The Environmental Justice Movement - Part Four

TITLE: The Environmental Justice Movement – Part Four

AUTHORS: Renee Skelton and Vernice Miller, with contributions by Courtney Lindwall

COPYRIGHT: Natural Resources Defense Council, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/environmental-justice-movement(accessed 4/19/25)

PERMISSION TO USE granted by the NRDC per online guidelines.

The Natural Resources Defense Council was founded in 1970 as the first national environmental advocacy group to focus on legal action. The NRDC helped pass the 1972 Clean Water Act and has since grown to more than three million members and online activists utilizing the expertise of some 700 scientists, lawyers, and other environmental specialists to:

·      confront the climate crisis,

·      protect the planet’s wildlife and wild places, and

·      ensure the rights of all people to clean air,clean water, and healthy communities.

On August 22, 2023, the NRDC published an article titled “The Environmental Justice Movement.” It is a well-written summary of “an important part of the struggle to improve and maintain a clean and healthful environment.”

THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT – PART FOUR

The legacy and future of environmental justice

In the roughly 40 years since the dump trucks first rolled into Afton, North Carolina, hundreds of environmental justice grassroots groups have formed—like WE Act for Environmental Justice <https://www.weact.org/>, the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Poverty <https://www.gcclp.org/about-us>, Asian Pacific Environmental Network <https://apen4ej.org/>, and the Southeast Environmental Task Force <https://anthropocenealliance.org/southeast-environmental-task-force/>. They represent strong and enduring forces for environmental protection and social change in their communities. Their work has also continued to ensure that environmental justice is a central issue within environmentalism and progressive politics.

Now, environmental justice leaders who once influenced policy as outsiders are more likely to have seats at decision-making tables. Take LaTricia Adams, who founded Black Millennials for Flint and also sat on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC).

Plus, environmental justice has become more embedded across federal policy.  The Justice40 Initiative <http://nrdc.org/stories/what-justice40-initiative>, which worked for four years to direct 40 percent of federal investments in climate and clean energy toward disadvantaged communities, is a prime example. And mainstream environmental groups have also learned from and increasingly worked alongside environmental justice organizations. For example, NRDC often provides technical advice and resources, supplies expert testimonyat hearings, and joins in litigation.

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