield, J.  Chakraborty, & G. Walker (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of environmental justice (pp. 74–88). New York, NY: Routledge. García, M. (Producer) & Avila, J. (Director). (2016). Guardiana de los Rios (Web). (Guardian of the river). Madre Tierra. Honduras. http://witnessforpeace.org/aboutberta/ Gentle, P., & Naraseni, T. N. (2012). Climate change, poverty and livelihoods: Adaptation practices by rural mountain communities in Nepal. Environmental Science & Policy, 21, 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2012.03.007 Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2019). As long as grass grows: The Indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock. Boston, MA: Beacon. Glave, D. D. (2010). Rooted in the earth: Reclaiming the African American environmental heritage. Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books. Government Accounting Office [GAO]. (1983). Environmental justice timeline. Retrieve from https://sites.duke.edu/environmentaljusticetimeline/2018/11/25/1983-landmark-generalaccounting-office-study/ Green Belt Movement. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/ Harris, A. (2019, November 30). Hurricane season ends, but Dorian left a massive crisis in the Bahamas. Miami Herald. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article237664359.html Hill, M. C. M. (2016). Closing the gap: Towards rights-based protection for climate-induced displacement in low-lying small island states. New Zealand Journal of Environmental Law, 20, 43–76. Retrieved from https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=885232275265 759;res=IELHSS Holifield, R., Chakraborty, J., & Walker, G. (2018). Introduction: The worlds of environmental justice. In R. Holifield, J. Chakraborty, & G. Walker (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of environmental justice (pp. 1–11). New York, NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (2009). Belonging: A culture of place. New York, NY: Routledge. International Organization for Migration [IOM]. (2015). Terminology on migration, environment and climate change. IOM outlook on migration, environment and climate change, 21–24. https://doi.org/10.18356/14b2ac9d-en International Organization for Migration [IOM]. (2018). Migration and climate change: What are the estimates? Retrieved from https://www.iom.int/migration-and-climate-change-0

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Klein, N. (2018). The battle for paradise: Puerto Rico takes on the disaster capitalists. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books. Kurtz, H. E. (2010). Acknowledging the racial state: An agenda for environmental justice research. In R. Holifield, M. Porter, & G. Walker (Eds.), Spaces of environmental justice (pp. 95–115). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Law, T. (2019, September 7). Here is what is like in the Bahamas after it was devastated by Hurricane Dorian. Time Magazine. https://time.com/5669725/bahamas-after-hurricane-dorian/ Maathai, W. (2006). Unbowed: A memoir. New York, NY: Knopf. Machado-Escudero, Y. (2019). Detentions and deportations in Georgia: Implications for Latina immigrants, their families, and communities. Athens, GA: University of Georgia. Maddow, R. (2019). Blowout. Corrupted democracy, rogue state Russia, and the richest most destructive industry on earth. New York, NY: Crown. Markham, L. (2018, June 29). A warming world creates desperate people. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/opinion/sunday/immigration-climatechange-trump.html Mason, L. R., & Rigg, J. (2019). Moving forward for community inclusion and policy change. In L. R. Mason & J. Rigg (Eds.), People and climate change: Vulnerability, adaptation, and social justice (pp. 211–217). New York, NY: Oxford. Mendez, M. J. (2018). “The river told me”: Rethinking intersectionality from the world of Berta Cáceres. Capitalism, Nature and Socialism, 29(1), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.20 17.1421981 Merton, L., & Dater, A. (Producer and Director). (2008). Taking root: The vision of Wangari Maathai [DVD]. United States: Marlboro Productions. Retrieved from https://m.youtube.com/ watch?v=BQU7JoxkGvo Milman, O. (2018, August 7). Caribbean states beg Trump to grasp climate change threat: War has come to us. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/07/ trump-climate-change-threat-caribbean-islands-warning Missirian, A., & Schlender, W. (2017). Asylum applications respond to temperature fluctuations. Science, 358(6370), 1610–1614. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao0432 Morrissey, J. (2014). Environmental change and human migration in Sub-Saharan Africa. In E. Piguet & F. Laczko (Eds.), People on the move in a changing climate (Global Migration Issues) (Vol. 2). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Muldoon, A. (2006). Environmental efforts: The next challenge for social work. Critical Social Work, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.22329/csw.v7i2.5729 Opido, G., Odwe, G., Oulu, M., & Omollo, E. (2017). Migration as adaptation to environmental and climate change: The case of Kenya. Kenya: IOM. Park, L. S.-H., & Pellow, D. N. (2011). The slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs the environment in America’s Eden. New York, NY: University Press. Peeples, J.  A. (2003). Trashing south-central: Place and identity in a community-level environmental justice dispute. Southern Communication Journal, 69(1), 82–95. https://doi. org/10.1080/10417940309373280 Reimer, L. E., Schmitz, C. L., Janke, E. M., Askerov, A., Strahl, B. T., & Matyók, T. G. (2015). Transformative change: An introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Revkin, A. (2004). The burning season: The murder of Chico Mendes and the fight for the Amazon rainforest. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. Rogge, M. E. (2012). Environmental justice. In T. Mizrahi & L. E. Davis (Eds.), Encyclopedia of social work (20th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Rogge, M. E., Davis, K., Maddox, D., & Jackson, M. (2006). Leveraging environmental, social and economic justice at Chattanooga Creek. Journal of Community Practice, 13(3), 33–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027640021955441 Shrader-Frechett, K. (2005). Environmental justice: Creating equality, reclaiming democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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Sicotte, D. M., & Brulle, R. J. (2018). Social movements for environmental justice through the lens of social movement theory. In R. Holifield, J. Chakraborty, & G. Walker (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of environmental justice (pp. 25–36). New York, NY: Routledge. Skillington, T. (2017). Climate justice and human rights. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Sloan, L. M., Joyner, M. C., Stakeman, C. J., & Schmitz, C. L. (2018). Critical multiculturalism and intersectionality in a complex world. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Sloan, L. M., & Schmitz, C. L. (2019). Environmental degradation: Communities forging a path forward. Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis, 1(1), 13–38. Retrieved from http://jtpp.uk Smith, C. L. (2009). Economic deprivation and racial segregation: Comparing Superfund sites in Portland, Oregon and Detroit, Michigan. Social Science Research, 38(3), 681–692. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.03.005 Spickard, P. (2007). Almost all aliens: Immigration, race, and colonialism in American history and identity. New York, NY: Routledge. Teixeria, S., & Krings, A. (2015). Sustainable social work: An environmental justice framework for social work education. Social Work Education, 34(5), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615 479.2015.1063601 United Church of Christ [UCC]. Commission for Racial Justice. (1987). Toxic wastes and race in the United States. A national report on the racial and socio-economic characteristics of communities with hazardous waste sites. New York, NY: Chavis, B. & Lee, C. Walker, G. (2012). Environmental justice: Concepts, evidence and politics. New  York, NY: Routledge. Washington, H. A. (2019). A terrible thing to waste: Environmental racism and its assault on the American mind. New York, NY: Little Brown Spark.

Chapter 5

Human Health and Well-Being in Times of Global Environmental Crisis

Human health and well-being are threatened by the global environmental crisis. Not only is vulnerability threatened at the juncture of climate change, ecological loss, and environmental injustice but also as a result of explicitly human-induced environmental destruction and natural disasters. The immensity of this crisis demands a response that is wholistic, cutting across climate, ecological, and social systems (Des Marais, Bexell, & Bhadra, 2016). The impacts are intensified when environmental injustices disproportionately impact poor and vulnerable communities, including communities of color. The causes of global environmental changes, targeted injustices, and rising inequality, along with the degrading of the nature world, converge to negatively impact human health. Human activities have created systematic long-term changes to the earth’s climatic cycles, leading to dramatic increases in the heat. A rise in temperature of just 1.5 °C endangers the water supply, food security, livelihoods/economic growth, and human health, putting pressure on communities without resources (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2013). The heat accelerates the melting of permafrost and glaciers causing sea-level rise, warmer oceans, and drastic weather patterns. This combination results in more severe and frequent disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes. As temperatures increase, seasons of recovery are shortened creating severe conditions including drought and wildfires. Human activities are escalating pressure on the planet as ecosystems becomes further impaired. Human-induced environmental injustices increase air and water pollution. Decisions made about the protection of natural resources, oil and gas extraction, and land manipulation all determine the speed of climate change and the extent of ecological damage. In turn, the resulting changes in climate, ozone depletion, forest cover, wetlands, biodiversity, freshwater availability, urbanization, and coastal reefs size all impact human health through direct, indirect, and ecosystem-­ mediated paths (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014).

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The Global Environmental Changes and Human Health Human health has always been influenced by climate and weather, especially when extremes in weather precipitate negative consequences for our air, food, water, shelter, and overall human security (Balbus et  al., 2016). Certain populations have higher susceptibility to climate-sensitive health impacts including children, the elderly, pregnant women, Indigenous peoples, communities of color, those living in poverty, migrants, and those with specific infectious diseases such as HIV (United Nations Framework on Climate Convention [UNFCCC], 2016a). This is due to varying levels of wealth and education and the extent to which the ecosystem is already degraded for individuals and populations. Access to health care is another determining factor (Luber et al., 2014). The intersection of human health and environmental injustices can be seen in just about every community, in every country worldwide. Much of our most significant health concerns are due to changing temperatures and precipitation along with extreme weather and climate-related events. These factors impact air quality, water quality and availability, and disease transmission (U.S.  Global Change Research Program, 2018). Healthy communities rely on access to clean water, air that is not polluted, and usable land that is not suffering from either a lack of water or an overabundance of water. While wealthy communities and nations are better able to avoid and mitigate the immediate impacts of environmental destruction and devastation, poorer communities have less capacity to respond and adapt to environmental injustices (Beg et al., 2002). Particularly vulnerable are Indigenous peoples who are consistently among the poorest across regions (Billiot & Parfait, 2019). Poverty limits mobility, the ability to obtain health care, and access to the resources for developing adaptation methods. The unfortunate irony here is that poorer, less developed nations carry the greatest burden of environmental injustices, and yet they are least responsible for the environmental injustices themselves. Below we examine several factors that impact human health. Included here are heatwaves, access to clean water, food systems, air quality, and infectious diseases. Finally, we explore possibilities for adaptation and mitigation.

Heatwaves Human-caused activities are responsible for the emission of gases that are warming our climate and sparking heatwaves around the globe (Romm, 2016). Human health is directly threatened, both physically and mentally, by hot weather (Berry, Bowen, & Kjellstrom, 2010). Heatwaves are significantly linked to increased mortality rates, mental health crisis, and crime. Heatwaves across the United States have been tied to dramatic increases in death rates from cardiovascular disease, strokes, heat stroke, and pneumonia (Dalton, 2019; Harlan, Chakalian, Declet-Barreto, Hondula, & Jenerette, 2019). It may become a public health crisis for those who are

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older, have chronic health concerns, or have substance abuse problems (Harlan et al., 2019). Moreover, a heating planet has far-reaching consequences for food security, employment, and housing, contributing to injury, disease, and death (IPCC, 2019). Adaptation, planning, and mitigation are needed to lower the risk. For short-term acute responses at public health and primary care levels, we need education about health concerns, monitoring of community and individual risks, accessible health services, and increasing capacity for response (Harlan et  al., 2019). Longer-term responses, however, require more adaptive behaviors. Long-term adaptive and mitigating responses at other levels include land management, soil management, conservation, reforestation, urban planning, and neighborhood planning (IPCC, 2019).

Access to Clean Water The global environmental crisis is putting our water supply at risk, in both the quality and the quantity (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2018). Water is being degraded by our energy and agricultural systems as it is also drying up. This impacts the ecosystems, the people, and the agriculture. Water, whether too much or too little, affects human health, directly and indirectly, with the children and the elderly most at risk (Luber et al., 2014). Deteriorating infrastructure and inadequate water management has exacerbated the issue (U.S.  Global Change Research Program, 2018). Adaptation and mitigation requires shifting current practices, rebuilding infrastructure, strengthening management practices, and tackling environmental injustices. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, highlights the intersection of ecological damage with a public health crisis in vulnerable communities, created by those with political and economic power (see Appendix C, Flint Water Crisis). The history of racism and marginalization created a community that is vulnerable to the violence of political decision-making. The health impacts are dramatic and well-known, yet change has been elusive leaving, the community suffering the health impacts (Moore, 2018). As much as this is a story about environmental racism, dereliction of duty, and willful ignorance, it is also a story of activism, courage, tenacity, alliances, and science, in real time to affect change. Local action by individuals, community groups, and medical personnel/systems has mobilized to advocate for change in the face of powerful political resistance.

Food Systems Climate change makes it more difficult to grow food as a result of increasing heat, drought, wildfires, and torrential rainstorms (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2018; IPCC, 2019; UNFCCC, 2016b). Crop seasons are shortened due to warming

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temperatures which impacts crop yields for humans and livestock (Cunsolo, Harper, & Edge, 2013; Tam, Gough, Edwards, & Tsuji, 2013). What can be grown in a ­particular area has changed as the weather and seasons change. Further, over the past three generations, much of the world has seen drastic changes in their relationship to food. Mass-produced items and big agriculture have separated meaning from foods for most cultures; and most of us do not personally grow the majority of the food we eat. Mass production also contributes to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted each day while using inordinate amounts of water and fossil fuels to accommodate mammoth infrastructures and transportation needs (Moran, 2010). It is somewhat paradoxical that in the end, the mass availability of food has contributed to the increasing shortage of food. Food security and rural employment are threatened. There are changes that can be made on multiple levels to address the need for adaptation and mitigation (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2018). This includes changes in what is produced and how. This includes challenging supplements used, rethinking the technology, rebuilding the land, and addressing food systems and diets. Dietary changes can further have a positive effect on human health and well-being.

Air Quality Air quality is a public health emergency with 91% of the population across the globe living in places where poor air quality exceeds recommended limits set by the World Health Organization [WHO]; it is expected that number with dramatically rises (WHO, 2016). The issue of air quality is tied to ozone, allergens, and wildfires (U.S.  Global Change Research Program, 2018). While air pollution has negative impacts on all people, poor and vulnerable communities in both rural communities and urban centers are disproportionally affected (Luber et al., 2014; WHO, 2016). The death toll is already seven million people per year worldwide which is about one in eight people. Analysis indicates that outdoor air pollution is a bigger killer than tobacco smoking (WHO, 2014). Research on the overall detrimental effects of air pollution on human health found that diseases such as heart disease, lung disease, dementia, and liver problems are caused or aggravated by air pollution (Schraufnagel et al., 2019). The systemic damage is the result of pollutants causing inflammation that then floods through the body carried by ultrafine particles in the bloodstream. The effects of air pollution on health and well-being in communities may also be seen in increased mental health problems and lower levels of physical vitality. A 30-year longitudinal study on the exposure to air pollution, conducted by a team of New Zealand-based researchers, found that exposure to high levels of atmospheric lead caused by air pollution in childhood results in psychological difficulties in adulthood (Reuben et al., 2019).

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Chronic and Infectious Diseases A risk of a globalized world in which humans freely and frequently travel virtually everywhere is that diseases can spread quickly. Novel diseases to which humans have no natural immunity and for which we have no vaccination are a frightening reality. Some of these may come from viruses or other illnesses that jump from animals to humans. There is also a fear that, as polar ice sheets—which have been frozen for tens of thousands of years—melt, other diseases may be released to which we have no defense. As permafrost soils melt, some primal viruses and bacteria are released, coming back to life (Fox-Skelley, 2017). In fact, we saw evidence of this not that long ago. In 2016 in Siberia, a child became infected with a 75-year dormant anthrax, a deadly bacterium, from a reindeer carcass that was thawed as a result of unusually warm temperatures (BBC, 2016). At the writing of this book, a new coronavirus, COVID-19, jumped species and quickly developed into a global pandemic, causing sickness and death at a frightening pace and wreaking havoc on both local and global economies. Coronavirus is a broad term that includes a wide range of viruses, many of which humans get and recover from easily and routinely (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020). For a new disease to become a threat to humans, it must first be capable of transmission to humans, sometimes referred to as “jumping” species. Second, once in a human, it must be easily transmittable from one human to the next. The disease is named COVID-19 as an abbreviation: “CO” stands for “corona,” “VI” for “virus,” “D” for disease, and “19” for the year it was first discovered (CDC, 2020). We do not know yet when or how this will end. Importantly, starting near the end of 2019, this novel coronavirus started in a live animal market. It is not difficult to connect the dots to the human role in causing this problem when we consider the way wildlife animals are held in markets for food. It may be a catalyst for reconsidering our relationship with other animals; even if we are not concerned about the treatment of them in these markets, that treatment is linked to outcomes like this pandemic. Ironically, this pandemic has actually given the planet a respite from destructive human behavior. For example, emissions of CO2 and NO2 dropped precipitously in China and in major cities around the world as businesses shut down and travel stopped (Beals, 2020; NASA, 2020). There are reports of wild animals beginning to enter city areas and clear waters in the canals of Venice (Guy & Di Donato, 2020). Although a global pandemic is terrifying, for the most part, the biggest risks are in amplifying the dangers of existing known diseases and health inequities in preventing and treating them (Dryzek, Norgaard, & Schlosberg, 2013). Chronic diseases, including asthma, allergies, and diabetes, will increase in frequency and severity (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2018). Managing the risk requires public health planning and prevention. Adaptation and mitigation require strengthening the health-care system (Luber et al., 2014).

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As the weather increases, the range and distribution of existing diseases are spreading (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2018). Exposure to water- and food-borne diseases and transmission by insects and pests further contribute to expansion. Rising temperatures mean widespread vector-borne illnesses (i.e., malaria), malnutrition, and diarrheal diseases, the last two of which have been shown to cause cognitive and learning disabilities in children which then affect future productivity (World Bank, 2010). Drier and hotter environments are more open to the introduction and incubation of new diseases (Santoro, 2019). One of the struggles is how public health officials decide “to report risks without generating unnecessary fear. Recent history has shown that poor communication only aggravates the problem, leading to public panic and a loss of trust in the government’s ability to handle outbreaks” (Santoro, 2019, para. 3). Adaptation and mediation require an informed and educated public as well as access to health care and public health monitoring.

Mental Health and Well-Being While there is considerable research exploring the ways changes in the climate are affecting human health, there is substantially less research into how those changes impact mental health and contribute to stress-related disorders (Berry et al., 2010; Portier et al., 2010). This is partially an artifact of the low-priority mental health research receives on national and international agendas as well as a gross underestimation of the emotional and psychological impacts climate change and ecological loss have on human and societal well-being; this is partly due to the field’s inability to quantify and address these issues (Portier et  al., 2010). We are starting to see evidence of grief and stress in response to changing climates and disruption to place (Billiot, Beltran, Brown, Fernandez, & Mitchell, 2019) and ecological grief (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018). A growing body of research has linked extreme weather events to psychological and mental health distress associated with loss, disruption, and displacement (Fritze, 2008). As people experience more events and sometimes more kinds of events (e.g., flooding, tornadoes, wildfires), we have seen the psychological impact emerge over time. Stress-related disorders like anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-­compulsive disorder can be understood as due to chronic stress from repeated exposure (Fritze, 2008; Portier et  al., 2010). In addition to diagnosable disorders, there are also indicators of other environment-related stresses including relationship strain, substance abuse, hopelessness, and loss of personal or occupational identity (Clayton, Manning, & Hodge, 2014). Therefore, as we are battling life-and-death scenarios of chronic and infectious diseases, we also must attend to human mental health.

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Adaptation and Mitigation Mental and physical health as well as community health is affected by environmental changes, but what determines the impacts at each level are the human systems and infrastructure available to them (Clayton et al., 2014). The impacts of environmental injustices, exacerbated by climate change and degradation of the natural world, are felt broadly across the world as part of global environmental change. The impacts of environmental injustices, exacerbated by climate change and degradation of the natural world, are felt broadly across the world as part of global environmental change. Mental and physical health as well as community health are affected by environmental changes but what determines the impacts at each level are the human systems and infrastructure available to them (Clayton et al., 2014). Risks are particularly high in communities where extractive industries are present, water systems are controlled by non-local corporations, food production systems are at the mercy of chemical companies, and dumping sites are dictated by the NIMBY (not in my backyard) community development philosophy. Adaptation and mitigation centering on extreme weather can address environmental injustices across vulnerable communities while attending to the health and mental health risks (Luber et al., 2014). Access to health care is a major factor, and our capacity to respond is often inadequate (Luber et al., 2014). Overall, there are cross benefits in addressing the global environment crisis and health care. As we lower the risks and outcomes, health risks will be lowered (U.S.  Global Change Research Program, 2018). Adaptation is an ongoing process engaging community members in assessing and addressing the issues while also engaging health and public health systems in advocacy and implementation (Ebi & Semenza, 2008). One example of mitigation is exemplified in the work of Camino Seguro (Safe Passage) NGO in Guatemala City, their Creamos Program for mothers (Appendix D, Camino Seguro (Safe Passage)). Here, families face multiple environmental hazards, polluted air and water, water-borne illnesses, raw sewage, dumping of contaminated waste, and structural oppression; children suffer from asthma. This is a food desert where families suffer with food insecurity; gardens are not to be found, and the diet lacks adequate nutrition. Safe Passage provides its students with breakfast, lunch, and a hearty afternoon snack to help students get adequate nutrition. Social workers are integral to the Creamos Program team, providing interventions that support the empowerment of women, address trauma, develop skills, and strengthen families. There is a social worker who provides individual and group therapy related to PTSD, intimate partner violence, and the environmental violence experienced working and living in the dump. The mothers also receive training in sewing and screen printing, creating sustainable, eco-centric employment that is just transition for women seeking work opportunities away from the dump. Mothers reported improved quality of family life and the ability to financially provide for their families through the various entrepreneurial projects, including jewelry-­ making, garment-sewing, and screen printing. Camino Seguro provides solutions

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focused on raising the visibility of vulnerable residents living dump adjacent. They engage social institutions including education and employment, work to change human dependency on the dump, and thus creates a healthier, more sustainable community. The response addresses personal, interpersonal, community, and structural issues while intervening through multiple systems.

Discussion Questions 1. In what ways is the global environmental crisis impacting human health? 2. How do food systems, air, and water contribute to the degrading of human health? What role does access to health care play in adaptation? 3. What changes would contribute to adaptation and mitigation? 4. Which individuals and communities have the highest vulnerability in the immediate? 5. How do extreme weather events and slow environmental degradation contribute to health and mental health problems? What are the impacts on emotional, spiritual, and cognitive health?

Activity Read the case study in Appendix E, Impacting Human Health and Well-Being. Explore the issues individually or in groups using the following questions. What are the interacting concerns and how are they related? What are the physical and mental effects of arsenic poisoning? How does the physical environment contribute to their health and well-being? What frustrations are the worker experiencing and what options might you suggest for addressing those? Are there strengths you see that the worker could draw on? Are there ways to help older adults interact with their social communities and physical environments that involve advocating for change? What are some ways to help clients facing environmental injustices like those in this case? How could you advocate for access clean water? Who are some of the partners who are helping with issues like this that could be allies?

References Balbus, J., Crimmins, A., Gamble, J. L., Easterling, D. R., Kunkel, K. E., Saha, S., & Sarofim, M.  C. (2016). Chapter 1: Introduction: Climate change and human health. In The impacts of climate change on human health in the United States: A scientific assessment (pp. 25–42). Washington, DC: U.S. Global Change Research Program. https://doi.org/10.7930/J0VX0DFW

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BBC. (2016, August 2). Russia anthrax outbreak affects dozens in North Siberia. BBC World News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36951542 Beals, R.  K. (2020, March 18). There’s a conditional upside from coronavirus: Cleaner air. Market Watch. Retrieved from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ theres-a-conditional-upside-from-coronavirus-cleaner-air-2020-03-18 Beg, N., Morlot, J. C., Davidson, O., Afrane-Okesse, Y., Tyani, L., Denton, F., … Atiq Rahman, A. (2002). Linkages between climate change and sustainable development. Climate Policy (Taylor & Francis Ltd), 2(2/3), 129. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1469-3062(02)00028-1 Berry, H., Bowen, K., & Kjellstrom, T. (2010). Climate change and mental health: A causal pathways framework. International Journal of Public Health, 55(2), 123–132. https://doi. org/10.1007/s00038-009-0112-0 Billiot, S., Beltran, R., Brown, D., Fernandez, A., & Mitchell, F. (2019). Indigenous perspectives for strengthening social responses to global environmental changes: A response to the social work grand challenge on environmental changes. Journal of Community Practice, 27(3–4), 296–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2019.1658677 Billiot, S., & Parfait, J. (2019). Reclaiming land: Adaptation activities and global environmental change challenges within Indigenous communities. In L. Mason & J. Rigg (Eds.), People and climate change: Vulnerability, adaptation, and social justice (pp. 108–121). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Centers for Disease Control [CDC]. (2020, February 28). Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-­19): Disease basics. Centers for Disease Control. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html Clayton, S., Manning, C.  M., & Hodge, C. (2014). Beyond storms and droughts: The psychological impacts of climate change. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica. Cunsolo, A., & Ellis, N. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-­ related loss. Nature Climate Change, 8(4), 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2 Cunsolo, A., Harper, S. L., & Edge, V. L. (2013). Storytelling in a digital age: Digital storytelling as an emerging narrative method for preserving and promoting indigenous oral wisdom. Qualitative Research, 13(2), 127–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112446105 Dalton, C. (2019). When temperatures rise, so do health problems. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/ sections/health-shots/2019/08/24/753511276/when-temperatures-rise-so-do-health-problems Des Marais, E. A., Bexell, S. M., & Bhadra, S. (2016). Reflexive development: A model for helping social workers contribute to a sustainable global future. Social Work Education, 35(1), 100–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2015.1074674 Dryzek, J. S., Norgaard, R. B., & Schlosberg, D. (2013). Climate-challenged society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Ebi, K. L., & Semenza, J. C. (2008). Community-based adaptation to the health impacts of climate change. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 35, 501–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. amepre.2008.08.018 Fox-Skelley, J. (2017). There are diseases hidden in the ice, and they are waking up: Long-dormant bacteria and viruses, trapped in ice and permafrost for centuries, are reviving as Earth’s climate warms. http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170504-there-arediseases-hidden-in-ice-and-they-are-waking-up Fritze, J. (2008). Hope, despair and transformation: Climate change and the promotion of mental health and well-being. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 2(1), 13. https://doi. org/10.1186/1752-4458-2-13 Guy, J., & Di Donato, V. (2020, March 16). Venice’s canal water looks clearer as coronavirus keep visitors away. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-canals-clearwater-scli-intl/index.html Harlan, S.  L., Chakalian, P., Declet-Barreto, J., Hondula, D.  M., & Jenerette, G.  D. (2019). Pathways to climate justice in a desert metropolis. In L. Mason & J. Rigg (Eds.), People and climate change: Vulnerability, adaptation, and social justice (pp.  23–50). New  York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. (2013). Climate change 2013: The physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. IPCC. (2019). Summary for policymakers. In: Climate Change and Land: An IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/ summary-for-policymakers/ Luber, G., Knowlton, K., Balbus, J., Frumkin, H., Hayden, M., Hess, J., … Ziska, L. (2014). Human health. In J. M. Melillo, T. C. Richmond, & G. W. Yohe (Eds.), Climate change impacts in the United States: The third national climate assessment (pp. 220–256). Washington, DC: U.S.  Global Change Research Program. Retrieved from https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/ downloads Moore, M. (Writer, Producer, & Director). (2018). Fahrenheit 11/9 (DVD or web). USA: State Run Films. Moran, E. (2010). Environmental social science: Human-environmental interactions and sustainability. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. NASA. (2020, February 25). Airborne nitrogen dioxide plummets over China. NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved from https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146362/ airborne-nitrogen-dioxide-plummets-over-china?mod=article_inline Portier, C., Hess, J., Luber, G., Maslak, T., Radtke, M., Strickman, D., & Trtanj, J. (2010). A human health perspective on climate change: A report outlining the research needs on the human health effects of climate change. Research Triangle Park, NC: Environmental Health Perspectives and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Reuben, A., Schaefer, J. D., Moffitt, T. E., Broadbent, J., Harrington, H., Houts, R. M., … Caspi, A. (2019). Association of childhood lead exposure with adult personality traits and lifelong mental health. Journal American Medical Association Psychiatry, 4(76), 418–425. https://doi. org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.4192 Romm, J. (2016). Climate change: What everyone needs to know. New  York, NY: Oxford University Press. Santoro, H. (2019, October 16). Diseases are spreading with climate change. Panic doesn’t have to. High Country News. Retrieved from https://www.hcn.org/articles/ public-health-diseases-are-spreading-with-climate-change-panic-doesnt-have-to Schraufnagel, D.  E., Balmes, J.  R., Cowl, C.  T., De Matteis, S., Jung, S.-H., Mortimer, K., … Wuebbles, D. J. (2019). Air pollution and noncommunicable diseases: A review by the forum of international respiratory societies’ Environmental Committee, Part 1: The Damaging Effects of Air Pollution. Chest, 155(2), 409–416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2018.10.042 Tam, B. Y., Gough, W. A., Edwards, V., & Tsuji, L. J. S. (2013). The impact of climate change on the well-being and lifestyle of a First Nation community in the western James Bay region. Canadian Geographer, 57(4), 441–456. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0064.2013.12033.x U.S.  Global Change Research Program. (2018). Fourth national climate assessment, Vol. II: Impacts, risks, and adaptation in the United States. Retrieved from https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/ United Nations Framework on Climate Convention [UNFCCC]. (2016a, June 29). Climate change impacts public health. (2017, April 12) Retrieved from https://unfccc.int/news/ climate-change-impacts-human-health United Nations Framework on Climate Convention [UNFCCC]. (2016b, June 29). Understanding the link between food security and climate change. Retrieved from https://unfccc.int/news/ understanding-the-link-between-food-security-and-climate-change World Bank. (2010). World development report 2010: Development and climate change. Washington, DC: The World Bank. World Health Organization [WHO]. (2014). Climate change and human health  - risks and responses. Summary. Climate Change and Human Health. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/ globalchange/summary/en/index1.html World Health Organization [WHO]. (2016). Ambient air pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease. Retrieved from Geneva, Switzerland: https://www.who.int/phe/ publications/air-pollution-global-assessment/en/

Chapter 6

Power and Politics: Decision-Making, Protection, Rebuilding, and Justice

Essential to addressing the global environmental crisis is engaging in the policy decision-making process. At a 2 °C change, our coral reefs will likely completely disappear, as will our summer arctic ice; we expect to lose nearly 20% of our insects and 16% of our plant life; and the oceans will become more acidic, among other things (IPCC, 2018; McKibben, 2010; Plumer & Popovich, 2018). Many of these impacts will be irreversible. Basic human rights include access to clean water and air as well as adequate living spaces. Injustice is fundamentally linked to the impact of climate change and human-caused environmental degradation. Across the globe, not only are those most affected found in the poorest countries of the world, but within those countries, it is the poor, women, and disenfranchised ethnic groups that suffer the gravest consequences. These are populations that are left out of the policy process, either the development or the implementation (Galizzi & Herklotz, 2013; Skwiot, 2008; United Nations Human Rights, 2014).

Policy in the Context of the Environment Policy here is used in the broadest sense; it includes federal, Tribal, state, county, city-level legislation as well as policy within government agencies, and systems that are intended to support them in the form of regulation and enforcement. Examining environmental policy and the ways it influences justice can quickly become complicated. Policies vary and at times are in direct conflict across government boundaries. Yet we cannot ignore any of them. Federal and local policies within the United States may seem the most pertinent to us, but the very nature of climate change and environmental hazards is global. We all share the same planet and are affected by decisions made across the globe. And, in turn, other countries are deeply affected by

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US policies. As a starting point, let’s begin with looking at the international body that addresses global environmental changes, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Global Policy Although the first world conference on climate was held in 1979, the IPCC did not begin until 1988. Through a collaboration of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Resolution 43/53 of the United Nations General Assembly asserted that climate change is of concern to all mankind because all life depends on certain climate conditions (United Nations Framework on Climate Convention [UNFCCC], 2005). The goals were to conduct scientific assessments using available information on climate change to develop timely actions within a global framework (IPCC, n.d.). Any country that is a member of the United Nations (UN) and the World Meteorological Organization is an eligible member of the IPCC. The IPCC regularly produces assessments on all aspects regarding climate change since the first one released in 1990. The thousands of scientists who have contributed to these works are voluntary and are nominated through governments and organizations, contributing to the neutrality principal held by the organization. The results of the first assessment, reported at the 45th session of the UN General Assembly, led to discussion of the need for a framework convention to initiate negotiations among assembly members on addressing climate change (IPCC, 2010). The UN is the major governing body for global environmental change. In 1997 the UN gathered all of its members for the purpose of discussing and pledging to address global warming. The resulting Kyoto Protocol states that each nation: …recognizes that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, and places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities.’ (United Nations, 2014)

The pledge targets developed countries to implement policies and strategies that will reduce the high levels of GHG below the 1990 levels. Adaptation planning is a critical piece to combating the impacts of climate change and ecological degradation. A systematic review by Lesnikowski and colleagues provides good information about the public health adaptation to environmental change at national levels among members of the IPCC who signed the Kyoto Protocol Agreement (Lesnikowski et al., 2013). They learned that nations with environmental governance frameworks had more advanced adaptation planning and implementation than countries with little or no national environmental guidance but higher gross domestic product (GDP). Therefore, countries that set environmental standards as a priority were able to take on the challenges of developing adaptation plans regardless of their GDP (Lesnikowski et  al., 2013). Finally, the concept of adaptation in human systems is continuing to evolve as the issues and our

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u­ nderstanding of them evolves. This means that adaptation plans should not be static. Governments must be flexible in their national strategies, continually incorporating new information into their adaptation plans (Lesnikowski et al., 2013). The dramatic impact of climate change, pollution, and ecological degradation seen in poor countries can make it tempting to perceive environmental injustices as belonging solely to developing countries. However, in the United States and other wealthy countries, marginalized communities are routinely disproportionately impacted by unsafe water, polluted air, farming pesticides, extreme weather, and other environmental hazards. Indeed, injustice follows a similar pattern in developed countries. Environmental hazards and impacts of global warming are highly correlated with race, economic class, and gender (McKibben, 2010). It is communities of color, which are poor, and with high number of households run by women that do and will continue to experience uncontrolled flooding or drought, excessive smog, and unsafe drinking water (McKibben, 2010).

National-Level Policies One way to assess national policies across the globe is to examine whether they have a flagship law that is a significant piece of legislation addressing how the country works with climate change. Nachmany and colleagues (2014) conducted an assessment of national-level legislation among the UN member states (i.e., country governments) (Nachmany et al., 2014). They found that, as of 2013, 62 of the 66 countries studied have a flagship law or some legislation that functions as a national-­ level climate change policy. The countries represented in the study contributed approximate 88% of the combined global GHG emissions. Flagship laws indicate a member state’s advancement toward addressing climate change and represent several sectors: carbon pricing, energy supply, energy demand, transportation, adaptation, research and development, and institutional and administrative arrangements. Countries with medium to high carbon intensity energy had the most laws on energy demand and supply. Similarly, countries that are considered most vulnerable had, on average, more adaptation laws, and countries with the most forest cover had more forest-related laws (Nachmany et al., 2014). Nachmany, Byrnes, and Surminski (2019) assert that among all of the laws (1807) from the combined countries studied, the aggregate effect is still not enough to significantly reduce greenhouse gases (Climate-laws.org, n.d.). While on the right path, countries need to continue developing more comprehensive laws. Unless this continues they will not be able to achieve UN goals of greenhouse gas reductions below the 1990 levels. In the United States, the Clean Air Act is considered the flagship legislation that addresses climate change. Enacted in 1970 in response to an environmental movement spurred, in part, by Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962), the act sought to address observed air pollution such as visible smog. Major revisions were subsequently made in 1977 and in 1990 to address acid rain and damage to the s­ tratospheric

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ozone layer (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2013). Two main provisions of the act are (a) for the EPA to set national standards on ambient air quality and (b) for the states to develop achievable plans to maintain air quality standards set by the EPA. Specific provisions also include addressing hazardous air pollutions, acid rain, the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, and regional haze. The EPA also set standards for six common criteria pollutants, which are particulate matter, ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and lead (EPA, 2013). Finally, the key to addressing climate change is that the Clean Air Act is granted authority by Congress to address air quality issues that may emerge over time. Thus, the president is allowed to use this authority to address climate change within the scope of the legislation through regulating pollutants that cause changes in the climate (EPA, 2013). The United States reports eight other legislation targeting climate change. However, all US legislation indirectly addresses climate change and is not as progressive as many other countries’ legislative efforts. One example of an indirect law is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which provides $70 billion of direct spending for tax credits and clean energy (EPA, 2013). With the absence of comprehensive legislation to tackle climate change, President Obama released his own climate action plan. Utilizing existing authorities provided to 7 of his 15 cabinet members, President Obama laid out a strategy to cut carbon pollution in America, prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to combat global climate change (Executive Office of the President, 2013). Many of the strategies discussed in the plan are long-standing programs or initiatives. New strategies to pass climate change-specific legislation were not covered. To reduce greenhouse gases, the Obama plan outlined ways to deploy clean energy through regulating power plant emissions, promote renewable energy by doubling production again by 2020, and provide loans to advance fossil fuel production. As transportation is nearly 28% of total emissions, plans were included to increase fuel economy standards and advance transportation technologies. Other measures include cutting energy waste in homes, businesses, and factories through establishing higher-energy efficiency standards in home appliances and providing loans for investing in energy efficiency infrastructure in homes and businesses. The plan discussed adaptation strategies which promote climate resilient investment strategies for homes and businesses, climate preparedness, and protecting the economy and natural resources (Executive Office of the President, 2013).

 S Federal Policy Organizations That Address Environmental U Justice Remarkably, given how much environmental injustice continues to persist across the United States, there are in fact several agencies in place designed to protect vulnerable groups and communities from the disproportionate impacts of

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e­nvironmental hazards and pollutants. Perhaps the most well-known is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which still exists as of the writing of this book, though there was a proposal to eliminate it entirely in the early days of the Trump administration. According to the US EPA, environmental justice is defined as: Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. (EPA.gov)

Within the EPA is the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ), established in 1992 specifically to address the needs of vulnerable populations in regard to environmental burdens and benefits. The OEJ works collaboratively with federal, state, and local governments as well as communities toward environmental justice. This also includes working with industry, businesses, and academia (OEJ in Action, 2017). Shortly after the OEJ was created, President Clinton signed an executive order in 1994 (Executive Order 12898) specifically to address environmental hazards in communities of color and to prevent low-income communities from: …being subject to disproportionately high and adverse environmental effects. It required all federal agencies and department heads to ensure that their programs and activities that affect health did not use criteria or practices that disproportionately impact based on race, color, or national origin (Memo accompanying executive order).

Executive Order (E.O.) 12898 was intended to accomplish three things: (a) increase understanding of the ways federal policies, programs, and activities impact community health and the environment; (b) prevent and address discrimination within federal policies and programs that effect the environment and community health; and (c) afford minority and poor communities educational and community (planning and decision-making) participation opportunities (Executive Order 12898, 1994). Once disproportionately harmful policies and practices were identified, federal agencies and departments were required to address them. E.O. 12898 facilitated creation of the Interagency Working Group on environmental justice and encouraged research coordination between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (Executive Order 12898, 1994). Several factors hindered E.O. 12898’s implementation, including its status as an under-funded directive, and the lack of defined core concepts such as environmental justice, and minority or low-income communities. Without clear guidance, agencies and departments found it difficult to design and implement initiatives to aid environmentally challenged communities (Bowers, 1995) or to prevent harmful agency or department intervention (Binder et al., 2001). Even the EPA failed to use the E.O. 12898 directives during the creation of air cleanliness rules (U. S. GAO, 2005). Finally, in direct contrast to the order’s acknowledgment of historic and current racial and economic inequity, the EPA declared that all communities deserved fair treatment regardless of demographic composition (Binder et al., 2001). A policy analysis summarized that E.O. 12898 was unable to develop or implement protective barriers for the exact communities it was attempting to impact ­ (Buckhoy, 2015).

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State Laws Many states have adopted climate change legislation, action plans, and state commissions (C2ES, n.d.; Rahm, 2010). These laws vary by state and funding mechanisms. Included are laws that seek to generate renewable energy, reduction of car and industry emissions, and those that guide agriculture. Oregon, as an example, was the first state to enact climate change legislation by regulating GHG emissions from new power plants (Rahm, 2010). According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), other states followed Oregon’s lead through measures intended to reduce GHG emissions either by voluntary or mandatory reporting of emissions (such as California, Wisconsin, and West Virginia), setting emission standards for electricity (California, Washington, and Minnesota) and vehicles (California, New Jersey, and Washington). Massachusetts limited its GHG emission restrictions to CO2 from coal-fired power plants (Rahm, 2010). Other states established emission targets for all industries like Hawaii, Minnesota, and California (C2ES, n.d.). Finally, several states (Iowa, New Mexico, and Maryland) developed action or strategic plans without legislation to set target goals for reducing demand-side GHG emissions in agriculture, businesses, or infrastructure (Rahm, 2010).

Tribal Policies Within the United States, there are 573 federally recognized tribes (as of 2020) and an estimated 200 more tribes non-federally recognized; therefore, it is important to remember that not all tribes have a dedicated land base that is governed by tribal governments. In addition, a tribe’s right to govern itself and manage its property (i.e., tribal sovereignty) is contingent on the acknowledgment of government-to-­ government relationships between the tribes and the federal government (Hicks, 2007). Consequently, tribal polices regarding climate change are limited in scope because they can only be enforced at the tribal government level, if at all. The tribal governments have laid our policies and practices that model change potential. As covered in the examples below, some have developed policies that identify the issues and then take responsibility for addressing those issues. Some are addressing water issues and renewable energy, sometimes as they overlap. Still others are taking on natural resource management, forest management, and afforestation. There are several tribal governments that developed formal climate change policies (Durglo, 2013; Hansen, 2013). For example, the Swinomish Tribe, in Washington State, passed the first Climate Change Proclamation among US Indigenous peoples in 2007. The proclamation recognizes the effects of climate change that have potential impacts for the tribe and that the Swinomish Senate are responsibility for addressing in order to assure the well-being of the community and natural resources. As such, the proclamation declares the intent to develop an action plan, policies, and strategies to address climate change impacts and causes. In 2008

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the Swinomish Tribe began to work on their Climate Change Initiative developing a climate adaptation action plan and conducting an impact assessment funded through the US Department of Health and Human Services. A few of the adaptation projects focus on coastal protection of specific tidal areas, dike maintenance, wildfire risk mitigation and management, and local emergency planning (Swinomish, 2010). Tribes concerned with climate change impacts such as wildfires, deforestation, drought, and water security developed plans to address natural resource management. The Mescalero Apache in New Mexico built solar-powered water pumps as an alternative water supply source (Hansen, 2013). Nez Perce in the state of Idaho developed an afforestation project that provides carbon sequestration credits to the carbon markets. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation in the state of Montana enacted a climate change strategic plan that prioritizes climate change, traditional ecological knowledge, and scientific research (Durglo, 2013; Hansen, 2013). The plan focuses on preservation of forestry, land, fish, wildlife, water and air quality, infrastructure, culture, and people. For example, action plans that focus on humans include providing education with the Tribal Health Department, expanding community gardens, and monitoring vector-borne diseases (Durglo, 2013). Other tribes hold adaptation-planning workshops, like the Navajo Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, to address water and forest management issues associated with climate change.

Dakota Access Pipeline and the Standing Rock Sioux Let’s look at a recent example of environmental policy as it intersects with injustice with both poverty and communities of color: the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is an underground oil pipeline with plans to run over 1100 miles from North Dakota to Illinois. The original pipeline plan called for it to be placed about 10 miles outside of Bismarck, ND (Dakota Access, LLC, 2014). The US Army Corps of Engineers, however, rejected this because of risks to the Bismarck water supply. The new route would instead threaten the Standing Rock Sioux resources and tribal reservation. The pipeline would now run through Standing Rock Sioux historic and cultural sites and cross the Big Sioux River. It would also cross the Missouri River a half mile upstream from the tribe’s reservation. Without meaningful consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux, and against the requests from the EPA, the Department of Interior, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a permit was granted to proceed with the construction. They were not afforded the environmental impact assessment like Bismarck; the rerouting from a largely white urban community to native lands was declared environmental racism (Thorbecke, 2016). Three federal agencies asked the pipeline company to voluntarily delay further construction until they consulted more with the tribe and conducted further evaluation, but Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) opted to move forward without consultation. The Standing Rock Sioux peoples and government continued to be engaged and take action through filing complaints on the multiple leaks in the pipeline throughout 2017.

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Local Policy Although we often think of big policies at a national or state level, local policies can have a significant influence on the lives of people who live there. Take, for example, a municipality that governs a small town as well as the surrounding area, a 10-mile radius. That town, however, may opt to only provide and regulate tap water for the city, providing water and regulating its safety in the town center. This leaves those on the outskirts of town to draw on unregulated well water which may have artificial contaminants such as farming pesticides or natural ones such as arsenic. The decision by the municipality to limit their water resources and regulation means that some families are drinking water that may be poisoning them. This applies as well to resources that may benefit a community affected by environmental issues. Efforts to inform the community about their rights and benefits they are eligible for can have a substantial impact on the effectiveness of the policies. It is not enough to have a service or tax break or some other benefit funded through the policy if the community is kept in the dark about it. Being engaged also means that we need information about hazards in order to adequately address them. Assessing the hazards and the impact of pollutants is complex, especially at the local level. Many regulatory rules focus on a select set of pollutants and completely disregard others, or they do not consider the cumulative or interactive effects when pollutants are combined (Kearney, 2010). For example, the six most common gases assessed are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, and perfluorocarbons, but the combined impact has not been examined.

Policy Participation One of the most powerful ways to ensure that policies safeguard all communities is to ensure that all communities that may be affected by policies are invited and welcomed to the entire decision-making process. This can be challenging when the system may already seem biased against those in poverty, women, communities of color, and children, which makes it all the more necessary. Policy bodies from local city councils to the US Congress are often disproportionately filled with those who are most privileged: white wealthy men. There are multiple ways to effect policy change. One way to conceptualize this draws from Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation (Arnstein, 1969). The ladder represents low-level policy engagement at the bottom rungs with modes of increasing participation moving up the ladder. Here, it is only in the top three rungs that there is a genuine redistribution of power to include citizens in a meaningful way. At the top rung, citizens have complete control over policy-making and funding. For more information, also see the Citizen’s Handbook online site (Dobson, n.d.)

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Voter Engagement Voting has important personal and political implications. While we tend to think about voting as important for the bigger picture of getting people who will represent our needs into office, it also has notable personal effects as well. Voting is one of many activities that can lead to political efficacy which in turn has both internal and external implications. Once an individual becomes engaged with voting, it has been found to increase their sense of competence as well as their capacity for self-advocacy (Postle & Beresford, 2007; Hanrahan, Matorin, & Borland, 1986). Other studies found that over time, voting improves one’s belief that they have control over issues that are meaningful to them and are more likely to build a heightened awareness of their environment (Davis, 2010; Guittierez, 1990; Zimmerman & Warschausky, 1998). In turn, this can counteract some of the stress linked to discrimination and poverty and increase general well-being (Klar & Kasser, 2009; Sanders, 2001). Voting can be particularly helpful to the most disenfranchised groups. For example, voting can lead to lower recidivism rates among ex-offenders (Florida Parole Commission, 2010). Voting has also been found to be empowering for those with psychiatric illnesses. Often the value of voting is completely overlooked among those who are mentally ill. We can facilitate increased civic empowerment through voter engagement. There are many ways to easily reach and ensure those who are not registered to vote can easily register. For example, some locations provide an option to automatically register one to vote when they apply for an updated or new driver’s license. Others have landlords hand out a voter registration form and information at the time tenants are signing a new lease. One organization that supports financial stability for clients who are poor found that by simply asking the question “Are you registered to vote?” into their intake process, they could expand voter registration (Building Movement Project, 2006). The organization embedded voter registration information into their software so that when they gathered the client’s address, they could then print out a voter registration form that was filled in except for the client’s signature. By doing this, they were able to talk to and register up to 200 new voters each day. However, voter engagement has more challenges than simply getting people registered. There are significant issues, notably in the 2018 elections, of voter suppression in selected communities. Some of these tactics include making voting days and hours inconvenient for citizens. While some states have generous early voting laws, others also allow a very tight window to cast a vote. Other ways to suppress voting include using intimidating tactics to prevent voters from coming to the polls or establishing polling locations that are intentionally difficult for some groups to reach. For instance, they might be moved completely out of neighborhoods or off campuses, or they might be relocated out of town to a place not accessible by public transportation. Places where people can obtain required identification (ID), such as the Department of Motor Vehicle Offices, have been closed during critical registration periods in minority neighborhoods (NewKirk, 2018). Delegitimizing some reg-

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istrations through onerous rules has been a recent tactic used in some regions, such as requiring exact name matches in Georgia, even down to a missing period or hyphen in a name. In North Dakota, Native Americans on reservations have voted for decades with their P.O. Box, but in the 2018 election, with very little warning, they were suddenly required to produce an ID with a street address (Cobb, 2018).

Advocacy and Lobbying When regulations are put in place, they mean little if they are not enforced equitably. In these instances, service providers and community members do not necessarily need to work toward policy development or change, but rather toward holding governments accountable to following through with their existing policies. Many may feel hesitant to pursue policy-related action and may have misinformation about what kinds of policy advocacy they may engage in as part of a nonprofit. There is widespread misunderstanding that tax laws preclude nonprofits from lobbying or other active efforts to influence policy (Rocha, Poe, & Thomas, 2010). In fact, nonprofit organizations centered on the environment are some of the most politically engaged. There are many forms of advocacy that are not considered lobbying by tax law, such as those already discussed here, community education about issues and candidate positions, and voter engagement (Internal Revenue Service [IRS], 2018). Moreover, the IRS requires that lobbying cannot consume a substantial amount of the organization’s activities and expenditures, but it does not ban it altogether. Organizations may in fact meet with legislators broadly about an issue important for their clients without identifying a specific bill and without it being counted as lobbying at all (Mehta, 2009). They may also put out ads in support or against a particular piece of legislation as long the ad does not include calls to action. Finally, it is generally considered acceptable for a nonprofit to use 5% of its resources specifically toward lobbying (Mehta, 2009).

Policy Development and Analysis The IPCC set global climate change standards but have little authority to hold nation-states accountable for emission production (Billiot & Parfait, 2019). High-­ emission countries are less likely to enact comprehensive climate change policies. Many US states have passed their own greenhouse gas emission requirements to fill the void in of federal laws that meet international standards. Service providers such as social workers can create change through writing legislation or developing agency federal rules (also policy) that interpret the meaning of the legislation passed. Everyday citizens can run for office or engage in government service. Finally, tribal governments and Indigenous organizations are developing climate action plans and policies in order to reduce the disparate burden of climate change impacts on Indigenous peoples.

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The overwhelming majority of policies and laws attempting to address global environmental changes are directed at the supply-side of climate change with the exception of building and vehicle energy and emission standards. International, national, state, and tribal bodies should also consider the demand-side management of greenhouse gases. Demand-side solutions include energy efficiency and conservation (like building and vehicle standards), development of a smart grid that allows for alternative energy sources, landfill and land use changes, recycling incentives, and lifestyle choices like reduced material consumption (Rahm, 2010). It is self-evident that we need policies to curb the use of substances that are toxic to humans and other life on earth. It is important to develop regulations that equally protect all communities. The gap in protective policies is exacerbated by the underdevelopment of research funded and collected within the United States on the demand side of contributions to climate change. Individual responsibility for climatic changes is still hotly debated at the federal level and accordingly not addressed (Rahm, 2010). For significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to occur, individuals have to contribute to reducing the demand for inefficient energy and overconsumption. Data needed to support policies that could motivate individual reduction could include recognizing psychological restoration from the environment; understanding the motivation for pro-environmental behaviors; developing interventions in every sector that help individuals reduce consumption; and evaluating the effectiveness of awareness campaigns (Hartig, Kaiser, & Bowler, 2001; Hipp & Ogunseitan, 2011). The Sierra Club Board of Directors adopted a set of policy principles in 1993 that address issues critical to environmental justice policy that are not often heard. For example, they argue the importance of generational equity; future generations have a “fundamental right to enjoy the benefits of natural resources, including clean air, water, and land, to have an uncontaminated food chain, and to receive a heritage of wilderness and a functioning global ecosystem with all species naturally present” (Sierra Club Environmental Justice Policy, 1993, Part G. The Right to Generational Equity). Moreover, they adopted what they call a precautionary principle which in essence states that the burden of proof should be on the proponent of an activity rather than the public to scientifically demonstrate that the activity is harmless to people and the environment. Moreover, they adopted what they call a precautionary principle. In essence it states that the burden of proof should be on the proponent of an activity rather than scientific demonstration that the activity is harmless to people and the environment. The threshold for determining safety should be based on scientific data and process. It is important to be certain it will not be harmful to the surrounding community. Injustice is fundamentally linked to the impact of climate change and human-­ caused environmental degradation. Importantly, populations targeted are neither included nor invited to participate in environmental policy decision processes (Galizzi & Herklotz, 2013; Skwiot, 2008; United Nations Human Rights, 2014). Who is most affected and first affected in this scenario? Those marginalized by income, race/color, ethnicity, and geography are the move vulnerable. Communities that depend on agriculture or coastal livelihoods or in arctic regions are hard hit

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(IPCC, 2018). This is especially true in the least developed countries and, within those countries, the poorest people.

Discussion Questions 1. Which level of policy (international, national, regional, local, tribal) do you think you can have the biggest influence on? Why? 2. What actions can you take to influence policy? 3. What nonprofits or NGOs are you familiar with that fight for environment-­ related policies? 4. What kind of changes are the focus of their work? 5. When is the last time you voted? Why or why not? What can you do to encourage others to vote?

Activity 1. On the Internet, look up: • At least one environmental-related policy at the level of your state • At least one local environmental policy Are these policies about access, protection, or perhaps protecting the rights of companies that damage the environment? When did they come to pass? Can you figure out who was the decision-making body? Who do you think should have been at the table when these specific policy decisions were made? 2. Now, referring Discussion Question 3 above, look up an NGO or nonprofit in your community that does this kind of work. What policies do they support or fight against? Have you heard of these policies or bills? What do they recommend doing to get involved?

References Arnstein, S.  R. (1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Planning Association, 35(4), 216–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2019.1612267 Binder, D., Crawford, C., Guana, E., Jarman, M. C., Kaswan, A., Mank, B. C., et al. (2001). A survey of federal agency response to president Clinton’s executive order no. 12898 on EJ. Environmental Law Reporter, (31), 11133–11150. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.law. ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=pubs Billiot, S., & Parfait, J. (2019). Reclaiming land: Adaptation activities and global environmental change challenges within Indigenous communities. In L. Mason & J. Rigg (Eds.), People and

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climate change: Vulnerability, adaptation, and social justice (pp. 108–121). New York: Oxford University Press. Bowers, M. J. (1995). The executive’s response to environmental injustice: Executive order 12,898. Environmental Lawyer, (1), 645–660. Retrieved from http://heinonline.org Buckhoy, N. (2015). Environmental justice for whom?: A social construction framework analysis of executive order 12898. Environmental Justice, 8(5), 164–171. https://doi.org/10.1089/ env.2015.0014 Building Movement Project. (2006). A series of 5% shifts: Asking powerful questions (3). New York, NY: Building Movement. Retrieved from https://www.buildingmovement.org/pdf/ MiniReport_3_Questions.pdf C2ES. (n.d.). State legislation from around the country. Retrieved from http://www.c2es.org/ us-states-regions/key-legislation Carson, R. (1962). Silent spring. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. Climate-laws.org. (n.d.). Climate Change Laws of the World database, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Retrieved from www.climate-laws.org Cobb, J. (2018, October 28). Voter-suppression tactics in the age of Trump. The New  Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/ voter-suppression-tactics-in-the-age-of-trump Dakota Access, LLC. (2014). North Dakota public service commission combined application for certificate of corridor compatibility and route permit. Bismarck, ND: Dakota Access, LLC. Davis, J. (2010). Voting as empowerment practice. American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 13(4), 243–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487768.2010.523352 Dobson, C. (n.d.). Citizen’s handbook. Retrieved from http://www.citizenshandbook.org/arnsteinsladder.html Durglo, J. (2013). Climate Change Strategic Plan for Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation. Retrieved from Flathead Reservation, MT. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA]. (2013). Clean air act requirements and history. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/requirements.html EPA.gov. Environmental justice. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice Executive Office of the President. (2013). The President's climate action plan. Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/president27sclimateactionplan.pdf Executive Order 12898. (1994). Executive order on federal actions to address environmental justice in minority populations and low-income populations. Federal Register, 59(32), 7629–7633. Florida Parole Commission. (2010). Status update: Restoration of civil rights cases granted 2009 and 2010. Retrieved from https://www.fcor.state.fl.us/docs/reports/2009-2010ClemencyReport.pdf Galizzi, P., & Herklotz, A. (2013). Missing in action: Gender in international environmental law. In C. Blerta, I. Dankelman, & J. Stern (Eds.), Powerful synergies: Gender equality, economic development, and environmental sustainability (pp.  29–41). United Nations Development Programme. Government Accountability Office [GAO]. (2005). EJ: EPA should devote more attention to EJ when developing clean air rules. Report to the Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives. Retrieved from http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-289 Guittierez, L. (1990). Working with women of color: An empowerment perspective. Social Work, 35(2), 149–153. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/35.2.149 Hanrahan, M., Matorin, S., & Borland, D. (1986). Promoting competence through voter registration. Social Work, 31(2), 141–143. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/31.2.141 Hansen, T. (2013, October 15). 8 Tribes that are way ahead of the climate-adaptation curve, news article. Indian Country Today Media Network. Retrieved from http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/15/8-tribes-are-way-ahead-climate-adaptation-curve-151763

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Hartig, T., Kaiser, F. G., & Bowler, P. A. (2001). Psychological restoration in nature as a positive motivation for ecological behavior. Environment and Behavior, 33(4), 590–607. https://doi. org/10.1177/00139160121973142 Hicks, S. (2007). Intergovernmental relationships: Expressions of tribal sovereignty. In M.  Jorgensen (Ed.), Rebuilding native nations. Strategies for governance and development. Tuscon, AZ: The University of Arizona Press. Hipp, J. A., & Ogunseitan, O. A. (2011). Effect of environmental conditions on perceived psychological restorativeness of coastal parks. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 31(4), 421–429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2011.08.008 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. (n.d.). Organization: Structure, history. Retrieved from http://www.ipcc.ch/organization/organization_history.shtml Internal Revenue Service [IRS] (2018). Retrieved from https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/ lobbying IPCC. (2010). Understanding climate change. 22 Years of IPCC assessment. Retrieved from http:// www.ipcc.ch/pdf/press/ipcc_leaflets_2010/ipcc-brochure_understanding.pdf IPCC. (2018). Global warming of 1.5 °C: Summary for policy makers. Retrieved from https:// www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/ Kearney, G. (2010). Environmental justice and climate-change policy: Lessons from the regional greenhouse gas initiative. Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, 44, 230–240. Clearinghouse Rev. Klar, M., & Kasser, T. (2009). Some benefits of being an activist: Measuring activism and its role in psychological well-being. Political Psychology, 30(5), 755–777. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00724.x Lesnikowski, A.  C., Ford, J.  D., Berrang-Ford, L., Barrera, M., Berry, P., Henderson, J., & Heymann, S.  J. (2013). National-level factors affecting planned, public adaptation to health impacts of climate change. Global Environmental Change, 23(5), 1153–1163. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.04.008 McKibben, B. (2010). Earth: Making a life on a tough new planet. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin. Mehta, N. (2009, March/April). Nonprofits and lobbying: Yes they can! Business Law Today, 18, pp. 26–30. Nachmany, M. Byrnes, R., & Surminski, S. (2019). National laws and policies on climate change adaptation: A global review. Policy Brief. London School of Economics and Political Science: Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Retrieved from: http:// www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/National-laws-and-policieson-climate-change-adaptation_A-global-review.pdf Nachmany, M., Fankhauser, S., Townshend, T., Collins, M., Landesman, T., Matthews, A., … Setzer, J. (2014). The GLOBE Climate Legislation Study. A review of climate change legislation in 66 countries. Introduction and summary. Retrieved from http://www.lse. ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/publication/the-globe-climate-legislation-study-a-review-ofclimate-change-legislation-in-66-countries/ Newkirk, V.  R. (2018, November 6). The Georgia Governor’s race has brought voter suppression into full view. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ archive/2018/11/how-voter-suppression-actually-works/575035/ OEC in Action. (2017). Office of Environmental Justice in Action factsheet. EPA. https://www. epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-09/documents/epa_office_of_environmental_justice_factsheet.pdf Plumer, B., & Popovich, N. (2018, October 8). Why half a degree of global warming is a big deal. New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/07/climate/ ipcc-report-half-degree.html Postle, K., & Beresford, P. (2007). Capacity building and the reconception of political participation: A role for social care workers? British Journal of Social Work, 37(2007), 143–158. https:// doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bch330

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Rahm, D. (2010). Climate change policy in the United States. The science, the politics, and the prospects for change. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. Rocha, C., Poe, B., & Thomas, V. (2010). Political activities of social workers: Addressing the perceived barriers to political participation. Social Work, 55(4), 317–325. https://doi.org/10.1093/ sw/55.4.317 Sanders. (2001, August 30–September 2). The psychological benefits of political participation. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA. Sierra Club. (1993). Environmental justice policy. Retrieved from https://www.sierraclub.org/ policy/environmental-justice Skwiot, R. (2008). Green dream: Environmental justice is emerging from the shadows. Social Impact, 23–27. Retrieved from: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/socialimpact/6/ Swinomish. (2010). Swinomish Climate change initiative. Climate adaptation action plan. Retrieved from http://www.swinomish-nsn.gov/climate_change/Docs/SITC_CC_ AdaptationActionPlan_complete.pdf Thorbecke, C. (2016). Why a previously proposed route for the Dakota Access Pipeline was rejected. ABC News. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/US/ previously-proposed-route-dakota-access-pipeline-rejected/story?id=43274356 United Nations Framework on Climate Convention. (2005). Montreal climate change conference proceedings. Retrieved from https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/past-conferences/montreal-climate-change-conference-december-2005/ montreal-climate-change-conference-december-2005-0 United Nations Human Rights. (2014). Human rights and climate change. Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/ HRAndClimateChange/Pages/HRClimateChangeIndex.aspx Zimmerman, M.A., & Warschausky, S. (1998). Empowerment Theory for Rehabilitation Research: Conceptual and Methodological Issues. Rehabilitation Psychology, 43, 3–16.
http://dx.doi. org/10.1037/0090-5550.43.1.3

Chapter 7

Pathways to Change: Community and Environmental Transformation

Across the first four chapters, we explored the intertwining layers of catastrophic dangers, the value and richness of the ecosystem and all that comprises it, and the historical and ongoing environmental injustices. Then in Chaps. 5 and 6, the focus turned to uniquely human systems and structures including issues of human health and policy processes impacting and impacted by the crisis. In this chapter, we bring together these concepts and frame some paths forward (Fig. 7.1). Those paths wind across the personal, interpersonal, community, and structural levels. It is painful to envision this new future; it can be easy to hide from a reality that seems both unreal and overwhelming. Yet, change can only occur if we hold onto hope and face the unimaginable. We cannot turn away if we care about our family, our community, our pets, wildlife, plants, and the very earth that sustains us. At our very core is the human ability to empathize with the pain of others. Cunsolo and Ellis (2018) explore the sense of sadness and grief we feel with the loss of ecosystems, wildlife, and landscapes. A shared vulnerability across human and nonhuman life is identified (Cunsolo, 2012). We witness this with disaster responses bringing grief and pain as we watch people, landscapes, pets, and wildlife suffer. Coverage of the 2020 fires in Australia highlighted the empathetic connection and the pain of losing wildlife, some perhaps to extinction (see Harvey (2020) and Wilson (2020b)). There were wrenching photographs of people extending themselves to save and nurture koalas back to health and of koalas understanding and reaching tenderly for their human caretakers. Having explored the triangulated crisis at the juncture of climate change, ecological degradation, and environmental justice, questions surface. What kind of wilderness do we want to leave? What is our commitment to all of life in this generation and future ones? What does it take to ensure the survival of our human species? Other species?

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9_7

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Fig. 7.1  Contemplating a way out of the decay, painting by © Cathryne L.  Schmitz 1980. All Rights Reserved. (Photograph by Chuck Egerton. Published with kind permission of artist and photographer)

Multiple paths can be taken to wind us through the creation and sustainability of change that is urgently needed. Multilayered change crossing from the personal to community to structural level is required. First, we can all make a difference. We can make personal choices and then take action at many levels. This includes choices about where and how we live, eating habits, transportation, consumption patterns, and energy use (Romm, 2018). We are each members of communities, and it is in the coming together that we can take control and make a difference. It is through those closest to the danger that possibilities exist for leadership. Together, we can demand accountability in energy policy and production, agricultural systems, and policy/structural changes. Current and future generations depend on us pulling together to create new models; life as we know it is dependent upon the quality of life on Mother Earth (Lake, 2019). Change requires education, advocacy, and action targeted toward community and environmental transformation. As such, we must not only act ourselves but also support coming generations in creating their dreams for a future. Facilitating collective actions alongside the youth supports them in not just surviving but also in producing a healthy ecosystem.

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 omplexity at the Juncture of Climate Change, C an Endangered Ecology, and Injustice The crisis at the juncture of climate change, ecological collapse, and environmental injustice falls under the umbrella of wicked problems. These are issues that are complex and intertwining and cross the boundaries of existing social, political, and environmental troubles. Responses require consensus and action across belief systems, ways of knowing, sectors, and disciplines: Although there is no single list, social injustice, violent conflict, extreme poverty, increasing economic inequality, global migration, environmental degradation, and climate change meet the criteria for wicked problems. To Gaurino add to the complexity, each wicked problem is a symptom of another problem. (Sloan, Joyner, Stakeman, & Schmitz, 2018, p. 130)

Because wicked problems are complex, ever changing, and expansive, there are no simple solutions (Brown, 2010). Required are new approaches or the integration of multiple approaches involving the layering of responses which move beyond disciplinary silos to integrate across disciplines (Matyók & Schmitz, 2014). Overlapping processes and systems surface at the local but embrace the global level (Balint, Stewart, Desai, & Walters, 2011). For example, successfully halting logging in old growth forests in Brazil differentially impacts ecological health and income locally while threatening employment and community economic stability in countries dependent on lumber for building (Närhi & Matthies, 2018); solutions must therefore address multifaceted issues across countries while responding to unanticipated consequences. We need to learn from many ways of knowing if we are to tackle the complex problems brought on by climate change, ecological degradation, and environmental injustice (Robbins, 2018; Weber, Lach, & Steel, 2017). It is within complexity that there exists the opportunity for transformative change recognizing that change is a process that evolves with shifts in the issues (Kolko, 2012; Weber et  al., 2017). Not only is thoughtful reflection required but also an exploration of the possibilities found in far-ranging models for change (Schmitz, Matyók, James, & Sloan, 2013). The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami provides an example of an inadequate response to an environmental disaster. Dominelli’s (2014) research on the island nation of Sri Lanka illustrated that native Sri Lankan villagers’ lives and livelihoods (fishing) were shattered first by the tsunami, followed by inequitable aid and reconstruction resource distribution, relocation into substandard housing which quickly grew mold, and exclusion from redevelopment decision-making processes. Moreover, Indigenous community members were not included in subsequent environmental crisis safety training drills. Indeed, opportunities to re-envision and restructure social, economic, and cultural relationships were not utilized as national leaders acquiesced to commercial, tourist-centered redevelopment plans. Further, few hospitality or construction jobs were allotted for surviving villagers (Dominelli, 2014). This was an example of a top-down approach which enhanced social injustice and

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privileged a minority of people at the expense of vast numbers (Mason, Ellis, & Hathaway, 2017). Environmental injustices occur when (a) human rights are violated by governmental, institutional, and corporate policies and regulations, (b) groups and communities (bounded by identity, affinity, or spatial boundaries) are not protected from inequitable burdens of exposures and harms (intentional or unintentional), and (c) groups or communities are denied the ability to participate in environment-related decision-making regarding their own community (First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, 2015; Hawkins, 2010; Mason, Shires, Arwood, & Borst, 2017). We need a consensus to cease these activities and develop alternative practices. Climate change is more than a scientific concern; it is one of social structures, policy enactment, and activation of the community. To support and empower communities in peril while changing the structures, systems, policies, and practices that created the vulnerability, we need to weave together strands of human rights, social justice, health equity, and ecological, environmental, and climate justice. Reimagining and rebuilding community requires processes that actively engage citizens most impacted in leading the way toward change (Arnstein, 1969). The Green Belt Movement in Kenya (as described in Chap. 4) provides an example of change led by local ownership with empowerment. The founder, Wangari Maathai, organized the women in her local village to find seeds and then grow and plant seedlings. Only with the successful planting of seeds were they paid, creating a sustainable cycle. In the process, the women came together as a community to rebuild the local ecology while empowering themselves (Maathai, 2003). They became leaders, spreading what they had learned to adjoining villages, and they changed the local economy as they reinvested in local farming practices. Along the way, the community developed systems of civic education and practices, becoming activists in changing the political system.

Intersecting Issues The impacts of climate change are felt across the globe. Not everyone, however, experiences the consequences equally. While everyone is affected, those with resources can protect themselves from the effects in the short term. Hiding in air conditioning, having the funds to rebuild, and being able to buy food are insulating in the immediate. Those without resources, however, are unable to protect themselves or their families and homes; they cannot easily escape approaching storms, floods, or fires. They cannot recover in ways that those with financial privilege can. Communities with limited economic and political resources suffer under heightened negative consequences as a result of climate change, ecological degradation, and targeted injustice (Sloan & Schmitz, 2019). Indigenous communities and marginalized communities of color are the hardest hit (Billiot & Parfait, 2019). Expanding globally and historically, it is clear that there are geographic impacts and historical roots.

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Patterns of inequity were established during the fifteenth century with the global spread of European colonialism based on white supremacy and patriarchal leadership (James, 2016). European invasions across the globe involved the usurpation of natural resources, economic inequality, and the sixteenth century enslavement of Indigenous peoples (Engerman & Sokoloff, 2005) based on the worldview that people who are White are superior to people who are not White (James, 2016). White supremacy, imbedded in the structure patriarchy (hooks, 2006, 2015), continues to dominate. This system of enslaving peoples of color under the assumption of white supremacy expanded with the transatlantic slave trade that spanned Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Huge populations of Black Africans were enslaved under structures of extreme cruelty, violence, and exploitation. This legacy of inequity and trauma resulting from the destruction of cultures, families, and ecologies continues to impact social, economic, and political structures. Communities of color and communities without economic power are the focus of environmental injustice as they become a dumping ground for waste and other ecologically degrading activities (e.g., pipelines, extraction). There is resilience within these communities as they assert their “voice to reclaim agency and restore the ecological environment through non-violent means” (Sloan & Schmitz, in press). The impact of colonization continues to leave Indigenous peoples the most vulnerable in the United States as we confront rapid climate change and rampant injustice (Billiot & Parfait, 2019). They are facing further loss of land, extraction of resources, dumping of poisons, and damage to the water supply that impact health, community, and social structures.

Case Examples In each of the examples below, the consequences of oppressive policy at the state and federal levels were destructive and life-threatening. This can be seen in the patterns of usurping resources, dumping waste, and destroying access to clean water and land. Vulnerable communities because of overlapping layers of oppression, including poverty, culture, race, gender, and geography, were targeted. United Houma Nation  Members of the United Houma Nation in the Grand Bois community have struggled across the generations as the federal and state governments have failed to respect their sovereignty and treaty rights, originally broken by the Spanish and then the US governments. The state of Louisiana has contracted with the oil industry so that they can dump their waste on tribal land without input from and benefit to the tribe even when the process has been publicly exposed and courts have ordered them to stop. The people of the community have resisted and advocated using the media and the legal system. The oil companies continue to poison the children, families, wildlife, vegetation, and land as the community calls out for us to change our patterns of oil and gas consumption (see Appendix A, The Story of Grand Bois).

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Standing Rock Sioux Reservation  The Standing Rock tribal land in North Dakota was targeted for placement of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP) in 2016 when the people from the local non-native community refused the pipeline. The sovereignty of the Reservation was abused, and the DAP was placed on the reservation, across sacred ground, and in a way threatening their water (Enochs, 2016). They fought nonviolently alongside allies through protests, education, the courts, and the political arena. “As with many environmental justice movements, women led the struggle at Standing Rock. Deep spiritual connection to the water drove Indigenous women forward throughout the protest” (Sloan & Schmitz, 2019, p. 24). They continue to claim agency and voice. Appalachia  In Appalachian coal country, we see how the drive to extract high-­ value natural resources can lead to violence and increasing poverty and instability (Shnayerson, 2008). The portion of our country that produces coal stands at the intersection of ecological degradation, physical destruction, and economic inequality. This is an industry that is becoming mechanized through mountaintop removal (MTR) leaving local communities (and laborers) displaced and the Appalachian Mountains destroyed (Barry, 2012; Haney, 2011). “MTR damages the human and nonhuman environments, negatively impacting the health and economy of local families and communities” (Sloan & Schmitz, 2019, p. 27). The voices of the vulnerable are disregarded and negated. Communities organize to fight the coal companies (see Bingham, Grunebaum, and Haney (2011) and Evans, Wallace, and Freeman (2016)) as their homes and community are being destroyed and their health and that of their children is being eroded (Haney, 2011). Health problems, including cancer, have skyrocketed, and they lack the medical services needed to address their chronic health issues. As the mountains are being blown away, water is pouring through their towns, and they are being poisoned by chemicals used in the mining process. As the mountains are being blown away, water is pouring through the towns with people being poisoned by chemicals used in the mining process. Community members have organized, advocating locally then taking their fight to the state government where they have faced resistance because government leaders are aligned with the coal companies. They have also advocated at the federal level and taken the fight public; in some cases they have been able to find an ally such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The local residents continue to fight for their communities and the ecological environment (Haney, 2011). The women, including Cherokee women, are taking the lead in fighting gendered oppression and destruction of the environment (Barry, 2012). They see a future beyond coal mining for West Virginia, one in which the Appalachian region becomes identified with reclaiming the ecology and establishing a new economy of unique identity (Haney, 2011). Flint, Michigan  Turning to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, we find an urban example. While it is a story about environmental racism, it is also a story of courage, social justice activism, tenacity, alliances, and the use of science and knowledge, in real time to affect change (see Appendix C, The Flint Water Crisis). As

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industry left the city and White residents fled, Flint became a primarily Black community isolated in poverty without political resources. State and local officials assessed the vulnerability and then cut their operating budget by switching city residents to a water source poisoned by lead. Residents and local leaders, most prominently Dr. Hanna-Attisha, organized a resistance movement. Individuals, community groups, and medical personnel/systems mobilized to advocate for change in the face of powerful political resistance. Citizens along with local health officials expanded their allies; they gathered and submitted data which officials ignored or denied/downplayed. Citizens, public health, and members of the medical community lobbied local, state, and federal governments. They took their fight to the courts and the media. With increased visibility, they made progress legally, but much of that has been undermined due to the political resources of those responsible. The fight continues, again requiring persistence (see Moore (2018) and Appendix C for more details). In each case, advocacy for change was locally led, not relying on top-down action that was not responsive to the oppression of vulnerable communities. Alliances have developed to support nonviolent resistance. Each of these movements continues. Transformative change at its very core is a struggle for justice which means changing relationships and structures. These are complex structural concerns for which there are no easy solutions (Lederach, 2003). Commitment and persistence are required.

Pathways to Change The time is now to invest in change. This can be done at many levels. While addressing the big picture system changes that must occur, we also have to explore local and individual actions we can each take. We have to join together committing to change. Waiting for others to save the planet will lead to failure (Stevenson, 2012).

Systemic Change Systemic change requires an interdisciplinary approach. The complexity and urgency demand multilayered response, at the personal, community, structural, and professional levels. Interdisciplinary responses that integrate the layers demand personal and community leadership. Our communities become sites for addressing environmental injustices, responding to ecological degradation, and embracing the development of healing services, including health and mental health resources, crisis response networks, and education. Overlapping personal and professional layers requires respecting and embracing diversity, interconnection, and intersectionality, ending ecological abuse, and acquiring a global perspective (Lake, 2019). Involved is the personal commitment

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to individual and collective action. It falls to individuals and communities to take the lead (Romm, 2018). It is in the coming together for collective action that change is sparked (Klein, 2015; Lewis & Barnes, 2015). To create a culture of social justice, equity, and nonviolence requires learning from many ways of knowing. This ideal was exemplified by the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit of 1991 (First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, 2015). They proposed a ground in spirituality, ecological and human rights, social justice, coming together and joining of lived experiences, the belief in the interconnectedness of human beings to the earth, and the common experiences of colonization and devastation of lands and people, the principles called for liberation from cultural, political, and economic oppression. While originally anchored in Indigenous values and lived experience, these principles provide the foundation for the environmental justice movement, particularly for communities of color. Anchoring to values of justice, empowerment, decolonization, and ecological respect guides development. A systemic change means action both in governments and in industry which often drives policy decisions. These present us with false dichotomies: save the economy or save the planet, or perhaps choose between jobs and the land and ecology (Klein, 2015). Our economy has to change. As Greta Thunberg, a youth activist, has brought to the public discussion and Gernot Wagner, a New York University climate economist, explains, it is necessary to balance private costs with costs to society (Bump, 2020). “In the coming years, governments everywhere, including the United States, will have to raise unprecedented amounts of money to cope with the impacts of climate change” (Hill & Martinez-Diaz, 2020, p. 82). The long-range consequences from our current economics are leading us toward climate destabilization; this is both an economic and a political issue requiring involvement and action (Orr, 2016). In order to move the government toward policy that aligns with climate science, action is needed that brings pressure, calling out the deceitful economic and energy industry arguments (Bump, 2020). In the process, education on science involving facing climate denial directly involves raising our voice (Klein, 2015; Lewis & Barnes, 2015; Orr, 2016). Romm (2018) explores processes for talking with nonbelievers. Although our situation is dire, we already have invented all the technology we need right now to create a carbon-zero future (World Wildlife Fund [WWF], 2019). This includes solar, wind, and battery power. We have more people than ever fighting to combat climate change. We see change in business. Of all the largest companies in the United States, nearly half officially acknowledge that it is everyone’s responsibility to take on climate change (WWF, 2019). Companies like Walmart have reconfigured their massive supply chain to dramatically reduce shipping carbon emissions. Beginning October 2018, a United Nations program created a multinational commitment to eliminate unnecessary plastic packaging and to develop innovations that would make all plastic packaging 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable (UN Environment Programme, 2019). The goal was also to make industry more transparent about its plastics usage and create pressure to change.

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Systemic change also requires changes in our agricultural practices. These directly contribute to global warming and ecological degradation. They cannot be tackled without engaging individuals and communities because they are intertwined with eating patterns, which are difficult to change. The current over reliance on livestock has huge negative impacts on our planet, water, and air. Contemporary practices are poisoning the ecology and intensifying greenhouse gas emissions. Further, the heavy reliance on large mechanized farms further poisons the earth and all living things. These practices are dramatically killing the good insects (such as bees and butterflies) which are our pollinators (Romm, 2018). There are alternatives and some promising movement. For example, according to a global assessment conducted by 17 scientists in five countries, almost one-third of the world’s farms have moved toward employing more sustainable practices—and they continue to be productive (Washington State University, 2018). Research highlights the possibilities for using agricultural practices that are more ecologically friendly, involving alternative forms of pest management, redesigning of farms, and use of renewable energy. This can include agroforesty (growing among trees and shrubs), rotating crops, going to no-till methods, and diversifying crops. There has been progress across the globe, with a tenth of farmland now using sustainable practices; this has led to increased productivity and ecosystem health, and even decreasing costs. The results are strongest in less developed countries but are also seen in developed countries (Washington State University, 2018). Follow the development of a 200 acre farm designed in harmony with nature on The Biggest Little Farm (Chester & Keats, 2019). We see examples of change at the national policy level worldwide from Africa to Asia to Central America. Morocco, for example, ambitiously set a Paris Agreement plan to reduce its CO2 emissions to a level consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 °C. In an effort to reach that goal, it has built the world’s largest concentrated solar farm (Mulvaney, 2019). India is becoming a global leader in renewable energy. Already India is investing more in renewable energy than fossil fuels. India is on track to reach its Paris Agreement target a decade early. This is no small accomplishment given that India is the second most populated country in the world (Mulvaney, 2019). Costa Rica generates 98% of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly hydropower, and will likely reach its goal for electricity production to be 100% renewable by 2021.

Rebuilding Community It is in community that the personal and communal are intertwined. The ecological environment is the context in which we live, operate, and exist and from which we cannot be extrapolated. We are not just living in the environment; we are of the environment. It is not that we are disconnected from it; this is not actually possible. It is just that we have become so removed from our environment that we cannot see our impact. People are part of the problem and they are also part of the solution.

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When communities come together, they have the power to create change (Washington, 2019). The land and all that sustain it are at the very core of our individual, community, neighborhood, and ecological health. Communities provide a sense of place and belonging (hooks, 2009). When place is disrupted, human health and well-being are negatively affected (Billiot & Parfait, 2019). Rebuilding involves reconnecting to the land and our sense of place which can provide the space for healing within the context of community. In our neighborhoods, yard and garden choices can be destructive as we remove native plants, trees, and bushes in favor of lawns that drain water supplies while also polluting with the application of pesticides and fertilizers (Tallamy, 2020). Reintroducing trees, indigenous plants, and other bushes and cover that do not require destructive practices contributes to conservation and to carbon storing as carbon dioxide is removed from the air (Tallamy, 2020). These kinds of projects can be sites for neighborhood/community building and local empowerment. Recent research recognizes the need to expand our concept of conservation to “encompass the city, the countryside, and the wild” (Raman, 2018, p. 250). “Recognizing the importance of natural resources to local culture, grassroots movements in these communities have worked to slow the degradation and start movement towards environmental restoration” (Sloan & Schmitz, 2019, p. 16). Insects and bees have suffered dramatically because humans have targeted them for extinction. It turns out that we are at risk because of this action. Insects keep the world running by sustaining plants and animals. They pollinate 90% of plant life (Tallamy, 2020). We now need to change our relationship with insects and understand how they work in unison with plants. As we invite them back into our yards, we have to understand their relationships to plants. Bees are critical pollinators, and their extreme vulnerability threatens our agriculture, wildlife landscapes, and gardens (Mandel, 2020). Again, individuals and communities can make the difference. In fact, individuals, communities, cities, and countries are creating bee-friendly gardens. While they can exist in gardens, wildlife areas, and rural spaces, they are also being supported on the roofs of buildings and even bus stops (Mandel, 2020). Caterpillars, moths, and butterflies are beneficial insects that are a significant part of garden biodiversity. Caterpillars play an important role in the ecosystems with butterflies and moths becoming pollinators (Fig. 7.2). Without action, insects continue on the path toward extinction. This decline is impacting all of life including humans as insects are the ones sustaining our ecosystem—plants and animals. The Oberlin Project provides an example of a community coming together to create a common vision (Orr, 2016). Foreseeing the impact of climate change, a collaborative community-based team crosscutting Oberlin College, local citizens, and the city worked to develop and implement a holistic model of sustainability (Orr, 2011). This model was designed to serve as an integrated response to the complexities of climate change. At the core of the project are seven practice goals: economic redevelopment, creation of sustainable businesses, shift to renewable energy (across the city and college), development of a local food system, organizing

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Fig. 7.2  Saving the butterfly. (Published with kind permission of © Ande A. Nesmith 2020. All Rights Reserved)

i­nterdisciplinary educational collaborations, engaging community dialogue, and collaboration nationally with similar efforts. Residents of Puerto Rico are trying to develop local response systems in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria (see Appendix B, Puerto Rico: Inequality, Environmental Injustice, and Resistance). They came together to respond in the immediacy of the disaster; they now continue to develop collaborations to work on ecological and community recovery. At the same time, there are efforts developing to plan for disasters expected in the face of climate change. Simultaneously, citizens are active politically trying to create the structural changes needed to address the ongoing corruption at the local, state, and federal levels. How can activists and practitioner join as allies or accomplices? As accomplices, we work alongside community leaders and members, collaborating with the planning and action. Often, we start with what we know at the local and from there explore the ways we are connected globally based on our mutual commitment to the health of this planet. In connecting local change makers with global partners, we can share knowledge and explore possibilities. Opportunities exist for the development of mitigation and prevention services designed to help communities as they plan for current and future environmental degradation and disasters. As leaders, we can create a space for all voices to be heard, exploring a holistic understanding of the impact on the land and the ecology, along with the ways it impacts humans, especially those who are marginalized and oppressed. Global influences necessitate viewing people of other nationalities as fellow community members and working across cultures, national boundaries, language, religions, social movements (human rights, equity), and professional disciplines to abate exploitation.

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We must rise to the call to redress injustices while proactively creating community transformation in preparation for future disasters. As Australia has been ravaged by unrelenting bushfires, the aboriginal peoples and other citizens are angry and demanding change. They are outraged that the government has not already acted on the climate crisis to prevent such horrors from occurring. The anger intensifies as the government fails to address the issues now that they exist ­ (Williamson, Weir, & Cavanagh, 2020). The demand for governmental response increases with an energizing of the environmental movement in the wake of the destruction (Wilson, 2020a). Of course, there are difficult questions in the aftermath of a disaster. Environmental injustice and disasters provide opportunities for exploring difficult “interventions based on alternative views of acting and being in the world” (Dominelli, 2014, p. 344). For instance, with receding shorelines, should we be using resources to rebuild what the elements are claiming? Or should we rethink the need to face the changes and rebuild in ways that are equitable to all.

Individual Actions As humans, we are just guests who cannot break free from nature (Klein, 2015). It will be necessary to rethink where we live, how we build our economic policies and assumptions, the growing inequality locally and globally, and our daily interactions with human nature (Hill & Martinez-Diaz, 2020) along with our energy and agricultural practices (Romm, 2018). Our patterns of consumption need to change if we are to preserve what we have for future generations (Klein, 2015). This includes our use of products that are not sustainable including plastic containers, bags, and straws. Energy efficiency plays a key role, and we as citizens need to be informed and demand solutions including renewable energy sources and storage, transportation changes, and efficient/sustainable choices (Romm, 2018). Drive less, walk more  One of the most impactful things we can do is to reduce our own fossil fuel footprint. That means walk more, bike more, use more public transportation, and, if possible, go entirely car-free (Arguedas Ortiz, 2018). Perhaps even more importantly, reduce or give up flying which contributes massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere per person. Change our diet to be more sustainable  Change our diet to cut out or dramatically reduce meat and dairy which are huge contributors to greenhouse cases (Ranganathan et  al., 2016). Any kind of animal-based diet is resource-intensive, requiring more land, water, and nutrients than eating lower on the food chain with more plant-based food. This is because it requires a lot of plants to feed one cow or pig that we then eat. To make matters worse, these animals, particularly cattle, emit methane by passing gas that is a powerful greenhouse gas.

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Shop differently  Everything we purchase has a carbon footprint, but our choices make a difference. This means of course eliminating single-use products like straws and plastic bags. The clothing industry accounts for about 3% of the world’s entire CO2 emissions (de Beeck, 2018). A mantra that may help make our clothing more sustainable is to buy less, choose well, and make it last so you do not need to keep buying (de Beeck, 2018). Pay attention as well to the packaging—purchase items without plastic packaging and bring your own bags when you shop. Buy your own reusable utensils and straws to use.

Community Change In exploring community practice, we see practices that have been used across the case studies presented. Community or neighborhood collaborative projects bring people together, providing opportunities for building relationships of trust (Gamble & Weil, 2010; Powers, Schmitz, & Moritz, 2019; Pyles, 2013). This becomes the base for coalition building and collective action. “Neighborhood and community organizing takes place when people have face-to-face contact with each other, allowing them to feel connected to a place” (Gamble & Weil, 2010, p.  122). Critical approaches, civic engagement, nonviolent action, and participatory practices are well-established methods of change (Pyles, 2013). Communities can organize for collective action including civic dialogue, political engagement, and voting. The range of tactics used in communities crosses from advocacy to political and social action to the development of movements (Gamble & Weil, 2010; Pyles, 2013). Lobbying and activism are vehicles not only for change but also for building resilience and neighborhood empowerment that support development, planning, and action. Under this umbrella, a range of health, mental health, and educational resources can be shaped as needs change.

Interdisciplinary Responses Moving toward an environmentally sustainable response requires engaging a broad range of disciplines that cross the social, natural, and physical sciences (Schmitz, Matyók, Sloan, & James, 2012). Among the wide range of disciplines that need to be included are social work, peace studies, economics, policy, anthropology, physical and biological sciences, climate science, agricultural sciences, technology, engineering, architecture, conservation, and environmental sciences. It can be difficult to cross disciplinary boundaries based on socialization and history. We must, however, break out of our disciplinary silos if we are to be responsive (Hill & Martinez-Diaz, 2020). “Silo-breakers are people who can reach across professional and academic disciplines, connect different groups of people, and drive

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collaborative solutions” (Hill & Martinez-Diaz, 2020, p. 210). A model for coming together to develop a collaborative response in the wake of Hurricane Matthew can be witnessed in Norfolk, Virginia (Hill & Martinez-Diaz, 2020). Norfolk and surrounding areas developed an action plan for the future in preparation for the impacts to climate change, including sea-level rise. Within the plan, they are addressing issues related to the cost of relocating low-resource communities. City and state leaders are actively involved along with businesses and citizens. Bringing multiple mindsets, world views, and skill sets to interdisciplinary responses engages new lenses for analysis and practice. For example, Des Marais, Bexell, and Bhadra (2016) observed that humans have a long history of assuming that social and ecological systems are separate, as evidenced in part by the fact that these were analyzed by different kinds of scientists and other professionals. They noted that we have begun to move away from that in recognition that researchers from many disciplines must work together to combat these wicked problems. In winding through multiple paths for community and environmental change, there are opportunities to contribute to the unfolding story. Social workers, other justice workers, and peace workers can no longer meet the needs of individuals and communities without understanding and addressing climate change, ecological destruction, and environmental injustice (Nesmith & Smyth, 2015). Interdisciplinary responses at the policy and organizational levels provide an expanded knowledge and skill base from which to act. “Decision makers exposed to interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving have a broader range of resources for response. Organizations that are not equipped to deal with interdisciplinary ideas fail to provide the systems needed to move environmental innovations forward” (Schmitz, Stinson, & James, 2010, p. 87).

Social Work Social work is a profession with a rich history of working across disciplines, team building, and collaborative development that prepares them to join the interdisciplinary contexts needed to address complex issues. Further, social work is grounded in values and ethics providing an anchor for entering into practice arenas that are complex and engaged with facilitating changes that address arenas of conflict. The social work profession is engaged with far-reaching, system-spanning justice issues—social, environmental, economic, and political. The heightening of environmental consciousness from the 1970s through the 1990s enriched the vision and areas of practice (Mason, Shires, et al., 2017). Intervention and research areas have expanded to include natural disasters (typhoons, hurricanes, flooding, drought, fires), human-sourced disasters (pollution, environmental degradation, energy), land use, water (access, consumption, agriculture), agriculture and food security, and the need for biodiversity (Mason, Shires, et al., 2017). The profession is expanding its historic commitment to social and economic justice to embrace the centrality of environmental and ecological justice (Nesmith

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& Smyth, 2015). As an action-oriented profession with a knowledge base that includes community building, policy, advocacy, and organizational development, they have the knowledge and skills for enriching response teams. With a history of practice across multiple levels from community to direct practice and expertise in leadership, advocacy, education, and action, they contribute skills and experience when working in collaboration. They are experienced with physical and mental health, disaster response, and migrant services. Social work practice is often manifest in places marked by poverty; racial, ethnic, and spatial segregation; disinvestment; poorly maintained infrastructure; and limited disaster preparedness. I did some rewording Frequently, those served are from vulnerable populations, including people of color and/or Indigenous peoples, residents of the Global South, poorly educated, politically marginalized, and/or female; they might also be disengaged from or exploited in the workforce (Mason, Shires, et al., 2017). Further, social workers have practice expertise in responding to community-­level trauma via the widespread, preventable damage to health, property, livelihoods, post-incident displacement, or abandonment (Dominelli, 2014). Eco-social work practice is growing in popularity as global social workers are embracing the call to respond to the ecological crisis and embrace an eco-centric paradigm or using an eco-social lens (Boetto, 2017; Rinkel & Powers, 2018). Indeed, as many are coming to understand, in being ecologically conscious in all realms of practice, eco-social work is not a niche practice. Eco-social work practice shifts from a focus that centers, first and foremost, the value of human life to one that considers all life as of equal value (Powers et al., 2019). The Creamos Program demonstrates the commitment of social workers (see Appendix D, Camino Seguro (Safe Passages)). This program was introduced in Chap. 5 and is embedded in the Safe Passage NGO.  Here, social workers are engaged in eco-social work. They respond to the socio-emotional needs the women face from living in extreme poverty in the dump and suffering under air, land, and water pollution. The program addresses the trauma and PTSD while providing skill training and family support. They address the vulnerability the women face, empowering them to create a more sustainable community. Further, social work educators and researchers are actively engaged in expanding the knowledge base as they explore environmental, ecological, and climate injustice. Much of that work has moved the profession to the forefront of interdisciplinary practice and education. They are disseminating this knowledge through articles, workshops, and educator training institutes and are working to create resources such as educational tools.

Education Interdisciplinary models of education may help us rethink how to address the global crisis (Schmitz et al., 2010). Educating for interdisciplinary practice, however, can be difficult in a university setting where fields of study are often separated into

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learning silos (Matyók & Schmitz, 2014). In order to create the links needed, relationships must build both informally and formally. The informal relationships build the trust needed to engage in designing courses, projects, or curriculum that are cross-disciplinary. Interdisciplinary coursework and projects provide the opportunity for ­participants to work across disciplines, including the humanities, arts, physical and biological sciences, and social sciences. In the process, they learn the framework and professional language for different disciplines while working toward developing a common vision. The learning is formal and informal as they build relationships with peers when working on team projects. Ecochallenge.org offers multiple resources including Seeing Systems: Peace, Justice, and Sustainability (ecochallenge, 2019), a text that connects significant strands of knowledge and practice. Through the process of interdisciplinary education, practitioners are better prepared for complex and evolving practice contexts. It prepares them “for the use of multiple lenses to assess, engage, and remediate the issues they confront” (Schmitz et al., 2010, p. 90). Transformative change occurs as people come together to create alternative models for solving problems (Edwards, 2005). The multidisciplinary perspective helps prepare students for environmental practice within a community context (Schmitz et al., 2013). The ecosystem model prepares students to practice in environments that are complex (Waltner-Toews, Kay, & Lister, 2008). Warren Wilson College is presented as a model for the integration of ecological and environmental issues into the very core of higher education.

I ntegration of the Environmental and Ecological: Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College in Western North Carolina, USA, has always been known for innovation (see Appendix E, Warren Wilson College: A Case Study in Environmental Education). While its path has been unique, the lessons learned can be shared. Because it began as an institution serving those in poverty and later moved to integrate across race in the early 1950s, there is an embedded understanding of structural oppression. From its inception to the creation of a 4-year undergraduate liberal arts institution, Warren Wilson College has embodied innovation and determination as an evolving ethos of inclusivity, justice, and environmental responsibility. The College continues to adapt to the impact of the changing environment, preparing students to be competent professionals who mediate, intervene, and advocate for ecological and environmental justice. At Warren Wilson, social, political, economic, and ecological issues are simultaneously attended to go through an interdisciplinary learning context. The school operates both as a key community stakeholder and an educational center for professional training and socialization. We can learn from their collaborative, community-engaged practices. Student

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learning has a three-­pronged focus, including academics, work (on campus), and community engagement. They receive an ecological education, are involved in community, address environmental injustice, and are exposed to the complexity of addressing sustainability in a time of rapidly changing conditions. They learn about the triple bottom-­line economic model which focuses on social r­ esponsibility and environmental sustainability in addition to the economic bottom line. The students are then ­prepared to apply this experiential and classroom learning in their future employment.

Educational Support The resources available for educators are rapidly developing, both internationally and nationally. For example, the International Federation of Social Work [IFSW] has developed a series of workbooks on promoting community and environmental sustainability (Rinkel & Powers, 2017, 2018, 2019). In these workbooks, social workers and community partners across the globe have contributed lessons with value across disciplines. The topics covered are wide-ranging, containing many case studies around issues such as disaster response, environmental justice, degrowth, Indigenous peoples, and eco-therapy. They are useful in training practitioners, educators, community members, and students. These may be found alongside other educational tools at the IFSW Climate Justice Program website, “Educate.” A national example of professional change can be seen within the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) in the United States. It now has a Committee on Environmental Justice, which is actively involved in forming coalitions to support the development and dissemination of knowledge. Through this work, CSWE includes environmental justice as a central educational requirement, which was adopted in the 2015 Educational Standards. The work is ever evolving. Additionally, the Committee on Environmental Justice of CSWE has put forth the following definition of environmental justice: Environmental justice occurs when all people equally experience high levels of environmental protection and no group or community is excluded from the environmental policy decision-making process, nor is affected by a disproportionate impact from environmental hazards. Environmental justice affirms the ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, respect for cultural and biological diversity, and the right to be free from ecological destruction. This includes responsible use of ecological resources, including the land, water, air, and food. (Adapted from CSWE Commission for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice and Commission on Global Social Work Education Committee on Environmental Justice, 2015)

Additionally, many members of the Committee on Environmental Justice have offer various workshops and educators in training institutes and are working to create other resources as educational tools.

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The bottom line is that we all need to be engaged in action to combat ecological devastation, climate change, and environmental injustice. This engagement can and must be done, individually, locally, politically and, to the extent possible, globally. In order to create this change, the approach must be interdisciplinary and occur at multiple levels. There is still time, but that time is now.

Discussion Questions 1. Are there examples in your community that demonstrate the intersecting aspects of climate change, an endangered ecology, and injustice? If not, are there examples in your region? 2. What pathways have you learned about in this chapter that could inspire local communities to attempt transformative changes? 3. At what structural and interpersonal levels are change needed? 4. Who are the interdisciplinary partners that would need to be at the table to create and sustain such change? 5. What ways could you imagine yourself getting involved or further involved with change?

Activity 1. This activity involves further exploration of the ecological and environmental injustices in Appalachian Coal Country. For this exercise, watch Blood on the Mountain or The Last Mountain, which are about the struggles in the coal country of West Virginia. The injustices imposed on the coal miners, their families, their community, and the land and ecology are represented. As these communities confront the coal company and lobby the state government, those two align. • What comes into your mind as you watch this movie? • What are the impacts of the coal company policies and activities? Who are their partners/allies? • What are the risks (physical, mental, and economic) faced by the families? • How do the families fight back and what are their strengths? Who are their allies? • Describe the damage to the land and the ecology. Evans, M.L.C., Wallace, D., & Freeman, J. (Producers) & Evans, M.L.C., & Freeman, J. (Directors). (2016). Blood on the mountain [DVD]. U.S.: Evening Star Productions. Bingham, C., Grunebaum, E., & Haney, B. (Producers) & Haney, B. (Director) (2011). The last mountain (DVD). U.S.: Docurama.

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2. Explore Climate Justice websites, such as the ones below, and take action now [NAA1] to be a leader in the fight for Climate Justice: • The International Federation of Social Workers Climate Justice Program (https://www.ifsw.org/social-work-action/climate-justice-program/) • Indigenous Environmental Network (http://www.ienearth.org/) • Climate Justice Alliance (https://climatejusticealliance.org/) • The Mary Robinson Foundation—Climate Justice (https://www.mrfcj. org/) • Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (http://ggjalliance.org/)

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Dominelli, L. (2014). Promoting environmental justice through green social work practice: A key challenge for practitioners and educators. International Social Work, 57(4), 338–345. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0020872814524968 Ecochallenge. (2019). Seeing systems: Peace, justice & sustainability (2nd ed.). Portland, OR: Author. Edwards, A. R. (2005). The sustainability revolution: Portrait of a paradigm shift. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. Engerman, S. L., & Sokoloff, K. L. (2005). Colonialism, inequality and long-run paths of development. National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/ w11057 Enochs, K. (2016). The real story: The Dakota access pipeline. Voice of America News. Retrieved on 10/25/18 from https://www.voanews.com/a/dakota-access-pipeline/3563592.html Evans, M.  L. C., Wallace, D., & Freeman, J. (Producers) & Evans, M.  L. C., & Freeman, J. (Directors). (2016). Blood on the mountain [DVD]. U.S.: Evening Star Productions. First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (1991). (2015). In S. Vanderheiden, Environmental justice (p. 119). London: Routledge. Gamble, D. N., & Weil, M. (2010). Community practice skills: Local to global. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Haney, B. (Writer, Director, Producer). (2011). The last mountain [Cutting down the Appalachian Mountains]. Los Angeles: Docurama. Harvey, J. (2020, January 23). ‘From heartbreak comes hope’: Koala rescuers share moving recovery stories. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ koalas-australia-fires-recovery_n_5e28f06ac5b67d8874ac7a38?ncid=newsltushpmgnews Hawkins, C. A. (2010). Sustainability, human rights, and environmental justice: Critical connections for contemporary social work. Critical Social Work, 11(3), 68–78. Retrieved from file:/// Users/cathrynelschmitz5/Downloads/5833-Article%20Text-15789-1-10-20190502.pdf. Hill, A. C., & Martinez-Diaz, L. (2020). Building a resilient tomorrow: How to prepare for the coming climate disruption. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. hooks, b. [ChallengingMedia]. (2006, October 3). Cultural criticism and transformation [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUuHFKP-9s hooks, b. (2009). Belonging: A culture of place. New York, NY: Routledge. hooks, b. (2015). Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. New York, NY: Routledge. James, M. (2016). Race. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/race/ Klein, N. (2015). This changes everything: Capitalism vs the climate. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Kolko, J. (2012). Handbook and call to action. Austin, TX: AC4D. Lake, O.  O. (2019, August 29). Indigenous women of the Amazon send a call: The fight for Mother Earth is the mother of all fights. Retrieved from [https://www.commondreams.org/ views/2019/08/29/indigenous-women-amazon-send-call-fight-mother-earth-mother-all-fights] Lederach, J. P. (2003). The little book of conflict transformation. Intercourse, PA: Good Books. Lewis, A., & Barnes, J. (Producers) & Lewis, A. (Director). (2015). This changes everything (DVD). US: Video Services Corp. Maathai, W. (2003). The green belt movement: Sharing the approach and the experience. New York, NY: Lantern Books. Mandel, K. (2020, February 12). The climate crisis is threatening bees: Here’s what’s helping to save them. HuffPost. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-changebees-save-population_n_5e3dbb22c5b6f1f57f10bd6f?ncid=engmodushpmg00000006 Mason, L. R., Ellis, K. N., & Hathaway, J. M. (2017). Experiences of urban environmental conditions in socially and economically diverse neighborhoods. Journal of Community Practice, 25(1), 48–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2016.1269250 Mason, L. R., Shires, M. K., Arwood, C., & Borst, A. (2017). Social work research and global environmental change. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 8(4), 645–672. https://doi.org/10.1086/694789

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Matyók, T., & Schmitz, C. L. (2014). Deep analysis: Designing complexity into our understanding of conflict. InterAgency Journal, 5(2), 14–24. Moore, M. (Writer, Producer, & Director). (2018). Fahrenheit 11/9 (DVD or web). USA: State Run Films. Mulvaney, K. (2019) Climate change report card: These countries are reaching targets. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/09/ climate-change-report-card-co2-emissions/ Närhi, K., & Matthies, A. (2018). The ecosocial approach in social work as a framework for structural social work. International Social Work, 61(4), 490–502. https://doi. org/10.1177/0020872816644663 Nesmith, A., & Smyth, N. (2015). Environmental justice and social work education: Social worker professional perspectives. Social Work Education: The International Journal, 34(5), 484–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2015.1063600 Orr, D. W. (2011). Down to the wire: Confronting climate collapse. Washington, DC: Island Press. Orr, D. W. (2016). Dangerous years: Climate change, the long emergency and the way forward. New Haven, CT: Yale University press. Powers, M., Schmitz, C., & Moritz, M. B. (2019). Preparing social workers for ecosocial work practice and community building. Journal of Community Practice, 27(3–4). https://doi.org/10 .1080/10705422.2019.1657217 Pyles, L. (2013). Progressive community organizing (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Raman, T. R. S. (2018). Expanding nature conservation: Considering wide landscapes and deep histories. In G. Cederlof & M. Rangarajan (Eds.), At nature’s edge: The global present and long-term history (pp. 249–267). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Ranganathan, J., Vennard, D., Waite, R., Searchinger, T., Dumas, P., & Lipinski, B. (2016). Shifting diets: Toward a sustainable food future. International Food Policy Research Institute. Retrieved from https://www.ifpri.org/publication/shifting-diets-toward-sustainable-food-future Rinkel, M., & Powers, M. (Eds.). (2017). Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability: A workbook for global social workers and educators (Vol. 1). Berne, Switzerland: International Federation of Social Workers. Rinkel, M., & Powers, M. (Eds.). (2018). Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability: A workbook for global social workers and educators (Vol. 2). Berne, Switzerland: International Federation of Social Workers. Rinkel, M., & Powers, M. (Eds.). (2019). Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability: A workbook for global social workers and educators (Vol. 3). Berne, Switzerland: International Federation of Social Workers. Robbins, J. (2018, April 26). Native knowledge: What ecologists are learning from indigenous people. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Retrieved from https://e360.yale. edu/features/native-knowledge-what-ecologists-are-learning-from-indigenous-people Romm, J. (2018). Climate change: What everyone needs to know. New  York, NY: Oxford University Press. Schmitz, C. L., Matyók, T., James, C. D., & Sloan, L. M. (2013). Environmental sustainability: Educating social workers for interdisciplinary practice. In M. Gray, J. Coates, & T. Hetherington (Eds.), Environmental social work (pp. 260–279). New York, NY: Routledge. Schmitz, C. L., Matyók, T., Sloan, L., & James, C. D. (2012). The relationship between social work and environmental sustainability: Implications for interdisciplinary practice. International Journal of Social Work, 21(3), 278–286. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00855.x Schmitz, C. L., Stinson, C. H., & James, C. D. (2010). Community and environmental sustainability: Collaboration and interdisciplinary education. Critical Social Work, 11(3), 83–100. (http:// www.uwindsor.ca/criticalsocialwork/2010-volume-11-no-3) Shnayerson, M. (2008). Coal River: How a few brave Americans took on and powerful company—and the federal government—to save the land they love. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Sloan, L. M., Joyner, M. C., Stakeman, C. J., & Schmitz, C. L. (2018). Critical multiculturalism and intersectionality in a complex world. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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Sloan, L. M., & Schmitz, C. L. (2019). Environmental degradation: Communities forging a path forward. Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis, 1(1). Retrieved from http://jtpp.uk Sloan, L. M., & Schmitz, C. L. (in press). Resilience and the claiming of voice by marginalized com- munities. In K. Standish, D. Devere, R. Rafferty, & A. E. Suazo (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of positive peace. New York, NY: Springer. Stevenson, A. (2012, May 1). Robert Swan OBE: “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ robert-swan-antarctica_b_1315047 Tallamy, D. W. (2020). Nature’s best hope: A new approach to conservation that starts in your yard. Portland, OR: Timber Press. UN Environment Programme. (2019, October). The new plastics economy global commitment progress report. United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved from https://wedocs. unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/30609/plastics_eco.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Waltner-Toews, D., Kay, J. J., & Lister, N. E. (2008). The ecosystem approach: Complexity, uncertainty, and managing for sustainability. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Washington, H. A. (2019). A terrible thing to waste: Environmental racism and its assault on the American mind. New York, NY: Little Brown Spark. Washington State University. (2018, August 27). Environmentally friendly farming practices used by nearly one third of world’s farms: Less developed countries tend to see the largest improvements in productivity. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/ releases/2018/08/180827180741.htm Weber, E. P., Lach, D., & Steel, B. S. (2017). Science and problem solving for wicked problems: Challenges and responses. In E. P. Weber, D. Lach, & B. S. Steel (Eds.), New strategies for wicked problems: Science and solutions in the twenty-first century (pp. 1–24). Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press. Williamson, B., Weir, J., & Cavanagh, V. (2020, January 9). Strength from perpetual grief: How Aboriginal people experience the bushfire crisis. The Conversation. Retrieved from https:// theconversation.com/strength-from-perpetual-grief-how-aboriginal-people-experience-thebushfire-crisis-129448 Wilson, S. (2020a, January 18). In Australia, fires heat up environmental movement. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-australia-fires-heat-up-theenvironmental-movement/2020/01/18/99c912e6-38de-11ea-80e9-06738e0c2b7b_story.html Wilson, S. (2020b, January 22). On Australia’s Kangaroo Island, a fight to stay alive. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-australias-kangarooisland-a-fight-to-stay-alive/2020/01/21/2475a3ee-3c01-11ea-adf6-42d4cf92556b_story.html WorldWildlife Fund [WWF]. (2019). The Good News about Climate Change. TheWorldWildlife Fund. Retrieved from https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/the-good-news-about-climate-change

Chapter 8

Decolonizing Nature: The Potential of Nature to Heal

The world is changing as we write. Just as we finish writing this chapter to address the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, the pandemic of racism has been made visible globally. As the deaths from COVID-19 grow close to half a million, deaths of Black people at the hands of police also continues to grow. As a result, people have left their homes during this coronavirus pandemic to express their rage and pain at the ongoing police brutality and violence and the underlying issues of systemic racism and inequality. Through the public health pandemics of COVID-19 and racism, we have the opportunity to pause and recognize the complexity of the global crises that are threatening the very life of humans. With this pause, we can take a breath and envision a different path forward (Fig. 8.1). These crises are global in nature with local impact. The pandemics and the global environmental crisis are inextricably linked. Global environmental degradation is directly linked to human overconsumption, greed, and exploitation of resources and people. As described below, this worldview came with European colonization that began in the late fifteenth century. Through the analysis of the pandemics along with reflection on how we got here, we have the opportunity to face the immediacy of the crisis, and together each and all take responsibility for embracing change. We offer a range of opportunities from which we can engage to heal our planet and, with it, our relationships with nature and each other.

The COVID-19 Pandemic We are living in a global crisis that demonstrates the links between health care, gross inequality, and environmental degradation. While every year we experience bouts of the flu that kill people, this time it is different. COVID-19 is deadlier and more contagious (Yan, 2020). Within the first 5 months of 2020, there were 100,000 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9_8

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Fig. 8.1  A moment to pause, painting by © Cathryne L.  Schmitz 2020. All Rights Reserved. (Photograph by Chuck Egerton. Published with kind permission of artist and photographer)

deaths counted, long before the crisis is over. Understanding the relationship, impact, and looming dangers requires analyzing the historical path, the entrenched structures of oppression, and the path of destruction, as well as an embedded resilience and potential for transformative change. Globally, during the same time frame, over seven million people were infected with the coronavirus, and over 400,000 people died. One-quarter of all deaths have been in the United States. Misinformation about the virus runs rampant, complicated by using different statistical models to calculate data, making the comparison of cases and deaths from COVID-19 to the seasonal flu or other diseases inadequate. Nonetheless, it is clear that COVID-19 is deadlier and more contagious than the seasonal flu (Yan, 2020). Flu season deaths are typically measured across 6 months, from October to May. In just 2.5 months after the first known US case of COVID-19, the highest number of deaths that the flu ever reached was surpassed. The undercounted deaths from COVID-19 in the first 5 months of 2020 exceeded the highest number of deaths from the seasonal flu in any 12-month period. In addition, preliminary research suggests that a person with seasonal flu infects 1.28 other people, while a person with COVID-19 infects two to three other people (CDC, 2019a; Ingraham, 2020; Yan, 2020), making the current coronavirus much more contagious. It matters because it impacts how much risk people associate with the disease and, consequently, how much effort they make to engage in safe behaviors such as social distancing, wearing face masks, and staying at home. In the United States, misleading information is, in fact, one of our biggest challenges in regard to the global environmental crisis overall. Yet, this is not the deadliest nor the most contagious virus out there. Many of us may know that smallpox was transmitted to the Americas through colonization. By

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now, most of us are aware of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. But there have been many pandemics since then, including the H1N1 Swine Flu in 2009 and Ebola in 2014, which were much more deadly than COVID-19 but fortunately less contagious; HIV, yellow fever, and many more are also on the list (CDC, 2019b; Reed et al., 2015). There are warnings that we will see more in the future if we continue our current patterns of interacting with nature. Additional risk occurs as there are increases in permafrost melt, which can result in the release of ancient pathogens to which humans have no immunity. Our highly globalized world makes worldwide human-to-human transmission spread of disease easy and fast. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus, a zoonotic disease. There are many coronaviruses that we know about already. When a virus is described as novel, it means it is so new to us that we have no immunities, no vaccinations, and no antiviral medications to reduce the severity. Zoonotic infectious diseases are those that jump from animals to humans through a pathogen such as a virus, bacteria, or parasite (CDC, 2017). In fact, it is quite common that diseases new to humans are transferred to us from other animals (Johnson et  al., 2020). Sometimes this is also referred to as disease spillover. The COVID-19 disease is not the first nor will it be the last virus to spill over to humans. SARS and Ebola are two recent examples. Blaming the wet markets in China for the original transmission of the novel coronavirus from animals to humans may be a convenient argument for the West, but it is a dishonest and unhelpful assessment of the root problems that got us here. A wide range of anthropogenic activities contribute substantially to zoonotic diseases, such as deforestation, development, and transitioning wilderness to croplands (Johnson et al., 2020). Species that are threatened (vulnerable to extinction) due to habitat loss or reduced habitat quality have about twice as many zoonotic diseases as those threatened for other reasons (Johnson et al., 2020). Those species with the most zoonotic viruses are primates, bats, and domesticated animals (Johnson et al., 2020). The H1N1 swine flu gets its name from a virus that jumped from farmed pigs to humans; Ebola most likely came from nonhuman primates (CDC, 2019b). The most common zoonotic virus spillovers from wildlife occur near human dwellings and agricultural fields and among those who work with wild animals such as veterinarians, hunters, or zoo staff (Johnson et  al., 2015). Once the wildlife-to-human transmission has occurred, it is the human-to-human transmission that then brings the spread to pandemic levels. The pandemic disproportionately impacts vulnerable groups and populations, both in terms of who is most at risk and the quality of health care they receive. For example, Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority populations in England are most likely to die from the pandemic by a factor of two to three times (Godin, 2020). These issues are paralleled in the United States, where people of color (especially Black, Latinx, and Tribal and Indigenous peoples) are disproportionally more likely to test positive for and die from COVID-19 (Golden, 2020). As an example, in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Black people make up 26% of the population and 70% of the deaths (Golden, 2020). In some places, the situation is even worse. The Navajo Nation has been ravaged as they face the coronavirus without running water,

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adequate housing, broadband Internet, and health-care structure (Klemko, 2020). Further, while facing the pandemic, resources allocated at the federal level have been slow to arrive, requiring legal intervention. By May 2020, the Navajo had the highest per capita rate of cases and deaths; by June, the highest per capita rates were occurring on Indigenous lands (Kristof, 2020a). Is there any hope for a different future? The short answer is yes. The long answer is that we first need to understand how we got to this place and then confront the ways our views of, and relationship with, ourselves, each other, and the natural environment can either exacerbate or ameliorate the current global crisis. This is a crisis of our doing and the solution lies in shifting our worldview of how humans relate to the natural environment and each other. We need both immediate and long-­ term changes in how we live our lives across the planet. We are talking about major, worldwide transformative changes in our economic, social, technological, and political systems (IPBES, 2019). We begin with colonization and its impact on the ecology, people, and worldview. We then explore how decolonization, changes in our economic and policy systems, and understanding and respecting the ways the natural world can support us in changing direction.

Impact of Colonization on the Environment We begin by exploring colonization as the first step in our path to the present crisis. Colonization spread a worldview and practices that ignored our vital relationships with other people and the ecology. Colonization is a process where governments and/or settlers claim sovereignty over lands already occupied by Tribal and Indigenous peoples (Liboiron, 2017). Historically, colonized lands were used for resource extraction or settled to expand the power of the empires they represent. Colonizers saw the land as a resource to be exploited rather than understanding the need to nurture a relationship between people, land, water, flora, fauna, and air. Leaving behind pollution or using land to store contamination holds economic value for colonizers (Liboiron, 2017). This imperialist ideology imposed economic control based on the view that people and nature are resources to control and manipulate, thus disrupting our relationships with the earth, nature, and each other. This critical philosophical frame has devastated the planet. Although colonization goes back millennia, western colonization is generally described as beginning in the fifteenth century with European expansion to the Americas, Africa, India, Asia, and Oceana (Ferro, 1997). The ultimate goal of colonization was private profit: enrichment of the colonizers (Lewis & Maslin, 2018). This was accomplished through the enslavement of humans, natural resource extraction, and cash crop production (Engerman & Sokoloff, 2005; Robinson, 2001). It resulted in social, economic, and environmental exploitation that led to ecological degradation, climate change, and injustice (CSWE, in press). Even though most European colonizers left African countries following World War II, colonial occupiers remain in North America, South Africa, and Australia.

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When the Industrial Revolution of the late nineteenth century sent Europeans into Africa in search of raw materials and markets, agents often tried to get treaties signed that relinquished local sovereignty (Lewis & Maslin, 2018). War ensued when treaties could not be negotiated. Colonial aggression was countered with resistance; Europe’s advanced military capabilities, however, allowed them to seize control. Once in control, local resources were extracted, food crops replaced with cash crops, and people and nature exploited. Colonization also brought the destruction of existing traditional communities, families, cultures, and spiritualities. The negative impact of colonization on Tribal and Indigenous and peoples who were formerly enslaved can still be seen through rates of poverty and violence that are higher than those experienced by White colonizers. The United States continues to occupy Tribal and Indigenous lands inside and outside its borders, including unceded Tribal and Indigenous lands, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and seven more uninhabited islands (Misachi, 2019). Further, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Minister Louis Farrakhan identified urban African American ghettos as colonies controlled by external ruling powers (i.e., White people) (Farrakhan, 2013; King, 1967). Even in countries from which colonizers have withdrawn, the impact of colonization continues to impact millions. Europe, Russia, China, and eventually the United States inflicted unimaginable terrors on the people and lands of Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas as the former countries invaded and colonized the latter (Robinson, 2001; Snyder, 2018). Fueled by greed for profit and not recognizing the existing inhabitants as fully human, colonizers destroyed existing communities and political entities (Snyder, 2018). Genocide, forced assimilation, ecological destruction, dehumanization of the other, and depletion of resources are the legacy of colonization (Robinson, 2001). Violence and oppression continue as economic policies encourage consumption and valuing profit over life.

Loss of People and Culture The North America we know today was built through the genocide of Tribal and Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans (Hannah-Jones, 2019). Both were stripped of their culture, spiritual practices, and lands and then forced to assimilate. As recently as the early 1970s in the United States, Australia, and Canada, Tribal and Indigenous children were forced into residential boarding schools run by Christian missionaries; in these institutions they were prohibited from practicing their traditional religion, language, dress, and customs (Adams, 1995; Cole & Chaikin, 1990; Reconciliation Australia, 2011). Similarly, across colonized Asia and Africa, education—including boarding schools—was primarily controlled by Christians as a way to evangelize (Global Black History, 2020). Stripping colonized peoples of their culture also interrupted traditional systems of collectivism and relatedness.

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In the United States, Tribal and Indigenous peoples now have the lowest median household income, followed by African Americans (US Census Bureau, 2017, 2018). Poverty rates for Tribal and Indigenous peoples are three times that of people who are White and, for African Americans, twice that of people who are White (US Census Bureau, 2017, 2018). Even though African Americans comprise only 13% of the population, they account for 49% of all homicide victims (Harrell, 2007). The chances of falling victim to violence is heightened as well. Black and Indigenous men and women face a higher risk of being killed by the police than White men and women; Latino men are at a higher risk than White men (Edwards, Lee, & Esposito, 2019). Tribal and Indigenous women are twice as likely to experience sexual assault as White women (Rosay, 2016). Like the United States, the consequences of colonization on Africans and on Australia’s Tribal and Indigenous people are also dire. Australia’s Indigenous peoples experience a poverty rate of 31% (versus 13% for Whites), and infant mortality and suicide is twice that of non-Indigenous people (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). And, although Australian and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) people make up only about 4% of the population, they comprise 25% of the prison population (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). In South Africa, a formerly colonized African country in which White colonizers still own 90% of the land, the poverty rate for Black Africans is 38 times that of those who are White (Gradín, 2009, 2012, 2013). The loss of culture is much more difficult to quantify, but includes loss of language, ceremonies, spirituality, and ways of relating to the earth and each other.

Environmental Impact The colonizing of the Americas, Asia, and Africa has been described as essentially an evolutionary experiment that has long-lasting implications globally with no natural end (Lewis & Maslin, 2018). Perhaps beginning with the transport of foreign species around the globe, resulting in invasive species that sometimes decimated local flora and fauna, colonization resulted in ecological degradation, depletion of resources, and destruction of peoples and cultures (Robinson, 2001). Recent research suggests that colonization of the Americas had a detectable impact on global climate (Koch, Brierley, Maslina, & Lewis, 2018). Two-hundred years’ post-­ European contact, the genocide of approximately 55 million Tribal and Indigenous peoples across the Americas left agricultural land untended; this resulted in ecological changes that allowed forests to regrow along with the cooling of air temperatures (Koch et al., 2018). Alternatively, the Industrial Revolution of the mid-1800s escalated the impact of colonization as fossil fuels were extracted from colonized lands to provide energy for factories, resulting in massive pollution and contamination from extraction to burning (Lewis & Maslin, 2018). Contamination of the land  Metals, minerals, and fossil fuels are among the many resources colonizers sought in the lands they conquered. Extraction and processing

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of these materials usually requires drilling, blasting (US Geological Service, n.d.), and the use of mercury, cyanide, or chlorine (Hardesty, 2010). The resulting waste— ammonia, mercury, zinc, copper, sulfides, cyanide, and radioactive materials—contaminated the land, water, and air (Geological Survey of Sweden, n.d.). The environmental impact of extraction activities has polluted rivers, killed fish and wildlife, and negatively impacted human health (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d.). From the extraction of copper in the Congo to gold along the Yukon, the desire for wealth outweighed any concern for the people or ecological environment. By the mid-1700s, European and Russian colonizers arrived in the northwest regions of what is now Canada and Alaska (Peter, n.d.). Initially drawn by the desire for fur (Peter, n.d.), by the late 1800s, fur traders were replaced by gold miners (Williams, 2010). Seeking riches, miners arrived by the thousands, destroying mountains to remove gold, and leaving mine tailing pools of arsenic, heavy metals, and acid seeping into the land and rivers. Blasting, crushing, and disposing of rock released toxic gases and asbestos-type particulates that cause black lung and other health problems (CDC, 2011). The environmental impact of mining is not limited to the release of chemicals across the land, water, and air. Mining is a major cause of deforestation as land is cleared for extraction, processing, and transportation of materials (Mon, Lee, Jee, & Lin, 2017). In turn, deforestation can reduce water flows, negatively affecting fish populations. Mining also causes sinkholes, soil erosion, and loss of biodiversity. Often, mining and construction equipment brought into an area are not removed but instead left to rot (Williams, 2010). The influx of people that comes with mining creates additional stress on the environment and local populations. Deforestation  Across Africa, the Americas, and Asia, deforestation accompanied colonization. As European powers built more ships to navigate the globe in search of riches, the once plentiful forests were depleted (Morse, 1992). Once colonizers arrived in a land, their quest for minerals, metals, and cash crops created conflict that resulted in war leading to the destruction of forests to make way for mining, plantations, or grazing (Ordonez, 2019). In Cuba, rainforests were cleared for sugarcane plantations; in India, the forests were cleared for tea; and, in New England (USA), the forests were cleared for shipbuilding. No matter the cause, once the trees were removed, and the roots were no longer there to hold soil together, erosion of the top soil devastated countries such as Haiti, Bangladesh, and Somaliland. In Somaliland, colonization was a significant cause of ecological degradation from deforestation. Somalis fought colonization, and eventually Europe withdrew, separating existing countries and merging together others, resulting in ongoing conflict. The conflict leading to European withdrawal and subsequent civil war resulted in devastation of forests and wildlife. Trees and vegetation were destroyed by bombs and tanks, lowering the water table and contributing to global warming. A lack of ground cover and water resulted in severe droughts that led to the death of thousands of people and millions of livestock (Hussein, 2018). In a vicious cycle, drought then led to conflict as local pastoralists fought over access to limited grazing land and

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water for their livestock (PENHA, 2018). Deforestation and other environmental degradation continue to have severe economic and social consequences for the country (Hussein, 2018). The fires that blaze in the Amazon are also the result of European colonization and imperialism. Since the arrival of Spaniards 500 years ago, the Americas have suffered genocide, settler occupation, theft and destruction of land, and labor exploitation—including the enslavement of people (Ordonez, 2019). Colonialism focused the economies of Latin America on resource extraction and agriculture with no concern for the impact on Tribal and Indigenous peoples or the rainforests. Tribal and Indigenous peoples and lands were sacrificed to enrich the colonizers. Today, the Amazon—including the Congo and Angola—is being burned to make way for soybean agribusiness (Ordonez, 2019; Petesch, 2018). Transnational capitalism continues to exploit natural resources to the point of depletion, a system of destructive exploitation that happens primarily in former colonies (Ordonez, 2019). Water Contamination  Mining and other extraction activities leave behind poisons that seep into the ground, contaminating aquifers, rivers, and oceans. Runoff from mining and agriculture combined with lower water tables from the accompanying deforestation leads to loss of oxygen in the water and high concentrations of ammonia and hazardous chemicals, ultimately harming all of life (European Environmental Agency, 2019). Water contamination from the activities that accompanied colonization is an ongoing form of colonial violence around the world (Liboiron, 2017). Sadly, many countries continue to allow release of hazardous chemicals into the waters, causing harm and death (Liboiron, 2017). In North America, there are numerous examples of water contamination that came with colonization and continue to impact local communities and ecology. As an example, abandoned mines in the Yukon River watershed continue to pollute rivers and lakes when flooding releases contaminated water (Asif & Chen, 2016). Most of these mines used cyanide, and sometimes mercury, to extract the gold. For the past two centuries, the leaching of these chemicals has resulted in frequent fish kills and the death of migratory birds (Asif & Chen, 2016). Local people also noticed increases in health problems, such as cancers, in human and wildlife populations. Similarly, in the southwest United States, acid runoff from mines flows into the San Juan River, contaminating water from Colorado to New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, endangering people, livestock, and crops (Elliott, 2016). Uranium was mined in the southwest beginning in the last half of the nineteenth century and still has consequences today. These mines contaminated water that still flows through Navajo reservation land in an area that has a high prevalence of a neurological disease, Navajo neuropathy, which is believed to be linked to uranium poisoning (EPA, 2019; National Public Radio, 2017). Most colonization of Africa was extraction-based, primarily in southern Africa where there was extensive settler colonization (i.e., South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia) (Mendel University in Brno, n.d.). Once again, mining to enrich European powers is one of the major causes of water contamination on the continent. The by-products of mining and metal processing releases minerals and salts into the water, making it unsafe for consumption.

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Problems are further compounded when water contaminated with harmful toxins reaches farms, where deforestation has swept away fertile soil, combining to further harm food production. Contaminated water is linked to an array of human illnesses, such as cholera, dengue fever, hepatitis, parasites, dysentery, polio, typhoid, and malaria (WHO, 2020). Loss of Wildlife  The poisoning of the land and water in the 500+  years since European colonization has caused the loss of 680 vertebrate species (IPBES, 2019). From 1700 to 2000, the extraction and exploitation of resources that contaminated water and land and caused deforestation also resulted in loss of 85% of our wetlands, 68% loss of forests, and 50% loss of live coral reefs (UN, 2019). This loss of habitat and disruption of ecological systems has left almost a million species threatened with extinction, many within decades (IPBES, 2019). The rate is increasing, and as a result, we are likely to lose more than 500 additional species of land vertebrae to extinction across the next 20 years (Nuwer, 2020). Colonization of the Americas completed a trade triangle that had a profound impact on deforestation, loss of natural habitat, and subsequent loss of wildlife (Lewis & Maslin, 2018). European colonizers kidnapped and enslaved African peoples to work the cotton and tobacco plantations in the Americas. Cotton and tobacco were traded with Europe for manufactured goods which were then traded in Africa for enslaved people, all for the benefit of the colonizers (Lewis & Maslin, 2018). This global movement of people and products brought with it the global movement of plants, animals, and pathogens. As plants and animals arrived in new locales, the ecological balance was forever altered with local species often losing out. This is in addition to, and intricately connected with, decimation of wildlife caused by land contamination, deforestation, and water contamination.

Decolonization Identifying colonization as the beginning of our path to the current environmental crisis and systemic inequality, we offer decolonization as a process for changing human structures, systems, and ethics as a first step in reclaiming the natural ecology and our relationship with it. Decolonization is the undoing of colonization. Decolonization is often identified as beginning with the post-World War II United Nations Charter (UN, 1945). Article 73 of the Charter specifically requires governments who control colonies and territories to put the interests of the inhabitants first (UN, 1945). Governments were further instructed to support self-governance, development, and peace for the colonized territories (UN, 1945). Subsequently, the 1960 Declaration on Granting Independence to Colonial Countries and peoples called for an immediate end to occupation and control of all colonies and peoples (UN, 1960). Today, the United Nations identifies 17 countries that are still non-self-­ governing (e.g., American Samoa, Puerto Rico, French Polynesia, West Sahara) (UN, 2019), although the US Department of State (2017) identifies over 60 countries as dependencies or areas of special sovereignty.

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Vital to decolonization—beyond geographic and political sovereignty—is reclaiming culture. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples (UN, 2007) and Declaration on Granting of Independence to Countries and Peoples (UN, 1960) make clear that people have the right to their culture (e.g., customs; religion and spirituality; ceremonies; languages; philosophies; traditional medicines). Although many actions taken by colonizers were intended to eradicate traditional cultures (e.g., boarding schools), colonized peoples are resilient (Weaver, 2019). Writers across continents have recognized the need for colonized peoples to reject capitalist, individualist ideals and decolonize their minds, their language, and their worldviews (Enriquez, 1994; Waziyatawin & Yellow Bird, 2012). Laenui (2006) identifies five steps to decolonization—for people who were colonized (a) rediscover and recover culture; (b) mourn the losses resulting from colonization and exploitation; (c) dream of future social, political, and economic structures that incorporate traditional values; (d) commit to the vision; and (e) take action to make the dream a reality. For hundreds of years, White Christian Europeans sought to claim superiority and dominance over all other beings, implicitly and explicitly denigrating all else. Colonizers attempted to instill these messages of inferiority in the people they colonized, leading them to reject the traditional, and assimilate the new. Decolonization rejects that sense of inferiority and recognizes the value in traditional, local, and Indigenous ways of being that respect the interconnectedness of people and the environment. Decolonization rejects colonial subjugation and exploitation of colonized peoples’ minds, bodies, and lands (Waziyatawin & Yellow Bird, 2012). Decolonizing nature first requires recognizing that humans are the cause of ecological degradation and re-visioning our relationship with each other and the earth. Although not homogenous, prior to colonization, Tribal and Indigenous (Coates, Gray, & Hetherington, 2006), African (Gumo, Gisege, Raballah, & Ouma, 2012), and Asian and Pacific Islander worldviews saw humans as part of a greater ecology that was interconnected and required balance. While much has been lost to colonization, people who have been colonized have managed to retain some traditions and beliefs—even if now blended with European ideas (Gumo et al., 2012). Around the globe, local and Indigenous peoples are rediscovering and reclaiming culture and balanced relationships with the ecology, leading others to follow.

Decolonizing Relationships with Ourselves and Others We are all survivors of colonization, whether we now experience privilege or oppression. This is not to suggest that colonization has ended; it has not. One of the ongoing effects of colonization is a change from relationships with, interconnectedness, equity, and respect, to relationships over, entitlement, ownership, and control. European colonizers saw themselves as entitled to invade other countries and control people, land, nature, and natural resources for their profit. African, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Tribal and Indigenous peoples were more likely to see ­themselves as

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part of the circle of life, one of many creatures sharing the land with a responsibility to care for the environment to benefit all. Transformative change requires rejecting the colonial worldview and reclaiming relationships with—relationships with ourselves, others, and our planet that are based on dignity and respect for all. Decolonizing ourselves begins with identifying the wounds of colonization, including those of self-hatred taught by White supremacy (Waziyatawin & Yellow Bird, 2012). It then requires healing through reclaiming and restoring Indigenous ways of thinking and being (Waziyatawin & Yellow Bird, 2012). Mindfulness and contemplation are recommended as practices for decolonizing the mind (Waziyatawin & Yellow Bird, 2012). Separating Tribal and Indigenous peoples from the land and children from families and punishing those who practiced their language and traditions were the colonizers’ attempts to erase Tribal and Indigenous culture. Healing from the wounds of colonization requires restoration of our relationship to language, traditions, and place (Waziyatawin & Yellow Bird, 2012; Whyte, 2018). Around the globe, Tribal and Indigenous peoples are educating their children in traditional culture, rejecting violence against women, reestablishing traditional foods and diets, and returning to consensus rule (Whyte, 2018). Decolonizing our relationships with others means facing the resilience of White colonial patriarchal privilege and racism. Racism was instituted as a structure that legitimated colonization—identifying certain groups of people as inferior to another group. As such, racism has been reified as a mechanism whereby colonization continues to be maintained. The same racism that justified European claims of Indigenous lands—Indigenous people as racially inferior savages—continues to fuel the disproportionate and ongoing assault and murder of Black men by law enforcement in the United States. Disrupting racism and White supremacy patriarchy are critical steps to reform our relationships with each other and the environment (Tharoor, 2020). Just like environmental justice work, anti-racism work must ensure that White supremacy patriarchy is not duplicated or maintained. We must deconstruct and reconstruct relationships that are reciprocal and respectful, embracing our differences (Trahant, 2018). Taking a decolonizing stance means re-examining our relationships with people beyond our own country borders. When we allow one group of people to be dehumanized, we allow unspeakable atrocities to be perpetrated against them. The situation at the United States-Mexico border is ultimately rooted in the idea of a racialized people as subhuman. With this colonial worldview, at the United States-­ Mexico border, we once again see brown children as young as 4 months old forcibly separated from their parents and kept for months in for-profit centers (Dickerson, 2018). These traumatized children were then administered psychotropics to control them (Hay & Tait, 2018). The United States is not the only country rejecting immigrants and refugees from the very countries whose colonization created the conditions that require migration. In Greece and Turkey, hundreds of thousands of refugees are stopped by European Union patrols from migrating further into Europe; this leaves them waiting without food, blankets, shelter, or a way to protect themselves from the coronavirus pandemic or the violence perpetrated against them (Higginbottom, 2020; Parker, 2020).

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A liberal worldview calls for citizenship rights for immigrants; these views fail to challenge the legitimacy of the colonial-settler state by assuming the land is theirs and they have the right to grant citizenship (Waziyatawin & Yellow Bird, 2012). A decolonizing mindset questions the very foundations of colonization: economic systems based on exploitation and inequality, White supremacy, patriarchy, and domination. The current discourse around the so-called dreamers—people brought by their parents to the United States when they were young—perpetuates a colonial worldview of blame, worthiness, and the ideal immigrant (i.e., dreamers are blameless, worthy and ideal immigrants, but their parents are not) (Shivani, 2017). Instead, a decolonized immigration policy would allow people to move freely across borders. As survival and environmental migration grow—usually people leaving formerly colonized countries for the countries of their colonizers—we need to address whether arbitrary political boundaries permit us to dehumanize people who simply want to survive (Chen, 2015).

Decolonizing Relationships with Nature Decolonization involves reimagining human relationships with the planet and nature. Both as a process and a goal, decolonization requires examination of history, research, and dialogue to unlearn the lessons of colonization (Choudry, Hanley, & Shragge, 2012). In decolonization, we reject the idea of humans as inherently superior to the rest of the planet and remember our responsibilities as caretakers (Amadahy & Lawrence, 2009). Humans have divided once continuous habitats with homes, communities, highways, and deforestation, restricting the ability of flora and fauna to survive, and allowing invasive species to thrive (Tallamy, 2020). Reconnecting habitats that support Indigenous landscapes and enriching the land and water without the use chemical pesticides and fertilizers is vital to the conservation of flora, fauna, water, air, and land (Tallamy, 2020). In many places, Tribal and Indigenous practices are being reclaimed as sustainable practices for water and land management. Indigenous practices in Australia seemed to provide protection from the recent wildfires. Fire did not spread to areas where Indigenous cultural burning fire management practices were in place (Betigeri, 2020). Although western cultures also use controlled burns to reduce fire hazards, cultural burning is a holistic approach that understands the kinship of humans, animals, land, and water (Betigeri, 2020). Australian Indigenous cultural burns are timed with the seasons and intimate knowledge of the ecology (Betigeri, 2020). Cultural burns have been used to control invasive species or encourage native species to grow in micro-regions. Although some argue it is not possible to transmit this knowledge to non-Indigenous peoples, or apply it in non-Indigenous regions (Courtice & Murphy, 2015), others disagree (Betigeri, 2020; Gammage, 2011). In Somaliland, believing that humans were the cause of most environmental degradation, local communities agreed to employ new methods to rehabilitate and protect the land (PENHA, 2005, 2018). Using traditional peace processes, communities

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and pastoralists agreed to work together to protect vulnerable grasslands from ­overgrazing while maintaining grazing rights for pastoralists and at the same time supporting environmental restoration. Working with Oxfam (Oxford Committee for Famine Relief), the use of bunding or permaculture is bringing moisture and plants back to the land (PENHA, 2005, 2018). While the work is far from finished, these are promising changes that can serve as examples for other communities.

Decolonizing Agriculture and Food As the pandemic has revealed, there are problems with our agricultural systems that negatively impact people and the ecology. These problems are partly linked to the way we eat and our agricultural practices. According to the IPCC (2019), up to 30% of our food is lost or wasted globally, accounting for up to 10% of our total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste among wealthier societies is a significant problem that cannot be ignored; this contrasts the food needs of a rapidly increasing global population. What and how we eat is both personal and cultural, with meat holding deep meaning within certain cultural, religious, and familial practices. In the United States, meat is a staple at most meals. At the same time, animal agriculture stresses the land, creates opportunities for zoonotic diseases, and contributes to numerous human health issues (Pytel, 2019). The production of meat, especially beef, is intensive and destructive to our environment (IPCC, 2020; Waite, Searchinger, & Ranganathan, 2019). Meat packing houses have a high human and ecological impact; in the pandemic, they have been linked to several virus clusters. Their practices are violent toward workers and animals while also polluting the land and water. Shifting to a plant-rich diet, while reducing our meat protein intake, is good for the planet and positively impacts human health (Hawken, 2017). Agribusiness is linked to environmental degradation, racism, and inequality. By agribusiness, we mean practices that span from the beginning to end of farming: seeds, chemicals, processing, and distribution to markets. To increase profits per acre, large industrial farms are heavy users of pesticides and fertilizers, poisoning not only their land but also the land and water of those around them. Companies like Monsanto and DuPont have patented genetically modified organism (GMO) plants and seeds, originally created to address world hunger (Shiva, 2015, 2016), the longer-­term outcomes of their practices are destruction of the potential for sustainable food production. These companies do not allow the seeds from these GMO plants to be used; farmers must purchase new seeds from the company each year. When their GMO plants contaminate nearby fields, Monsanto has successfully sued farmers for using the seeds resulting from the contaminated fields. To control this, Monsanto has created a sterile seed, though it currently promises to not use it. Shiva (2016) proposes an alternative to agribusiness: a model of agroecology which mobilizes systems that feed populations across the globe. Agroecology refers to farming and other agricultural practices that are sustainable, reducing the

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e­ cological impact. While the industrial agricultural system has relied on processes and products (including monocropping and genetic modification) that increase hunger and destruction, agroecology embraces the complexity of feeding the world (Shiva, 2016). The production of food relies on the farmer interacting with sun, water, soil, and seed. The ecological relationships are interconnected with knowledge and science to create the biodiversity and organically rich soils necessary for sustainable agriculture without poisoning the soil and water. This in turn draws the pollinators. A balance is maintained that is renewable and sustainable. The farmer is central and the process personalized and localized. This includes a multilevel response that addresses and embraces diversity issues, the role of gender, need to localize, seed saving, and the roles and needs of small farmers (Shiva, 2016). Pakistan offers a hopeful example of decolonizing agricultural practices. In Pakistan, despite colonization and government development attempts to modernize agriculture (i.e., pesticides, genetically modified seeds, machinery), Tribal and Indigenous knowledge and practices are being restored to reduce environmental degradation while maintaining agricultural sustainability (Chaudhry & Chaudhry, 2011). Pakistani Indigenous agricultural practices include the use of local organic solutions, reciprocal communal labor, and soft tillage, all of which increase environmental and economic sustainability (Chaudhry & Chaudhry, 2011). Soft tillage is done with the use of oxen instead of machines, allowing more nutrients to be retained in the soil (Chaudhry & Chaudhry, 2011). Among organic solutions, stored animal dung is used instead of chemical fertilizers, and fresh manure is used to maintain moisture in the soil; both are readily available since most farmers have cattle. In place of expensive machinery, the Wangar system of reciprocal communal labor brings community members together to help a farmer plant or harvest their crop; recipients of this labor reciprocate when those who helped need it (Chaudhry & Chaudhry, 2011).

Decolonizing Leadership In the West, the common leadership models such as—authoritarian, bureaucratic, autocratic, and transactional—are grounded in colonial ways of knowing and being (Garcia & Natividad, 2018). These leadership models provide different frameworks for identifying ways individual leaders work to gain an economic and competitive advantage for their organizations (Lapina, 2016; Zand, 2018) and themselves. They understand leadership as a role held by an individual. Conversely, although there is not one model of Indigenous leadership, African, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Tribal and Indigenous peoples are more likely to view leadership as a mutual process, the value of which is not measured in economic terms, but rather in terms of ethical actions with the community, society, and self (Zand, 2018). As seen in many African, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Tribal and Indigenous practices, when a decision affects the entire community or several communities, the communities or

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their representatives (i.e., leaders) may engage in a circle process that does not end until everyone is heard and consensus is reached (Sloan & Schmitz, 2019). Similarly, the web model identified by Helgesen (1995, 2005) highlights the ways women lead from the center, creating relationships across the organization. Leadership for unsettled times requires humility, honesty, compassion, vision, empathy, and the strength of will necessary for maintaining the way forward (Collins, 2001a, 2001b, 2005; Collins & Hansen, 2011). A recent study comparing 13 countries headed by men and 8 headed by women found that these female-led countries were more successful than their male counterparts in responding (Kristof, 2020b). The female-led countries have had only 20% of the deaths reported by male-led countries; female leadership styles received at least some credit (Kristof, 2020b). Leaders with the worst outcomes were men who were authoritarian, vain, and blustery (Kristof, 2020b). Had leadership style of the US President been similar to that of the women leading a successful response to the coronavirus, there would have been 102,000 fewer deaths in the first 5 months of 2020 (Kristof, 2020b). Instead, he projected a style of bluster and boasting that interferes with the ability to use the expertise of others (Kristof, 2020b). If this COVID-19 pandemic is a global test of governance, then the United States has failed. Political discourse within the United States is currently not healthy and not in good faith; we need to separate defensible claims and those known to be false (Krugman, 2020). US President Donald Trump has expressed more concern about protecting the economy than protecting the health and lives of people. While the United States and South Korea each recorded their first COVID-19 cases on the same day, the United States quickly registered the world’s highest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, while South Korea moved in the opposite direction. Six weeks after that first infection, 300,000 tests had been completed in South Korea but only 60,000 in the United States (Shorrock, 2020). This is because the response in South Korea was very different. When there was a sudden increase in numbers in South Korea, a collective strategic response was engaged (Fleming, 2020). The response was timely with citizen commitment and community responsibility instigating government response (Fisher & Sang-Hun, 2020). The strength of their democracy, the ethic of care, and universal health-care system supported the work (Fisher & Sang-Hun, 2020). The individual, community, and institutional ethic; political will; and personal responsibility coalesced to support the solution. People have a commitment to caring for each other; they did not want to be responsible for spreading the virus (Shorrock, 2020). South Korea is now trying to apply some of what they have learned to the climate crisis (Kaufman, 2020). As the seventh largest polluter, the government has now committed to their New Green Deal, pledging net-zero emissions by 2050, the first in East Asia. In another study, seven countries led by women were identified as the most effective in responding to the pandemic (Wittenberg-Cox, 2020). They include the leaders of Finland, Iceland, Denmark, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Germany who acted early and decisively. They embraced the seriousness of the issues and were honest

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with their citizens. They may have taken different routes but have all been effective in slowing the virus. They continue to be thoughtful and purposeful as we move through this crisis. Each is acting with humility and empathy. The leaders of Finland, Iceland, and New Zealand model transformative leadership styles, which have many features in common with Indigenous leadership. Leading with compassion and inclusiveness, each are committed to a pro-family agenda (e.g., paid family leave), focused on ensuring equity, and committed to addressing climate change (Luscombe, 2020; Paddison, 2019; Specia, 2019). On June 10, 2020, when the United States was reporting two million COVID-19 cases, New Zealand declared itself free of the coronavirus (Cuming, 2020).

Decolonizing Economic Systems The global crisis brought on by COVID-19 has revealed three pandemics— COVID-19, hunger, and loss of livelihood (Shiva, 2020b). Globally, because of lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus, economies are collapsing, unemployment soaring to the highest rates in almost a century, and hunger an imminent threat for millions. In the United States, the widening gap of inequality is abundantly clear during this pandemic. People of color, low-income people, and women comprise the majority of workers at the frontline. They experience the violence of the current social, economic, and political systems: their pay is low, they are at the mercy of health care and other support systems that often exclude them, and the resources they need to help protect themselves and those close to them have been withheld (Warzel, 2020) including tests and protective gear and nonviolent police protection. Rather than acknowledging and remediating these problems, workers are forced to continue working at threat of loss of income (Stewart, 2020). The United States lacks a public health system, universal health care, basic income, housing support, and a restorative justice system. Those most at risk are people of color, including African Americans, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples; immigrants of color; and women who make up many of those on the frontlines of health care (CDC, 2020; Frye, 2020; Golden, 2020; Nyugen et al., 2020; Stewart, 2020). Tribal, Indigenous, and immigrant communities are often ignored—invisible to those who refuse to see or listen—under-resourced and under threat. Within the United States, while vulnerable groups are required to work without protections, those of privilege stay isolated in safety oppressing with impunity (Stewart, 2020). Under globalization, the labor of people from developing (i.e., formerly colonized) nations is exploited for the benefit of the western consumers. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (known together as the Bretton Woods Institutions) were designed to promote western free-market economic policies (e.g., deregulation, privatization) and promote unlimited economic growth (Bretton Woods Project, 2019a). Their policies have resulted in increases in extreme poverty,

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higher global levels of inequality, and environmental crises (Bretton Woods Project, 2019a). For example, the impact of IMF conditions on Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia are clearly linked to their lack of ability to respond to the 2014 Ebola crisis (Kentikelenis, King, McKee, & Stuckler, 2014). The IMF conditions prioritized debt repayment, reduction in government spending, and decentralization of health care, leaving the health care system underfunded, understaffed, and with no central structure to organize a response (Kentikelenis et al., 2014). The managing director of the IMF and the president of the World Bank have always been, and continue to be, a European and a North American, respectively (Bretton Woods Project, 2019b), ensuring the perpetuation of White colonial capitalism. Unregulated globalization over the past 20 years has breached boundaries, and norms that provided safeguards lead to unfettered short-term greed which has been destructive to the ecology, the climate, and our political and economic systems (Friedman, 2020). Stiglitz (2019) calls for restructuring political and economic systems in the United States to establish a progressive capitalism. He highlights the destruction caused by the current systems, including the problems of money in politics and the impact of unregulated markets. Stiglitz (2015) recommends increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Krugman (2020) echoes the call for regulations, which protect the interests of workers. Taxes would then be used to support investments to end poverty; build/rebuild education; support science; address the global environmental crisis; and build/rebuild infrastructure systems that are liberatory and decolonizing. Krugman (2020) touts the benefits of the government borrowing in its own currency to rebuild. The current economic-political system in the United States allows banks and large businesses to be bailed out of financial crisis with taxpayer money, while few to no resources are provided to support homeowners, workers, and nature. Systems are needed that support both growth and fairness and politics that have an ethical base of equity (Stiglitz, 2015). Restoring a representative democracy and restructuring change from our current form of capitalism to one that embeds checks and balances can guide the way forward (Stiglitz, 2019). Social democracy, prevalent in Europe, counters the destructive edges of capitalism, protecting the rights and resources of the workers (Berman, 2020). On the other hand, others call for radical change with rejection of capitalism and the profit motive, pointing out that it was White capitalist patriarchy that legitimized the exploitation of people and lands. In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. identified excessive consumerism as one of the three plagues of modern society, noting that in the United States, we have socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for the poor. The myth of capitalism is that hard work will result in economic success when, in reality, capitalism was built on enslavement of Africans and continues the exploitation of the poor (King, 1967). Neoliberal ideology, which surged in the 1980s, is grounded in the principles of unregulated capitalism and keeps the mechanisms that support colonialism in place, including White supremacy, patriarchy, environmental degradation, and economic inequality (Fletcher, 2012; Sloan & Schmitz, 2019, 2020).

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Decolonizing Environmental Movements African, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Tribal and Indigenous peoples have led efforts to stop environmental exploitation since colonizers first advanced onto their lands. As noted throughout this book, they are at the forefront of environmental movements to protect the land and water: the Water Protectors at Standing Rock (US), Wangari Mathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, and the Yukon Inter-­ Tribal Watershed Council in Canada and the United States. Yet, these movements are also about more than environmental justice—they are intertwined with anti-­ racism, women’s empowerment, cultural resilience, and economic justice. We cannot form alliances to protect the Earth that do not also disrupt White supremacist patriarchy. Some environmental organizations touted as leading change instead replicate structures of White patriarchal colonialism, supporting settler colonialism and white nationalism (Beinart, 2019). Rather than joining with people of color and Indigenous people to create holistic solutions that protect people, culture, and the ecology, they fail to recognize or respond to the interconnectedness of ecological degradation, racism, sexism, consumerism, White supremacy, patriarchy, and human well-being. The failure of the environmental movement to think holistically has created new environmental problems. Addressing the damaging impact of coal, oil, coal sands, and nuclear energy is not enough if we are to make meaningful change. Renewable energy has been touted as the answer; and, it certainly has the potential to dent the trajectory. However, renewable energy does not ensure that it is ethical or ecologically sustainable and community centered (Gibbs & Moore, 2020). For example, manufacturing solar panels requires extraction of quartz and the use of hazardous materials to create the silicon cells; further, once installed, solar panels result in land and water loss (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2013). The use of many renewable resources, such as biofuels/biomass (i.e., wood and agricultural products, waste, etc.), solar, geothermal, wind, and hydropower create new environmental hazards (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2013). Biofuels can sound benign, but too often the production of biofuels results in the cutting down of forests or poisoning of the lands, water, and air due to production methods. It is important to analyze proposed renewable energy to ensure it is ecologically sustainable and community supported (Gibbs & Moore, 2020). We must consider carefully where we decide to locate renewable energy to minimize ecological damage and ensure the maintenance of equipment to prevent polluting the water and land. Further, pushing for the move to renewable energy without demanding a reduction in excessive consumption and materialism contributes to further destruction of the ecology. So how do we begin to address such a complex wicked problem as the global environmental crisis? Bold visionary action is required. Franklin D.  Roosevelt’s depression-era New Deal provides a model for tackling a massive amorphous multifaceted challenge (Goodwin, 2018) such as the United States is now facing. Part of what we can learn is that it is important for leadership to set a bold agenda with room for the flexibility required to embrace the unknown within circumstances we

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have not yet imagined. One solution before the US Congress and the nation is the New Green Deal. This is a bold proposal designed to encompass and link two arms of the global environmental crisis—climate change and environmental justice—by tackling economic inequality and racial oppression (Friedman, 2019). The third arm—ecology and nature—would benefit but also need direct intervention.

Pathways Forward The coronavirus pandemic has offered a unique opportunity to see how quickly nature can respond to reduced human activity. We are learning that when humans go into hiding (quarantine; shelter-in-place), animals and the air and water can bounce back. For example, sea turtles are nesting on previously crowded beaches of Florida and Thailand, and goats are showing up in cities in Wales and flamingos in Albania (Main, 2020). These are observations during only the first few months of reduced human activity due to the coronavirus pandemic. Evidence is also available from other human-abandoned zones that a resurgence of flora and fauna occurs when humans are missing. Hidden cameras in the abandoned nuclear disaster area of Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 show the highest numbers of raccoon dogs, wild boars, and Japanese macaques ever seen in the area (Lyons, Okuda, Hamilton, Hinton, & Beasley, 2020). Similarly, the Korean demilitarized zone, where people are not permitted to enter, has become a place where animals find refuge from humans and often select as a safe breeding ground (Main, 2020). It is not only the lack of human physical presence but also the reduction of many human behaviors that pollute the air, land, water, and food. For example, as humans have stayed out of planes and cars, and manufacturing has ground to a halt, nitrogen oxide (NO2) levels in the atmosphere have dropped to their lowest monthly levels since we started measuring it—in the mostly highly populated areas in the northeast United States (NASA, 2020). This reduction in air pollution also serves as a boost to solar energy because air particles block solar radiation and also settle on panels. In fact, during the pandemic some solar panels have broken efficiency records in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain (Pontecorvo, 2020). The coronavirus offers many lessons. First and foremost, when we look across the globe, we see a number of response models to the current crises: the environmental crisis, the coronavirus, and racism. In the United States, the response of the current federal administration has been inadequate and in many cases destructive. There have also been failures at the local, state, and personal levels as well (Tufekci, 2020). This includes early personal, interpersonal, and official actions and reactions. Further, the interactions of complex systems and their dynamics have been overlooked (Tufekci, 2020). Within a context where multiple factors negatively impact each other, responses that address only one factor sequentially are insufficient to make meaningful changes (Tufekci, 2020). The coronavirus pandemic intersects across countless systems such as health, public health, and economic, which are all built on racial, gender, and nationality inequality.

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To identify actionable solutions to global warming, Project Drawdown brought together 70 researchers from 22 countries to move past the language of reducing carbon emissions toward demanding a reversal of climate change (Hawken, 2017). According to these scientists, the top five highest impact solutions are reducing our use of refrigerants, adding onshore wind turbines, reducing food waste, transitioning to a plant-rich diet, and restoring tropical rainforests (Hawken, 2017). These are solutions that would not only reduce but also remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Recognizing the interconnection of environmental justice to sexism, additional recommendations of the project include educating women and girls and providing family planning (Hawken, 2017). In keeping with decolonizing practices, the items on this list simultaneously address environmental destruction and issues of justice. Project Drawdown also estimates that if we employed land management techniques used by Tribal and Indigenous peoples, we could reduce our CO2 emissions by 6 gigatons and, more importantly, protect and prevent an additional 849 gigatons from being released (Hawken, 2017). Some of these better practices include community management of forests, fire management, pastoralism, and home gardens, to name a few. Indigenous community forest management practices are based on generations of observing and being in relationship with the environment. The result has been healthier forests and less deforestation. Indigenous fire management employs small burns early in the dry season to remove vegetation and reduce the size and power of human-caused fires. Indigenous pastoralists use rough terrain for rangelands at a subsistence level which both supports the communities and keeps huge amounts of carbon in the ground (Hawken, 2017). Another critical part of our shared responsibility for protecting the ecology and disrupting systems of racism and inequality necessitates civic engagement including exercising the right to vote in countries where that is an option. As we have noted numerous times in this book, policy change is critical to reversing current trends and conditions. Many of us feel helpless when thinking about changing something as big as policy. But much of this is tied directly to voting. Who is it that votes? The largest voting group includes people who are White, affluent, and most likely to benefit. Why do they benefit this group? Because they vote. Communities with consistently high voter turnout are also more likely to have elected officials who reflect and respond to their interests and values (Leighley & Nagler, 2014). There is evidence to suggest that when larger numbers of citizens who are low income have higher voter turnout, those communities see higher government spending on health care for children, higher minimum wages, and regulations limiting predatory lending (Franko, Kelly, & Witko, 2016). We have probably all heard someone we know—or perhaps thought it ourselves—that my vote doesn’t matter. Interestingly, that perspective tends to be held disproportionately among low-voting groups, whereas those who are wealthy and vote in high numbers, and who benefit from policy decisions by those they put in office, do not share this belief (Mcelwee, 2014). The bottom line is that they have high voter turnout and they benefit from it. At a state level, historically we have seen that states that have the highest levels of

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voter turnout among low-income citizens have the least restrictive social welfare policies (Ringquist, Hill, Leighley, & Hinton-Anderson, 1997). Unfortunately, voter suppression efforts are growing in states controlled by conservative parties. Southern and rural states have passed voter identification laws that create barriers for many poor people, including elderly voters. In several states run by conservatives (e.g., Florida, Georgia), voter rolls have been purged prior to elections, disproportionately removing Black and brown voters. These and other states have also reduced the number of polling places in predominately Black and brown neighborhoods, forcing people to wait hours in line to vote, while neighboring White communities report voting in under 30 minutes (Jansen, 2020). On the other hand, restoring voting rights to felons after they’ve completed their sentences restores voting rights to disproportionately Black and brown people. This virus came about because we invaded the territory of plants and animals, manipulating their well-being and genetics (Shiva, 2020a). This pandemic forces us to shift our focus to the global environmental crisis and the dangers of our destructive interactions with nature (Shiva, 2020a). Recovering from it means moving away from systems and processes that exploit life and the planet for profit. It means protecting the ecosystems, biodiversity, and all of life (Shiva, 2020a). At each level, from the personal to the interpersonal to neighborhood and community to organizational and political, change requires commitment in action and ethics. The initial push has to come from the ground up as we demand organizational and political honesty, ethical decision-making, just action, equity, and social democracy (Stiglitz, 2019). Decolonization offers a way forward that may enable us to reclaim our relationships with ourselves, each other, the land, water, and all the fliers, swimmers, crawlers, two-leggeds, and four-leggeds. The positive impacts of reduced human activity on the ecology have given many reason to hope (Schwartz, 2020). We are living in a global crisis that links to health care, gross inequality, and the environmental crisis. As we experience coronavirus exponentially deadlier and more contagious than the flu (Yan, 2020), we are also confronting the ongoing violence of racism. The rage and pain of 400 years of discrimination and oppression is filling streets in the United States and around the world. Police are being charged and fired. Calls for reimagining public safety and redefining policing are widespread. Understanding the relationship, impact, and looming dangers requires ­analyzing the historic path, the entrenched structures of oppression, and the destruction, as well as an embedded resilience and potential for transformative change. We are at a pivotal juncture. There are multiple indicators that the federal administration is using the cover of the coronavirus and racism pandemics to dismantle environmental protections. As are result of inaction, inattention, and the direct dismantling of policies, we are witnessing an increasing rate of ecological devastation. However, the passion for change and the understanding of the need to focus on all of these issues simultaneously is present among people and within communities. The coronavirus pandemic has not diminished the concern people have about climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz, 2020). This concern has remained durable in spite the economic crisis, political pressure, and now the pandemic (Schwartz, 2020). Our challenge is to collectively raise the profile and indeed move

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to action to dismantle racism, sexism, and economic inequality; restructure our ­systems; and address the environmental crisis as an integrated package. As young climate activist Greta Thunberg emphasized, this is not a time to simply be hopeful. This is a time to act.

Discussion Questions 1. What have you learned about the global environmental crisis as it intersects with the coronavirus and racism pandemics? What are your thoughts on how we might tackle the issues raised? 2. The issues being raised are daunting. While many changes must come at a macro level, we need all hands on deck-individual and interpersonal actions are central to transformative change. What are the top three actions you can challenge yourself individually or in interaction with other take that will contribute to combating ecological, environmental, social, political, and economic injustice? 3. We cannot always change the minds of others, but sometimes we can plant a seed that later sprouts. Who in your life could you begin a conversation with about these issues and their importance to our lives? What would you tell them? What do you think their reaction would be?

Activity 1. Take a week and pay attention to signs of environmental, racial, gender-based, and economic inequality in your life and in your community. Pay attention to the people and institutions with whom/which you interact. Document indicators you observe of the impact of colonization on the ecology and human interactions and relationships. Drawing on this chapter, consider what could be done to address these. Find one other person to share this experience with. 2. Use the exercise, Creating Change: From Critical Self-Reflection to Knowledge Building to Personal and Collective Action, in Appendix G to reflect. Learning always begins with self-reflection, understanding the influences and relationships around us, and then finding ways to expand our knowledge. From there we can design our commitment to action at multiple levels. Acknowledgments  Lacey M. Sloan, BSW, MSSW, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, University of Vermont, was a key contributor to Chap. 8. She inspired and guided the framing of the ongoing impact of colonization and the potential of decolonization to support transformative change.

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Epilogue

The time for words has passed. The time for action is now. With the disruption of life caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we have had the opportunity to view possibilities for a world with reduced human impact. Even in this very brief pause of lessened human activity, nature has jumped at the chance to heal. Whether or not it represents the beginning of a longer-lasting healing process from destruction inflicted by humans or only a momentary change that returns to business-as-usual depends on us. As a result of the pandemic within global environmental crisis, we are also confronted with the violence of racism and inequality. This provides the opportunity to face the unhealed wounds of colonialism based on white supremacy, patriarchy, and the oppressive worldview that provides justification for our actions and inaction. The path forward is one we will have to travel together. This is a time of uncertainty; it is a time for reimagining. Throughout the writing of this book, we experienced a range of emotions from anxiety and fear back to hope and optimism, sometimes all of these at once – and we imagine you as a reader may also have taken a similar path. Originally this book was to end with Chap. 7, “Pathways to Change: Community and Environmental Transformation.” And then the pandemic hit. Given its direct links to both the environment and social justice, we found we had to roll up our sleeves, sit back down, and take a deep dive to address not only the pandemic itself but also the underlying history of human behaviors, beliefs, and social and political structures that ultimately caused this situation. Thus came Chap. 8, “Decolonizing Nature: The Potential of Nature to Heal,” in which we explored the intersections of the coronavirus pandemic and the three prongs of the global environmental crisis — ecological degradation, environmental injustice, and climate change with global warming. As we investigated how the pandemic surfaced from our unhealthy relationship with nature, we simultaneously feared that it might divert our focus from the dangers of the global environmental crisis. While stay-at-home orders allowed wildlife to reemerge in some places, and temporary drops in pollution, the use of disposable items has increased. After finally making meaningful headway in using reusable © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9

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water bottles instead of single-use plastic bottles or bringing fabric bags for groceries instead of single-use bags, the pandemic has actually brought a reversal – these reusables now represent danger of spread of disease. Sometimes it can feel like one step forward, two steps back. Nevertheless, we observed that the slowing human activity provided a window for reassessing the possibilities for engaging change. The global environmental crisis is an umbrella that not only represents our planet under siege but also the public health pandemics we are fighting at the same time: the more obvious COVID-19 pandemic, and what is now recognized as the pandemic of racism. White supremacist patriarchy led to global colonization which culminated in this crisis that has health and mental health consequences for us all. While a pandemic is global by definition, the work to heal it must be conducted at all levels from our neighborhoods, communities, states, and nations. These simultaneous crises (i.e., global environmental crisis, COVID-19, and racism) provide an opportunity to examine the ways race, health, and the environment intersect, requiring us to look for holistic solutions that bring balance in our relationship with Earth and equity in our relationships with each other. The potential exists for a new beginning, coming together, building community, addressing conservation, tackling climate change, and reaching out across differences to recognize the issues that unite us. In the United States, this must begin with owning the history of colonization and the brutal enslavement of humans, followed by taking responsibility for the ongoing consequences: trauma, violence, poverty, marginalization, and inequality. We know that we have to make dramatic changes in our ethics to create a culture of caring. This means becoming involved in civic engagement, joining efforts for grassroots bottom-up change that decolonizes our environment, our systems, and our relationships with ourselves and each other. We have the knowledge and skills to heal ourselves and our planet, we just have to take the first steps. It is less about developing the right technologies or information than it is about having the political and social will to take real, significant action. So, we say to you, join with others in action. Engage in radical incrementalism: all of us engaging in small, coordinated actions can result in radical change. Individual and community mobilization can mobilize engagement and responsibility at the top. Personal, interpersonal, and community actions and interactions can fuel meaningful change. Yes, major corporations and the government in the United States are the major polluters, but it makes a difference when we, as consumers, demand that they protect the planet by reducing, recycling, and reusing. Changes in spending and eating habits can reduce waste and harmful agribusiness practices. Reconsider travel and modes of transportation to reduce the use of fossil fuels and our carbon footprint. Our planet is ailing. That leaves us in need of working collectively and globally. Our conclusion, to borrow a phrase used for the COVID-19 pandemic: we are all in this together and we must deal with the global environmental crisis, environmental injustice, and racism holistically. It is time to learn and relearn traditional and Indigenous ways of listening to the planet to maintain balance with nature. Words and promises must now become action for structural and cultural changes to the economic, educational, security, health care/public health, energy, housing, and

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political systems. These changes are required for human, planetary, and ecological health. So we ask, where can we find hope? There is hope in seeing people rally to self-­ isolate for the good of the community. There is hope in seeing youth and women leaders emerge as role models. There is hope in witnessing collective action demanding the end of violence based in racism. There is hope in seeing nature respond to reduced human impact when we travel less, produce and consume less, and generally inflict less harm to the ecosystem. There is hope in questioning the status quo as it is riddled with injustices for both people and the planet, and facing the possibility of co-creating a better future for all. This book symbolizes our hope that bringing diverse voices together in solidarity will propel us toward reaching justice together, in harmony with our ecosystem.

Appendices

Appendix A: The Story of Grand Bois Some United Houma Nation members in the small community of Grand Bois have experienced the ill effects of shifty land laws from the fur trade era to the current fight against an oilfield waste site. Located on the borders between Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, residents began noticing awful smells coming from a property next to their community around 1994. They discovered that the land was leased to U S Liquids specifically for the purpose of dumping oil waste. One resident recently recounted her involvement and understanding of the waste site: I have been involved with the land for the past 17 years in my own community with the oil field waste site. What I mean by oil field waste site is that adjacent to my community are these open pits. Anything that comes from the oil field that they can’t use or sell comes to me. Which chemicals that are in these cells are benzene, hydrochloride, zion tyline, you name it, it’s in there. Whatever cannot be sold which is a byproduct of the oil and gas company comes to my community and never leaves. It is delivered by truck, barge, and it sits there and it arids. And from there they put it on a stockpile then as the cell becomes available, here comes another truckload or barge load and sits there for 14, 16, maybe 18 months. (Clarice Friloux, personal conversation, October 2012)

Independent investigations have been conducted by the media, publications, and searches of legal documents; it seems that the issues of environmental injustice in Grand Bois are communicated mostly via oral stories, media outlets, nonprofit organizations, and case studies in academic institutions (Bradley, 1997; Jenkins, Bauer, Bruton, Austin, & McGuire, 2015). One court case, Clarice Friloux, et al. v. Exxon Corporation and Campbell Wells Corporation, shows that a settlement was reached with the companies where Campbell Wells (owner of U S Liquids) would follow laws prescribed by the US Environmental Protection Agency regarding waste disposal and remediation to include covering the pits to prevent waste from entering the ground water (Jones, Swanson, Huddell, & Garrison website). However, a local newspaper article shows that the company currently owning the site still has not complied with these findings (Jenkins et al., 2015). Despite an oil waste facility in © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9

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their community, one is still unable to find a toxic report for Grand Bois as required by law to be enforced by the EPA. A CBS News Special with Ed Bradley focused on the Grand Bois community. Community members, the lawyer representing them, and local and state politicians were interviewed to tell the story of pollution and justice. The Special was initially scheduled to air nationally several times during the summer of 1997 but was rescheduled to air that December 23—when it was anticipated that many people would be shopping and not watching television. It was never aired again (Clarice Friloux, personal conversation, October 2012). Additionally, the Special is not available through public access. Residents of Grand Bois believe this is due to the politically sensitive information exposed. Bradley and his newscast spoke with the then Governor of Louisiana, Mike Foster, about Grand Bois and the impacts of pollution for the documentary. Initially the Governor dismissed the implications that Campbell Wells’ site had anything to do with the illnesses reported in the community. However, after growing publicity from Bradley’s broadcast, the Governor switched his opinion and acknowledged that oil field waste has been shown to cause physical health illnesses. Since the initial discussion between Governor Foster and Bradley, the Governor announced new policies for monitoring oil waste sites like the one developed and maintained by Campbell Wells (Bradley, 1997). Residents of Grand Bois expressed gratitude for Mr. Bradley’s efforts to expose U.S. Liquids and the state EPA for allowing the situation to occur. But, nearly 20 years after residents first noticed the site, they are still forced to live in this toxic environment. Residents of Grand Bois express their refusal to leave the area because they say it’s their land and where they know how to survive: “When I was fighting for my community, I was always wondering why I was doing what I was doing. It always came back to me that my grandfather brought us to the land because it was high land we had a lot of food and that is how we survived, off the abundance of the Grand Bois community” (Clarice Friloux, personal conversation, October 2012). Discussion How do we understand the experience like those in the Grand Bois community? If nothing else, how can we seek to understand how a company can take advantage of communities like Grand Bois? For many of us, this connection cannot be made so easily, but in fact part of the answer lies in each of us individually and collectively. Our consumption patterns make it acceptable to allow oil companies to poison children. For who is at the other end of the consumer but the producer and behind the producer is the environment, literally or figuratively, which pays for the consumer. By this understanding, it is Houma, its people, and its land who are paying the cost of energy consumption in the United States. One cannot stand at any point along Louisiana’s coast and not see oil production in some form. Oil used for heat, cars, plastics, and more all comes from the Houma’s backyard.

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References Bradley, 1997; Bradley, E., CBS News, & CBS News Archives (Directors). (2009). Town under siege [Video file] Jenkins, D., Bauer, J., Bruton, S., Austin, D., & McGuire, T. (2015). Two faces of American environmentalism: The quest for justice in southern Louisiana and sustainability in the Sonoran Desert. In J.R. Bauer, Forging environmentalism: Justice, livelihood, and contested environments (pp. 263–326). New York: Routledge. Jones, Swanson, Huddell, & Garrison. (n.d.). Clarice Friloux et al. v. Exxon Corp. and Campbell Wells Corp. Retrieved from https://jonesswanson.com/case-studies/environmental-litigation/ clarice-friloux-et-al-v-exxon-corp-and-campbell-wells-corp/

 ppendix B: Puerto Rico: Inequality, Environmental A Injustice, and Resistance A tropical island in the Spanish Caribbean, Puerto Rico’s strategic geographic position was pivotal for the formation of its sociopolitical relationship with the United States. For the last 50 years of the twentieth century, Puerto Ricans saw a rapid economic growth from a mostly agricultural society into an industrial economy supported by American pharmaceutical companies. Natural resources on the Island were exploited and the air and water polluted. Farmland was converted into industrial parks, leaving people dependent on imports from the US mainland for food and other goods. This growth ended when US tax laws were changed. Pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies left in the late 1990s, resulting in a recession and an economic downturn that continues. A strict repayment plan was instituted under the Obama administration but has struggled. With rising debt and a struggling economy, Puerto Rico’s population numbers fluctuate with the continuous diasporic movement between the Island and the Mainland. Hurricane María: A Tropical Landscape Changed Forever In the aftermath of Hurricane María on September 20, 2017, Puerto Rico as a whole was shocked by a colossal destruction of unheard proportions. The storm left the entire population stranded with impassable roads, flooded rivers, massive mudslides, and no electrical power or even safe water to drink. More than three million US citizens, residents of Puerto Rico, were trapped on the Island for weeks without communication with the outside world. The current official death toll is 2,975 people who perished during or in the aftermath of this category 4 storm (Fink, 2018). The Island of Puerto Rico has not seen such a powerful natural phenomenon in over a century. Hurricanes Irma and María are two of the biggest tropical storms to hit the United States. Because Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, federal agencies were immediately activated to respond to the crisis. The Federal Emergency Management Program (FEMA) reported being unprepared to

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respond effectively in the immediate crisis due to nearly empty warehouses lacking essential supplies such as water and canned food (Robles, 2018). The state and municipal governments were unable to communicate among themselves or with first response agencies. The lack of road access along with communication turmoil exacerbated the situation. People were trapped in their homes without supplies for weeks and months. Residents of Puerto Rico experienced a sense of abandonment by the federal and local authorities. Instead of waiting for help to assist them, hurricane survivors in rural areas started organizing themselves to address the crisis and provide first aid such as water and food. As time passed, resources such as transportation to medical services were added as possible for those in dire need. In a similar effort, local and statewide grassroots’ movements took the lead in isolated communities to open roads; facilitate power generators; provide access to safe water; bring food, medical services, and supplies; and many other services initially not provided by the official authorities (Mariely Rivera, personal communication, September 6, 2018). Generational gaps further complicate the availability of family resources, connections to history, a sense of loss related to ecological destruction, and a disconnect from the land. In response to economic downturns, younger generations move to the mainland. Connections to the Island and family, however, remain strong. When disasters like Hurricane María occur, the strain increases whether caught on the Island or the mainland. There are family and work obligations on the mainland. But the beloved Abuela (and possibly parents and siblings) may be on the Island and in need of assistance. Torn by obligations in juxtaposition with history, roots, and place, travel back and forth is necessary but cut off by infrastructure problems. Often flights may be grounded or overpriced. Cell tower damage further disrupts connection. Electricity, running water, food, health care, transportation, and even shelter are not available for months or even years. The grief increases when the Abuela dies, leaving a sadness related to connection that cannot be replaced. Grassroots Organizations and Natural Disaster Management Throughout her professional career, Dr. Mariely Rivera has worked closely in the design and implementation of social entrepreneurship projects that have a collective self-sufficiency focus. Dr. Rivera served as Executive Director of Unidos por Puerto Rico (United for Puerto Rico) from November 2017 to October 2019. Unidos por Puerto Rico was a government-led fundraising effort to address the short-term needs of Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Unidos por Puerto Rico raised a total of $40 million dollars, much of it collected through large and small cash donations from Puerto Ricans relocated to the US mainland. The organization became a private-run nonprofit project in the aftermath of Hurricane María to facilitate the speed and transparency of funds management and distribution. This effort became pivotal to effectively allocate the much- needed funds to support first-­ response and ongoing relief efforts, already initiated by local individuals and com-

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munity groups in the neighborhoods. Unidos por Puerto Rico funds were granted to 186 NGOs, directly impacting more than 1,500,000 individuals. Unidos por Puerto Rico designed an effective model of small grant application for grassroots and nonprofit organizations to request funding to implement their innovative ideas for alleviating the immediate needs of the Puerto Rican population post-hurricane(s). Unidos por Puerto Rico created five categories or areas of strategic intervention: food and water, health, housing, social well-being, and economic development. In the interview with Dr. Rivera, she emphasized the need for funding volunteer initiatives closely engaged with community leaders and residents affected by natural disasters: Members of the communities impacted by Hurricanes Irma and María are the ones with the primary knowledge regarding the particular needs in their neighborhoods. Relief and recovery efforts must respect and honor local knowledge and promote self-sustainability while acknowledging the community’s history and their ways of solving problems.

Unidos por Puerto Rico became an example of how local grassroots groups used collaboration and citizen participation to solve urgent problems in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Moving Forward While Dealing with Environmental Trauma While residents of Puerto Rico are dealing with the trauma and recovery of storms like Irma and María, they are also faced with concern about upcoming hurricane seasons. Groups are working to rebuild the ecology, and neighborhoods are still struggling to rebuild. At the same time, community organizations work to assess future danger as climate change threatens their Island and their ways of living. For Puerto Ricans, many questions still remain unanswered. Should the Island continue depending on the existing ill-equipped and dated electrical and water system infrastructure, or should they move onto renewable, environmentally responsive energy solutions for the Island in the future? More so, the agenda for the reconstruction of Puerto Rico is intrinsically tied not only to its colonial political status but also to the callous treatment the islanders have received from the White House and the federal government overall.

References Fink, S. (August 18, 2018). Nearly a year after Hurricane María Puerto Rico raises its death toll to 2975. The New  York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/us/ puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-deaths.html Robles, F. (2018, July 18). FEMA was sorely unprepared for Puerto Rico hurricane, report says. The New  York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/us/fema-puertorico-maria.html

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Appendix C: The Flint Water Crisis The Flint Water Crisis story begins decades earlier in an archetypal tale of industry, economic prosperity, segregation, disinvestment, austerity, environmental racism, and government culpability. In the 1940s and 1950s, Flint, a General Motors (GM) town, was a site of economic prosperity and high employment rates, but also Jim Crow laws and practices. As is common in business development, GM sought to advance technologically, and expand their footprint and brand, while minimizing labor and other manufacturing costs. Citing the lack of viable land left in the city of Flint, GM created industrial parks and manufacturing plants in suburban communities and across Genesee county. This began the company’s slow withdrawal of people, jobs, and tax revenue. In segregated Flint, Black communities lived closest to manufacturing plants. To entice GM to stay and expand in Flint, the city government implemented an urban renewal program (slum clearance) that demolished the Black St. John neighborhood, replacing it with an interstate and industrial plant complex. Low-income Black families were moved to segregated housing projects, not better houses in good neighborhoods as anticipated. By the 1970s, the St. Johns Industrial Park was a partially implemented social and economic disappointment, failing to create the permanent jobs promised, attract investment, or sustain the Buick division. The 1990s brought a shift in consumer preferences, the decline of sedan production in Flint, and inevitable plant closures (Highsmith, 2009). Unoccupied buildings that took millions of dollars to build were set for demolition in the early 2000s. In a desperate economic state, Flint had suffered White flight, leaving neglected, poor, segregated neighborhoods in a landscape peppered by abandoned industrial and housing sites sitting on brownfields. In 2013, Governor Richard Snyder appointed emergency managers in several, majority-minority cities undergoing economic downturns after years of disinvestment and hit hard by the recent subprime real estate and Wall Street crashes. Emergency managers implemented austerity practices to remove all barriers to a balanced budget and prevent bankruptcy while usurping power granted to lawfully elected officials. In Flint, one cost-cutting measure involved switching the city’s water source from Detroit’s pretreated, though expensive, water network managed by the Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River (Butler, Scammell, & Benson, 2016; Denchak, 2018). Additional cost savings were sought by discontinuing the use of an anticorrosive additive, at a price of $75 to $100 per day, that prevents the slightly acidic water from damaging lead-­ lined pipes used in all older, industrial cities. In April 2014, the water source was switched, and soon thereafter the indiscriminate lead poisoning began (Kennedy, 2016). Among those impacted were 8,600 children. Lead is a known neurotoxin that affects brain development and learning capacity, physical development, organ function, and behavior in children: lead levels for children in the United States have declined steadily and phenomenally since the late 1970s, once lead was removed from gasoline, paint, and metal food cans. To be clear, there is no safe level of lead exposure.

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An engineer and water expert, who followed results of post-switch water testing, raised concerns about the absence of the required anticorrosive substance in recent water tests. A friend of Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha’s, a Flint pediatrician, researcher, and public health expert, warned the doctor of the inevitable lead leaching into the water supply (Denchak, 2018; Hanna-Attisha, 2019). Flint residents had been experiencing discolored, foul-smelling water almost immediately after the water switch, even bringing bottles of rust and brown-colored water to City Council meetings. Citizens complained of listless infants—local water was used to hydrate infant formula; family members experiencing rashes, burning sensations, and peeling skin after bathing, upset stomachs, hair loss, and organ function decline or failure (Moore, 2018). Dr. Hanna-Attisha grew concerned enough to test the blood samples taken from infants born at Hurley Hospital or attending well-baby care follow-up appointments. (She also requested state-wide data but was stonewalled for months.) With support from fellow pediatricians, researchers, and water experts, Dr. Hanna-­ Attisha’s analysis showed clear spikes in blood lead levels after 2014 (Denchak, 2018; Hanna-Attisha, 2019). City department leaders, responsible for the health and safety of Flint citizens, denied the existence of a problem, or abdicated responsibility, if a problem did exist. Dr. Hanna-Attisha later discovered that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Environmental Quality also noticed the spike and ignored the data. Her findings were eventually confirmed (Denchak, 2018). After multiple data presentations and meetings to convince decision-makers that poor, predominantly Black Flint children and their families deserved protection and unsuccessful calls for immediate action, Dr. Hanna-Attisha held a press conference to publicly share her results and a list of demands (Hanna-Attisha, 2019). Her allies included a state senator, a health coalition leader and its medical director (a physician), a congressional representative, and the head of an established nonprofit institution. Michigan State University offered conditional support to Dr. Hanna-Attisha as a faculty member, but did not support her research because it was not peer-­ reviewed. The immediate response from the governor’s office, city, and state health officials (Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) was not to review the data or request further discussion, but to mount a campaign to discredit her and her research. Governor Snyder’s office subsequently published an alternate study that declared the Flint water contained safe lead levels and met Safe Drinking Water Act standards. After nearly 2 years of struggle, the issue was front and center, locally and nationally, and the dominos began to fall. In time, Flint, state officials and the Environmental Protection Agency agreed the data was accurate but downplayed its seriousness until it became impossible to deny. It was later revealed that city and state officials actively ignored residents’ concerns, specifically, then Governor Snyder ignored 13 separate, direct phone calls. Of note, GM stopped using Flint water, in October 2014, when machine parts began to rust, and the Flint State Office Building began using bottled water in January 2015 (Moore, 2018). National scrutiny and outrage helped pressure local and state officials to switch back to the Detroit water system in October 2015. In the midst of the lead poisoning crisis, over

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87 people were made ill, and 12 died of Legionnaires disease, a deadly form of pneumonia. Inadequate levels of chlorine in the municipal water system aided bacterial growth (Denchak, 2018). The former head of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was subsequently charged with involuntary manslaughter. The US Public Health service coordinated responses from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Health and Human Services, and Small Business Administration. Community members, philanthropic organizations, and the local and national business community provided bottled water and water filters, resources for basic needs, and wrap-around services for children and their families. The handling of this public health emergency led to job losses, and resignations, and 15 local and national officials were charged with criminal offences (Denchak, 2018). Seven individuals reached plea bargain deals. In a startling turn of events, while the remaining eight individuals awaited court dates, the special Flint water prosecutors dismissed all charges! The prosecutors explained they had serious concerns about prior investigative decisions and methods and wanted to review all existing and new evidence. Since the charges were dismissed without prejudice, they could be reinstated at any time. Unfortunately, Flint residents heard the news at the same time as the general public, and no community discussion meetings were set until several weeks after the press conference. Finally, now that the criminal charges have been dropped, contemporary news reports indicate some municipal and health officials may be returning to work soon.

References Butler, L. J., Scammell, M. K., & Benson, E. B. (2016). The Flint, Michigan, water crisis: A case study in regulatory failure and environmental injustice. Environmental Justice, 9(4), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2016.0014 Denchak, M. (2018, November 8). Flint water crisis: Everything you need to know. https://www. nrdc.org/stories/flint-water-crisis-everything-you-need-know Hanna-Attisha, M. (2019). What the eyes don't see: A story of crisis, Resistance, and hope in an American city. New York: One World. Highsmith, A.  R. (2009). Demolition means progress: Urban renewal, local politics, and state-­ sanctioned ghetto formation in Flint, Michigan. Journal of Urban History, 35(3), 348–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144208330403 Kennedy, M. (2016, April 20). Lead-laced water in flint: A step-by-step look at the makings of a crisis. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378/ lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step-by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis Moore, M. (Writer, Producer, & Director). (2018). Fahrenheit 11/9 (DVD or web). USA: State Run Films.

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Appendix D: Camino Seguro (Safe Passage) Guatemala is a Spanish-colonized Central American country situated to the west of Belize and south/southeast of Mexico. Rich in natural resources and commodities such as bananas and coffee, Guatemala was known as the original Banana Republic with US military and business dictating social, economic, and environmental policy for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. More than 25 years after the signing of the peace accords ending decade-long civil war, Guatemala is considered one of the poorest countries in the region, with an average monthly income of $400 and more than 50% of the population living in poverty. Plagued with drug and human trafficking, gang violence, unemployment, and drought and crop failure among other social determinants, the majority of undocumented migrants entering the southwestern US border are fleeing Guatemala. Along with Honduras and El Salvador, Guatemala makes up the Northern Triangle, the corridor ushering immigrants and asylum seekers to the southern US border. Of these three nations, Guatemala represents the largest share of the migrant flow. With only 13% of those from the Northern Triangle granted asylum in the United States, hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans remain in social and physical environments that have limited access to education, health-care provision, and employment opportunities, thus perpetuating a generational spiral of poverty. Guatemala City is the country’s capital, with a population of 2.5 million. One can visualize the geographic divisions of Guatemala City like segments of a clock face, divided into 25 zones. The Guatemala City Municipal Garbage Dump is located within Zones 3 and 7. These two zones that connect at the axis of the clock face are considered untouchable because they are adjacent to the dump. The nearly one million residents with addresses within Zones 3 and 7 are considered pariahs in a society already dealing with the struggles of poverty. An address within Zone 3 or 7 reported on a job application can almost certainly lead to a rejection, leaving residents in a cycle of poverty and dependence on working in the dump. The municipal dump covers 40 acres spanning across Zones 3 and 7. It is privately owned land that has been leased to Guatemala City for approximately five decades. Daily, over 2,000 trucks enter and exit the dump, depositing 500 tons of refuse daily. From the vantage point of the public cemetery across the ravine from the dump, one can see a zigzag maze of trucks entering the top of the dump and winding their way down the day’s designated dump area. Bulldozers move piles of garbage while people chase after it, clinging to the sides of the machine, hoping to get first dibs on the newly arrived discards. Of the approximately 3,000 people working in the dump, many have been systematically killed or injured as a result of picking trash, such as in 2004 when a trash heap caved in and killed 34 people. The Motagua River below the dump is poisoned with toxins from the garbage, yet in the pecking order of trash pickers, those with seniority are the first to get the waste from the river, which often holds the most treasured items, especially after mudslides that wash away tombs from the cemetery that can hold jewelry and other possessions buried with their owners. From the river, they risk infection and waterborne diseases

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like dengue, not to mention the perils of traversing the steep slope into the water. With clouds of methane gas surrounding the area of the dump and adjacent neighborhoods, people working and living in the area, including children, report health issues such as respiratory illness, dermatological lesions, and epidemics of lice. Nearly one million people live in the neighborhoods that span Zones 3 and 7. Walking through the maze of corrugated tin roof shanty neighborhoods, one sees piles of garbage stacked in front of homes, the only storage space for items culled from the dump that will then be resold for the value of materials or repurposed and sold. Most of the homes are those of squatters, although some residents who have been in the area for decades have earned the land titles. Some of the narrow alleyways are cement, while others are dirt, with wastewater and raw sewage spilling from the homes and trickling down the hills. It is common to see dog feces and dead rodents throughout the alleys. Most families have cats and dogs in the home, the former to keep rodents at bay, the latter to deter thieves. While some of the neighborhoods adjacent to the dump are more established and have running water and electricity, most of the homes use water gathered from public spigots and pirate electricity from homes nearby the dump. On a weekday in the late morning, one notices the silence throughout the neighborhood. After noticing MS-13 tags throughout the neighborhood, it becomes evident that the silence is in reverence to the gang members who are sleeping in after a late night. It is easy to see that both human and environmental survival are day-to-day struggles by the dump. Following an invitation to visit the Guatemala City dump, US educator, Hadley Denning, who had been teaching in the country for 2 years, founded Camino Seguro (Safe Passage), an NGO, to help tutor children, provide a healthy snack, and give care and attention that was absent. Within 8 years, Camino Seguro grew to include an early childhood learning center and adult literacy programming. Today, Camino Seguro has a primary and elementary school with approximately 500 students in grades K–7. The schools use expeditionary learning modalities in which students engage in interdisciplinary study in small group and community-based projects. For students graduating seventh grade, the Oportunidades (Opportunities) program provides academic tutoring for those continuing on to public high school and job preparation and training for those seeking employment outside of the dump. The Creamos (We Believe) program works with mothers of students in the primary and elementary schools by providing physical and mental health services such as yoga, Zumba, and trauma responsive group and individual counseling. Furthermore, Creamos provides job training and employment opportunities through its sewing and screen printing entrepreneurial ventures in order to help the mothers provide for their families in order to keep them from returning to work in the dump. Air pollution is a health concern in the neighborhoods adjacent to the garbage dump because of the methane. Childhood asthma is common among students at Safe Passage. Food security is also an issue. Much like food deserts here in the United States, healthy, fresh, whole foods are difficult for families near the dump to access. One example is that families drink more soda than water because of availability. A walk through the neighborhoods reveals stacked cases of orange sodas outside a family’s home, which doubles as a corner store. Also noticeable are the

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multiple empty, discarded plastic bags formerly containing salty, processed snacks. We did not see any gardens in neighborhood homes or in the Safe Passage sites. Safe Passage provides its students with breakfast, lunch, and a hearty afternoon snack to help students get adequate nutrition which isn’t guaranteed at home. Through its multiple developmental, interdisciplinary, and comprehensive programming for students, families, and the community, Camino Seguro addresses connections between human interactions and the immediate environment. The staff at Camino Seguro are an integrated, interdisciplinary team of teachers, psychologists, and social workers. The primary and elementary school has a team of three social workers who spend the majority of each school day out in the community. They do home visits to follow up on concerns teachers may have about students’ performance. They facilitate education for families on such topics as nutrition, dental care, and discipline. The social workers are also responsible for educating families about the environmental hazards related to living in close proximity to the trash dump. Family knowledge about water contamination and water-borne diseases help minimize illness and infection. Social workers are also responsible for raising families’ awareness of issues of air quality and ground contamination from the dump.

Appendix E1: Impacting Human Health and Well-Being Charlene has been a social worker for 15 years. She works in a rural area with few resources and does a little of everything. Charlene has been struggling to help some of her clients who live in a rural mobile home park. She works at a community center, and her job has generally been working with seniors, some of whom are isolated in part due to limited mobility. She visits them at their homes and is supposed to help them with psychosocial goals such as finding ways to get out and interact with others in the community and address mental health issues or family conflict. She also addresses some basic needs like helping them get medical insurance and other welfare benefits that they are eligible for. One of her longest-standing clients, Hal, is an 82-year-old widower with diabetes and clear signs of depression. When Charlene tries to discuss with him ways to combat depression, Hal explains that it is hard to focus on goals or making change when, as he says, “I’m being slowly poisoned to death.” It turns out that the mobile home park has unsafe levels of arsenic in their drinking water. There is one water spigot in the whole park, at the far end from Hal’s home, that has treated water. Everyone in the park must take their gallon jugs there to get drinking water. Hal is not able to do this—his diabetes has affected his legs, and he is not able to walk to the spigot. So he drinks the arsenic-laden water. When Charlene tries to help Hal plan good management of his diabetes, he asks her what the point is of working on one illness when he consumes poison every day.

 This is a composite case developed from anonymous data gathered as part of a research study.

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Charlene was also worried about the many other residents who are elderly or have disabilities. She realizes she could not continue to help her clients with issues of mental health, when, as she explained, “it’s a matter of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I can’t help my clients with depression when they are consuming poison daily. I have to address that problem first.” Charlene went to the municipal water department, and they explained to her that arsenic naturally occurs in well water sometimes. Charlene explained that regardless of how the arsenic got there, her clients needed the basic resource of clean water. They then explained that the mobile home park was just outside of the town’s limits and therefore was not the responsibility of the town. It was not at all in Charlene’s comfort zone to confront people or speak out. However, she realized that if she didn’t, this probable would continue. She spoke with her supervisor who suggested she meet with a member of the city council and set an appointment with the state representative for this district….

 ppendix F: Warren Wilson College: A Case Study A in Environment Education Warren Wilson College has a developmental history that informs their ethic and their practices. In 1894, it was established at the Asheville Farm School for Boys (AFSB) by the Women’s Board of Home Missions of Presbyterian Church as a 2-year school in which boys learned gardening, livestock care, butchering, and other homesteading strategies on a subsistence level. This model was seen as mission work as it served mainly boys from families living in poverty in rural, isolated areas of the southern Appalachians lacking public services. The first class graduated in 1923. During the Great Depression, the AFSB became a safe haven for struggling families sent their boys. Despite the institution lacking funding for faculty and building maintenance, the school fed, clothed, and housed boys who might not have otherwise survived. Post-high school vocational training began in 1936, and in 1942, a junior college division was established. The AFSB was merged with the Dorland Bell School and joined the Vocational Junior College under a single administration. Mission schools became less relevant post-World War II.  Closing the AFSB in 1957 and the junior college in 1966, the Board of Trustees took the leadership and established it as the 4-year undergraduate Warren Wilson College. Warren Wilson has long been noted for its innovations. In 1952, ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision on Brown v. Board of Education, Alma Shippy was the first African American student to enroll in a previously all-White school. Then during the 1970s, Warren Wilson College became one of the seven work colleges in the United States in which all students, regardless of financial need, engage in weekly work to provide the main infrastructural support for the College. The legacy of the AFSB continues as Warren Wilson has evolved into a contemporary liberal arts institution. The curriculum is largely high impact and experiential informed by

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commitments to academics, community engagement, the work program, and original student scholarship. The mission of Warren Wilson College is to provide a distinctive undergraduate and graduate liberal arts education. The undergraduate education combines academics, work, and service in a learning community committed to environmental responsibility, cross-cultural understanding, and the common good. This mission permeates into all facets of the College experience. The College has a history of building a green campus, with the Farm School Days of working the land and learning sustainable practices. The Green Walkabout is a student-led walking tour of campus highlighting the environmental innovations on campus that include the award-winning recycling center and the Eco Dorm, a living testament to recycling, energy efficiency, and water conservation. With the moniker of the most earth-friendly college on the planet, the College continues environmental initiatives of distinction. The Environmental Leadership Center was established in 1999 to promote leaders and caretakers of the earth. One of the programs, the Eco Team, is a student crew that develops and delivers a curriculum of environmental education to local fourth grade classrooms. Another initiative in which groups from the College partner with the federally funded organization Community Action Opportunities on the intersecting social and environmental justice is the Insulate project. Student volunteers, under the instruction of construction professions, help weatherize homes of people living in poverty in the local area. Now dispersed across the divisions, the Center continues to impact the ethos. One of the most prominent legacies is the “triple bottom line” decision-­ making model. This accounting framework that considers social, environmental, and financial impacts and outputs guides the College to critically consider opportunities that are innovative and influential in supporting the College’s mission and commitment to sustainability. The holistic approach to educating the entire person through purposeful and intellectual study that fundamentally teaches students to live. This unique model of learning at Warren Wilson has been coined the Triad which weaves academics, work, and community engagement. One of the enduring anchors of the Triad is the work program. Each student, regardless of financial need, is required to work on an assigned crew. The crews provide the main infrastructural support for the college and help students gain valuable practical skills such as farming, gardening, plumbing, library, administrative assistance, justice and advocacy, forestry, blacksmithing, fiber arts, and cafeteria. For their weekly 10–15 hours of work, students receive tuition remission. The work program is an equalizer in that it is mandatory for all students, often providing a proud identity of student groups. Warren Wilson College is one of the nine institutions that form the Work College Consortium, an entity comprised of such institutions as Berea College, Alice Lloyd College, and College of the Ozarks, that advocates for federal funding and recognition of the unique educational experiences provided through practical methods. A number of crews have primary environmental areas of focus. One example is the farm crew, which has adopted sustainable practices since the 1990s. The farm produces livestock of cattle, pigs, chickens, and sheep that provide food to the cam-

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pus community as well as income to the College through their retail sales of meat. Similarly, the garden operates as a means to provide the College with vegetables for consumption along with offering a weekly garden market of organic produce. The garden crew operates three specialized sub-crews, the horse crew that oversees the use and care of two draft horses, the herb crew which focuses on the transformation of herbal plants into skin care products and teas, and the bee crew that is responsible for managing hives of honeybees, creating a pollinator habitat plan that includes native plant species and pest management strategies that are conducive to pollinators, and engaging in outreach and education. For these efforts, Warren Wilson College has been named a Bee Campus. Both the farm and garden work collaboratively with the local foods crew based in the College’s food services to promote the commitment of a minimum of 10% provision of food choices offered daily in the cafeteria and vegetarian cafe. The goal is to reach 40% of local foods by 2020 through the reduction of food transportation pollution and promoting 0% food waste through compost. The natural resources crew is responsible for managing the timber on the 1,100-acre campus, while the landscaping crew prioritizes the goal of maintaining native plant species and practicing sustainable methods and green growth. The environmental and social justice crew educates and organizes students around issues related to climate change, such as mountaintop removal, and engages in advocacy for policies that promote environmental sustainability. Some of the policy initiatives taken by the College, in consultation with students on the environmental and social justice crew, have been 84% divestment of fossil fuels in its portfolio since 2015 and a zero waste initiative that will divert 90% of all waste from the landfill. The Integration of the Social and Environmental in Social Work Program An exemplar of the intersection of social and environmental justice at Warren Wilson College occurs in the social work program which offers a Bachelor of Arts degree and has been accredited by the Council on Social Work Education since 1978. Rooted within the context of multidiscipline liberal arts program, the social work program embodies the approach of the Triad for integrating academics, work, and community engagement provides students an applied pedagogy supporting environmental responsibility, multicultural understanding, and the common good. Faculty have created three areas of focus to address emerging issues in the profession—multi-generation practice, international perspective, and environmental ­sustainability. The international perspective area of focus addresses the need for social work students to engage competently in a globalized society. One unique way in which social work students apply their international perspective is through a robust study abroad curriculum offered through the department that includes courses in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Cuba, Latvia, Sweden, and Tanzania. The environmental sustainability focus results in the integration of environmental justice throughout the curriculum; it is infused across the curriculum from introlevel courses to the field practicum. Another experience is with the aforementioned

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Insulate project in collaboration with Community Action Opportunities. Through the weatherization of homes of people living below the poverty line, students are able to observe link between poverty and environmental justice. The efforts of this project facilitate greater energy efficiency of homes and help economically challenged families save on power bills. This highlights the intersections of economic and environmental justice. Integration of environmental sustainability is also seen through the community engagement with Asheville Poverty Initiative’s 12 Baskets Cafe, a nonprofit organization that provides free lunch from prepared food from rescued local restaurants. The focus of 12 Baskets is not just to feed those who are food insecure but also to invite people from different socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, and political backgrounds to share a served meal around a table. To encourage food donations, the Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects donor restaurants and grocery stores from liability when they donate prepared food in good faith that it is still consumable. The nonprofit organization then freezes, heats, and serves the food in a café-style atmosphere, where diners choose their items that are then served by volunteer wait staff. Not only does this help build community by providing a common space where people from different socioeconomic backgrounds can begin to build relationship over food; it also saves tens of thousands of pounds of food from the landfill each year. Environmental justice is infused into student field practicum experiences. Students have considered human-animal connections through placements focused on equine-assisted mental health treatment. Students have been placed at a county-­ owned public garden that, in addition to educational programming on plants, herbs, and local biodiversity, also uses horticultural therapy as a modality in helping individuals adapt to their physical environment. Practicum opportunities are also available at the town parks and recreation department, where students have facilitated community access to fresh, local produce provided by a local farming operation. Faculty engage in research that promotes issues of environmental responsibility. Both full-time faculty members have engaged in a multidisciplinary mixed method program evaluation of the horticultural therapy program. Other areas of inquiry include the study of food waste and food recovery. Finally, research is being conducted on the trauma of environmental violence in a community built on a trash dump in Central America. Each of these research endeavors advances the faculty members’ understanding of environmental justice and uses social work as a tool for its advancement.

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 ppendix G: Creating Change: From Critical Self-Reflection A to Knowledge Building to Personal and Collective Action To engage in personal and collective action, we suggest first engaging in critical self-reflection; then identifying areas for, and engaging in, knowledge building; and finally creating a plan to take personal and collective action. This exercise walks through each of these steps and may be done as an individual or with a partner or group. I. Critical Self-Reflection Critical self-reflection is about examining the role of privilege, power, and oppression in our lives. This process requires observation of one’s self and with one’s interactions with others and the natural environment. As you do this, evaluate your experiences, values, beliefs, and decisions. Engaging in investigating and questioning also requires finding and using facts. Take time to probe and identify family patterns and the ways used to create meanings. Reflect on the following questions: • What is your family’s history of immigration, poverty, enslavement, or colonization? How has this history impacted your experiences of privilege or oppression? • How has privilege or oppression impacted your education, health, employment, economic status, interactions with others, and experiences of and attitudes toward nature and ecological degradation? II. History and Knowledge It is important to identify areas where we need to expand our knowledge and skills locally and more broadly. The queries below may help start the process of designing a process of guided learning. To answer these, you may need to do some localized research, including talking to others who hold important historical knowledge, about your own community. While the questions below are focused on local observation, you can expand your thinking to reflect on state, national, and global contexts. Racism, Colonialism, and Patriarchy • What is the history of the colonization of the area where you live? • How were Tribal and Indigenous peoples removed from the area where you live? –– Whose traditional land do you and your community occupy? –– What role did slavery and people who were enslaved play in the development of the community where you live? (If you know little about the institution of slavery and the dramatic changes instituted with reconstruction, start with a couple of resources below.*) • When and how did Black, Tribal and Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Latinx peoples receive voting rights in your community? Women? Are there barriers to exercise the right to vote?

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• Are people of different ethnicities segregated in housing? In education? If so, how? • What are the policies and practices in the policing and the criminal justice system that support or disrupt racism? • Where you work or volunteer, what assumptions are made about the privileges, resources, and access of people? • What are the symbols of hate or inequality in your community? Ecological Colonization and Environmental Degradation Think about how communities and neighborhoods are designed to support or discourage robust ecological systems. As part of this, explore local attitudes toward wildlife and conservation and how that is manifested in policies and practices, including budgets. In your community: • How are people of different races, ethnicities, or socioeconomic status impacted by environmental degradation? • What are the major sources of environmental degradation? –– How are polluters held accountable for polluting the environment? –– What type of pollution is tolerated? Why? • Who in your community is working to protect the environment? Consider both individuals and organizations or companies. What are they doing? Are there opportunities for you or other citizens to get involved? Economic Inequality • What are the causes of poverty in your community? • How would you describe the poorest segments of your community? What do you think is the reason for it? • Is your community engaged in any actions to address poverty? Are these activities that ameliorate it (e.g., food banks), or are they aimed at structural changes (e.g., creating job opportunities, easier access to higher education)? • What is the impact of the way school funding is structured (i.e., by school districts, counties, or state formulas)? III. Change: Reimagining In this section, identify ways you can engage in personal, interpersonal, or community change. Identify an item under any of the three areas below, envision the change you would like to see, and create a plan to achieve it. Identify and commit yourself to a first step.

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Personal Examine your own behaviors that might disrupt environmental degradation. • Diet: Identify changes, even small ones, you can make in your diet, for example, replacing some or all of your meat intake with plant-based foods, purchasing only what you know you will actually consume, buying food with little or no packaging, and eating at restaurants that use food from sustainable farms. • Consumerism: Purchasing clothes that are well-made and lasting, selecting leisure activities that are gentle on the environment (e.g., birdwatching, hiking, arts). • Transportation: Cycling or walking to work when possible, using mass transit systems, purchasing a car that is electric, hybrid, or otherwise fuel-efficient, reconsidering air travel and only doing so when absolutely necessary. • Fossil fuels and other extractive resources: If you have a lawn (though we encourage you to replace it with native plants), use a push mower and shovel instead of snow blower (think of the exercise you’ll get!). Turn down or off the air conditioner and open the windows. Interpersonal Interpersonal relationships and interactions are at the heart of change. Part of creating changes is reimagining how these relationships could look in a more just world. • Identify at least three things you can personally do to demonstrate solidarity with people who are different from you. This can be formal or informal. • If you do not currently have any personal relationships with diverse people: –– Identify ways to increase your contact with people who are different from you and how you can reach out to them. –– Choose activities in diverse contexts (leisure activities, travel, work, activism, volunteerism) Community Examine and identify your community’s values and strengths that can be used to combat these problems: • • • •

Observe ways that your community expresses unity and collaboration. Name your community’s biggest strengths. Consider the types of issues that your community already rallies around. Pay attention to who are the leaders of these that might be tapped for work regarding environmental justice (if not already). Make a point of introducing yourself to them, getting to know them, and asking them where you can join the effort.

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• Increase your one involvement in these existing local efforts. • Notice other kinds of actions or activities that tend to bring your community together. These are opportunities to collaborate and build important relationships. They also may be places you can introduce ideas for changes in behaviors affecting the environment or other awareness actions. Activities that Can Support Dialogue 1. Draft a process that might ensure that the voices of people of color, women, and people impacted by environmental and economic injustice are centered in an organization or coalition. 2. Create an awareness campaign to bring attention to environmental, racial, gender, or economic injustice, for example, a YouTube video, a sit-in, and posters. 3. Join a get-out-the-vote movement or voting rights effort to ensure all eligible voters are able to vote.

Resources US History of Enslavement with ongoing impact 1619 project: History of enslavement in United States. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-americaslavery.html?searchResultPosition=4 And 1619 podcasts https://www.nytimes.com/2019/ 08/22/podcasts/1619-trailer.html?searchResultPosition=2 Gates, H.  L., Jr. (2019). Stony the road: Reconstruction, white supremacy, and the rise of Jim Crow. New York: Penguin Press. Gates, H.L.  Jr., & McGee, D. (Producers) & Marchesi, J. (Director). (2019). Reconstruction: America after the civil war [DVD]. U.S.: PBS Public Broadcasting Service.

Index

A Adaptation and mitigation, 63 planning, 68 Advocacy, 76 Agroecology, 117 Air pollution, 60 Air quality, 20, 60 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 70 Anthropocene, 4, 6 Anti-racism, 115, 122 Appalachian coal country, 88 B Bahamian government, 48 Beef and dairy livestock, 22 Big Sioux River, 73 C Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), 72 Chronic and infectious diseases COVID-19, 61 health-care system, 61 public health, 62 Civic empowerment, 75 Clean Air Act, 69, 70 Clean energy, 22 Climate change, 1, 2, 4, 7–9, 32, 46, 48, 50, 85 Appalachian coal country, 88 ecological health and income, 85 and environmental degradation, 49 environmental injustice, 87

Flint, Michigan, 88 and food production, 20 impacts, 86 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 85 1.5°C, 3, 4 overlapping processes, 85 standing Rock tribal land, 88 temperatures, 3 top-down approach, 85 United Houma Nation, 87 Climate volatility, 49 Climatic changes, 77 Coastal dwelling communities, 17 Colonization, 87, 108, 111, 112, 114 aggression, 109 collectivism and relatedness, 109 environmental impact, 110, 111 and exploitation, 114 on Tribal and Indigenous, 109 wildlife, 113 Commission for Racial Justice (CRJ), 45 Community Empowerment and Education Seminars (CEE), 42 Community gardens, 21 Community vulnerability in Bahamas, 47 environmental injustices, 46 hurricane, 47 Nepal, 48 Puerto Rico and the US Government, 47 Concilio de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas Nacionales de Honduras (COPINH), 43 Conservation efforts, 30, 34 Conservation movements, 33

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. A. Nesmith et al., The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community, and the Ecology of Life, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55951-9

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160 Coral ecosystems, 3 Coronavirus pandemic, 123 Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), 99 COVID-19, 61, 119, 120 colonization, 108 deaths, 106 H1N1 swine flu, 107 infects, 106 and racism, 105 smallpox, 106 zoonotic diseases, 107 Creamos Program, 97 D Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP), 73, 88 Decolonization, 113, 114, 116 Decolonizing economic systems globalization, 120 progressive capitalism, 121 Decolonizing environmental movements, 122 environmental organizations, 122 failure, 122 renewable energy, 122 Tribal and Indigenous peoples, 122 Decolonizing nature, 114 Decolonizing relationships, 114 agricultural systems, 117 agroecology, 117 food, 118 global crisis, 120 leadership, 119 leadership models, 118 nature, 116 organic solutions, 118 traditional peace processes, 116 Deforestation, 18, 19, 42, 111 Diagnosable disorders, 62 E Eco-centric model, 31 Eco-centric worldview, 33 Ecofeminism, 51 Ecological destruction, 2 Ecological education, 99 Ecological environment, 91, 111 Ecological imbalance, 27 Eco-social work practice, 97 Ecosystem model, 98 Ecosystems, 1 Energy efficiency, 94 Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), 73 Environment and community health, 71

Environmental activism, 43 Environmental catastrophes, 49 Environmental conflicts, 42, 46 Environmental crisis, 35, 46 Environmental degradation and disasters, 93 Environmental impact studies, 44 Environmental injustices, 1, 2, 9, 10, 39, 46 climate change, 40 color, 40 and disasters, 94 and ecological degradation, 50 environmental conflict, 42 financing, 43 human habitats, 39 indigenous theory, 40 intersectionality, 40 metaphorical borderland, 40 natural resources, 40–42 preservation groups, 42 principles, 40 and racism, 45 rights and environmental rights, 41 spiritual center, 41 Environmental justice, 71 Environmental policy, 73 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 71 Environmental racism, 43, 46 colonialism, 44 dynamics, 44 gender oppression and ecological degradation, 44 Native peoples, 44 European colonialism, 87 Executive Order (E.O.), 71 Extractive industries, 22 F Flagship laws, 69 Flooding, 47 Food justice, 21 Food security and rural employment, 60 Food systems, 60 Fresh water, 14 G Geologic periods, 4 Global climate change, 76 Global environmental changes, 57 Indigenous peoples, 58 populations, 58

Index Global environmental crisis, 2, 9, 39, 49, 59, 67, 105 Global food system, 21 Global pandemic, 61 Global policy, 68 Global warming, 69, 124 Government and community movements, 34 Green Belt Movement, 33, 34, 41, 42, 86 Greenhouse gas (GHG), 70 emissions, 68 Gross domestic product (GDP), 68 H High-risk environmental toxins, 44 Human activities, 57 Human-caused activities, 58 Human-Centric Model, 31 Human health, 58 and environmental injustices, 58 and well-being, 57 Human-induced environmental injustices, 57 Human rights, 67 Hydraulic fracturing, 19 I Indigenous languages, 33 Indigenous peoples, 32, 40 Industrial Revolution, 109, 110 Inequity and trauma, 87 Interdisciplinary coursework and projects, 98 Interdisciplinary models, 97 Interdisciplinary partnerships, 9 Interdisciplinary responses, 9, 96 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 1, 68 International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), 19, 99 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 120 Invasive species, 28, 35 K Kyoto Protocol, 68 L Land deforestation and wildfires, 18 global political system, 19 Indigenous peoples, 18 natural resource extraction, 18 natural resources, 17 wildfires, 18

161 Lobbying, 76 Local policies, 74 Longer-term responses, 59 M Marine ecosystems, 30 Mental and physical health, 63 Mental health and well-being emotional and psychological impacts, 62 Mobilize change, 7 N National-level climate change policy, 69 National-level legislation, 69 National-level policies, 69 Natural resource extraction, 18, 22 Neighborhood conservation, 34 O Oberlin Project, 92 Oceanic threats, 17 Oceans, 16 Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ), 71 P Paris Agreement, 4, 8, 91 aim, 5 European Union, 5 global environmental crisis, 5 proverbial canary, 6 Pathways to change clothing industry, 95 community and environmental change, 96 community practice, 95 efficient/sustainable choices, 94 fossil fuel footprint, 94 governmental response, 94 insects and bees, 92 interdisciplinary responses, 96 meat and dairy, 94 neighborhood/community, 92 social justice, 90 systemic change, 90, 91 Policy advocacy, 76 development and analysis, 76 environmental, 67 participation, 74

Index

162 Policy-making processes, 45 Political and economic relations, 47 Project Drawdown, 124

V Voter engagement, 75 Voting, 75

R Racism and marginalization, 59 Rebuilding Community, 91 Renewable energy, 122

W Water, 14, 17 animals and plants, 14 coastal communities, 16 fresh water, 14 human body, 14 oceans, 16 plant life and animals, 14 privatization, 15 scarcity, 15 security, 14 Water contamination, 112 Water crisis, 59 Water privatization, 15 White supremacy, 87 White supremacy patriarchy, 115 Wicked problems, 8, 85, 96 Wildlife, 28 Wildlife species, 29 World Economic Forum in Switzerland, 2 World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 3, 68

S Social work, 96 educators and researchers, 97 practice, 97 profession, 96 Solar and wind energy, 22 Sovereignty, 51 State and funding mechanisms, 72 Structure patriarchy, 87 Sustainable development perspective, 28 Systemic change, 89–91 T Triassic period, 3 Tribal governments, 72 U Urban sprawl and resort development, 27 US environmental justice movement, 52

Z Zoonotic infectious diseases, 107