Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI): the three terms that have become trigger words within an escalating culture war. Across decades, though particularly during the Biden Administration, several government initiatives focusing on the expansion of DEI programs were implemented, aiming to tackle discrimination based on race and gender and increase environmental justice efforts to aid disadvantaged […]
Tag: environmental justice
Echoes of the Earth: A Battle for Sacred Lands
The coast of South Africa’s Eastern Cape, near the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve, is a picture of calm. Clouds rest on the horizon, and gentle waves turn the sand into a reflection of the blue sky. But this serenity faces a threat—one driven by the demands of a warming climate and an economy rooted in fossil […]
The Hidden Cost of Factory Farms: A Story of Environmental Racism
Factory farms are like cracks in a dam, steadily widening under pressure. With each passing day, they threaten to burst, flooding our communities with pollution and personal health hazards. The environmental and ethical impacts of factory farms require urgent attention and reform. Berkeley’s last concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), which closed in June this year, […]
The Climate Crisis is Worsening Gender Inequality in Education
One in every five children currently not enrolled in school resides in Nigeria. Despite primary education being entirely free and compulsory, over 10.5 million children are currently out of school. Gender plays a significant role in this pattern of educational deprivation. The net attendance rate for young girls in Nigeria is around 47% percent, compared […]
Decolonizing the Climate Crisis
Western society has become entrenched in finding solutions to climate change that fit into a colonized understanding of the world. Much of Western academia operates on the widely-held assumption that the Anthropocene Epoch has led to the current climate crisis and the solution to climate change lies in reverting the world to how it was […]
Environmental Justice and its Indisputable Ties to Health Inequality in America
On the 29th of September, heavy rainfall caused unprecedented levels of flash flooding in New York City, cutting off major transportation routes from subways to roadways according to NBC New York. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York has since declared a state of emergency. However, this battle with rain and flooding is fairly new for […]
The Lasting Harms of Toxic Exposure in Native American Communities
“They never told us uranium was dangerous. We washed our faces in it. We drank in it. We ate in it. It was sweet,” explained Cecilia Joe, an 85-year-old Navajo woman, in a recent interview. Joe’s experience illustrates the under-researched but extremely pervasive problem of environmental injustice on Native American reservations. Due to decades of […]
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: How the United States Discards E-Waste
It’s all about the new. Increasingly, the people of the United States want the latest technology; every time tech giants like Apple and Samsung release new devices, hundreds of thousands flock to buy them, often discarding their old devices by simply throwing them in the trash. Everyday, Americans throw out over 350,000 cell phones and […]