AEC Equity Resources
This page is a curated list of resources relating to the intersections of equity, race, the BLM Movement, and the environment. AEC's objective is to create a space for educational materials on significant disparities that exist in energy and environmental sectors.
Supporting Asian American Communities
04/07/2021: In light of repeated incidents of anti-Asian hate in the United States, the Applied Economics Clinic reaffirms its statement on racial equity: AEC stands in solidarity with demands for racial justice, without which environmental and economic justice can never be achieved. In this regard, we have added resources specific to supporting APIDA communities, and have written two blog posts highlighting the linkage between environmental justice and Asian American communities
RESOURCES:
Video and Audio
AsianAmCovidStories – Youtube Docuseries
Self Evident, Asian America’s Stories – Podcast
Mutual Aid Networks and Community Organizations
BLOG POSTS:
Indigenous Peoples and Energy Sovereignty
KEY DEFINITIONS AND CONTEXT:
Indigenous peoples, or First peoples, are ethnic groups who are known to be the original or native inhabitants of a land or environment.
Energy sovereignty: is the right for communities, rather than corporate interests, to control access to and decision making regarding the sources, scales, and forms of ownership characterizing access to energy services.
Indigenous peoples are often the ones most impacted by energy and/or health inequities in the United States. Indigenous communities are more likely to suffer from unequal access to reliable utilities, such as electricity or gas, inefficient energy infrastructure, as well as limited cell and broadband services.
Turning towards renewable energy sources that are capable of going off-grid will allow Indigenous communities greater access to cheaper, more reliable, and consistent utilities under their jurisdiction and needs.
ARTICLES:
Living in the dark: Native reservations struggle with power shortages in pandemic (5-7 min read)
The energy crises revealed by COVID: Intersections of Indigeneity, inequity, and health (3 min abstract read)
Indigenous clean energy shift must be built on trust and respect (3-5 min read)
Respecting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as Renewable Energy Grows (5-7 min read)
What to do if you can’t pay your utility bills (3-5 min read)
Resources for Indigenous American Entrepreneurs (5-7 min read)
PODCASTS:
Take It Blak tackles topics like Black History Month, COVID-19, and International Woman’s Day, as well as Indigenous People profiles, hosted by Goori journalist Jack Latimore and Wiradjuri STEM journalist Rae Johnston.
Always Was, Always Will Be Our Stories
Always Was, Always Will Be Our Stories focuses on inspiring conversations with Indigenous role models and trailblazers, hosted by Marlee Silva.
Energy Justice
Energy justice focuses on setting a framework by which decisions can be made about energy policy, its development and distribution, energy security and climate change.
ARTICLES
Energy Justice: What is it and why do we need it? (5-7 min read)
Neighborhoods With More People of Color Pay Higher Energy Bills by Brentin Mock, author at CityLab formerly at Grist (3-5 min read)
Don’t Overlook Equity Issues in City Climate-Action Plans by Sam Adams, former mayor of Portland, Oregon (8-10 min read)
Solar-Power Benefits Aren’t Reaching Communities of Color by Amal Ahmed (3-5 min read)
31 Percent Of U.S. Households Have Trouble Paying Energy Bills by Sasha Ingber
PODCASTS
Particularly relevant, most recently Breathing While Black, released on June 5, 2020
The Freeing Energy Project Podcast
Bill Nussey is the founder of the Freeing Energy Project, whose mission is to accelerate the shift to cleaner, cheaper energy.
The concepts of “Energy Equity” and “Energy Democracy” arise from new ways of thinking about the climate crisis. MCAN’s Executive Director gives a master class in what these terms mean.
COVID-19, Health Equity, and Systemic and Environmental Racism
ARTICLES
To understand who’s dying of Covid-19, look to social factors like race more than preexisting diseases by Sharon Begley at StatNews (5-7 min read)
COVID-19’s unequal effects in Massachusetts: Remedying the legacy of environmental injustice and building climate resilience, from the Office of MA Attorney General Maura Healy (longer read, 9 page report)
Among the reasons COVID-19 is worse for black communities: Police violence, by Ivan Natividad of UC Berkeley (3-5 min read)
When it comes to coronavirus deaths, race matters, by Brittany Gibson of The American Prospect (3-5 min read)
A national study on long-term exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States, by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (longer read, 27 pages)
Environmental racism has left Black communities especially vulnerable to COVID-19, by Casey Berkovitz, The Century Foundation (10 minute read)
Resources for Latino/a and Hispanic Entrepreneurs, by Holland Webb (5-7 min read)
Financial Literacy and African Americans: Bridging the Gap, by Rachel Christian, Annuity.org (15 minute read)
Environmental Justice and Climate Change
Key definitions and context:
Environmental justice: Environmental Justice refers to those cultural norms and values, rules, regulations, behaviors, policies, and decisions to support sustainability, where all people can hold with confidence that their community and natural environment is safe and productive.
Environmental racism: Environmental racism is the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color. Environmental justice is the movement’s response to environmental racism.
Environmental racism has left Black Americans three times more likely to die from pollution than their white counterparts.
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) are more likely to live near landfills and industrial plants that pollute water and air; more than half of the 9 million people living near hazardous waste sites are people of color.
ARTICLES
Read Up on the Links Between Racism and the Environment by Somini Sengupta, the international climate reporter for The New York Times.
Black Environmentalists Talk About Climate and Anti-Racism, NYT Climate newsletter (5-8 minute read, compilation of opinions with resources)
Can the Green New Deal Deliver Environmental Justice? by Brentin Mock, author at CityLab formerly at Grist (5-8 min read)
Hurricanes disproportionately harm communities of color. TV news ignores that fact. by Emily Pontecorvo at Grist (3-5 min read)
Environmental racism has left Black Americans three times more likely to die from pollution, by Bartees Cox, QUARTZ (3-5 min read)
Public Health Resources for Understanding Environmental Racism, Public Health Degrees (8-10 min read)
BOOKS
A Terrible Thing to Waste Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet A Washington, also author of Medical Apartheid (300+ page book discussing both known physical impacts of environmental racism but also psychological effects that impact future success of communities)
Clean and White: A History of Environmental Racism in the United States by (~250 pages, gives a brief history of the depths of environmental racism in the United States)
PODCASTS
Living Downstream an NPR Podcast
Living Downstream explores environmental justice in communities from California to Indonesia and is hosted by NCPM News Director Steve Mencher. The podcast features some of the most experienced environmental reporters in the public radio system, as well as a handful of talented newcomers.
Thinking 100%: The Coolest Show on Climate Change, hosted by the Hip Hop Caucus — podcast released June 5 2020 on Racial Justice and Climate Change
Season 1 is a masterclass on Environmental and Climate Justice and Season 2 is full of captivating conversations with the young people who are pushing the climate crisis to the forefront of the nation and the world. Centers Black voices.