Climate and Environmental Justice - Let's Do the Work - June 2020
Saving the Planet With Plastic Girl is a newsletter/blog containing three sections with practical ways to enact change to help heal our planet. The three sections are an upcycle maker activity (video or pics) to do at home, local action item to promote sustainable communities, and a national/global action item to mitigate the climate crisis. The newsletter is sponsored by Wicked Tree Press, and written by Jessica Maison, author of the Plastic Girl series.
The challenges facing our world with the climate crisis are urgent and critical, but we are not helpless. Making our household less wasteful is in our control. Supporting groups in our community that are working to make our neighborhoods more sustainable is manageable. Participating in at least one action items that demand larger global changes and keeps pressure on our leaders to enact those chances is something we can fit into a month’s schedule.
Green New Deal art by Molly Crabapple. You can find art like Molly’s to use for activism at Art.350.org.
Climate Justice and Environmental Justice
We all live on the planet so when we hurt the planet, we all suffer, right? Right. However, some communities and countries suffer at a greater rate and much sooner than others. It is not fair. It is an injustice. It is an injustice that hurts communities and countries of color and lower-income at a greater rate than more affluent communities and countries. It is also an injustice that has been ignored for a long time, and that has hurt us all. Ignoring poisoned water or toxic air in one community hurts our entire population. Hiding pollution in communities with less power does not eliminate the environmental devastation, it just helps conceal it until the damage becomes irreversible. Focusing and addressing climate and environmental injustices should be center stage in the fight for saving our planet and mitigating the damage that is being caused by the climate crisis.
Climate justice is a term used to frame global warming as an ethical and political issue, rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature.
Climate equity ensures that all people have the opportunity to benefit equally from climate solutions, while not taking on an unequal burden of climate impacts.
“A Green New Deal is a big, bold transformation of the economy to tackle the twin crises of inequality and climate change. It would mobilize vast public resources to help us transition from an economy built on exploitation and fossil fuels to one driven by dignified work and clean energy.”
Climate injustice and environmental injustice occurs when communities of color and lower-income are the ones who suffer the most from the climate crisis. Examples of this are demonstrated by the Flint water crisis and air quality in many Los Angeles communities. In the United States, race is the number one indicator for the placement of toxic facilities per the NAACP. Since communities of color and lower-income are disproportionately affected by climate change and environmental issues, the NAACP created a climate and environmental justice program. The current Black Lives Matter protests and movement are shining a light on how racial justice must be intertwined with climate justice. You can’t have climate justice without racial justice. Hopefully, the environmental and climate movement will center on climate equity and racial justice. We will not save the planet and mitigate the damage caused by the climate crisis if we can’t achieve climate equity. If you won’t allow poison in your neighborhood then it can’t be allowed in any neighborhood. That kind of collective thinking will empower everyone and give corporations and governments nowhere to hide their dirty pollution secrets and deeds.
Act Locally to Promote a Sustainable Community
Go to the internet and find a community near you that is experiencing a climate injustice. It may be your community. Then find a local, grassroots organization and find out how to support them or get involved. Ideally, this is a youth-led organization. Young people are currently leading the charge to slow climate change and supporting their work is essential to achieve climate justice.
In Los Angeles, where I live, the air quality is not good. I did some research and found a youth activist who suffers health problems caused by poor air quality in his community. His name is Kevin Patal. I started following him on twitter, hoping I can support his new grassroot organization, One Up Action once it officially launches.
Another organization I discovered was East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. I researched their programs and initiatives. I e-mailed them to find out the best way to support them besides donating. I will update this post when I hear back from them.
Something I already do and believe is transformative, specifically in cities, is growing gardens and green spaces.
Grow a garden in your community. You don’t have to be good at it, just willing to learn. If you live in an affluent neighborhood, also reach out to an organization planting and growing gardens in their community and support them, collaborate, support each other. I strongly believe that gardens and urban farms are powerful places to intersect and play a big part in climate equity and justice.
However, Ron Finley, “the gangsta gardener” says it better than me:
“Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do … There are so many metaphors in that garden – we’re cultivating ourselves, we’re learning how to take care of things, we’re learning that nothing is instantaneous,” says Finley.
Click here to read about his garden and community gardens in South Central Los Angeles.
There are several Los Angeles schools doing this type of growing and learning. A few schools that have large gardens and farms, are The L.A. River School in NELA and the Fremont Wellness Center and Community Garden located at the John C. Fremont High School campus. They are already doing the work. See if you can help.
Eva and Iris’s Upcycle Activity — Cereal Box Journals
Bonus: Click here to learn how to make a protest sign out of a cereal box. Stay Safe and Speak Out.
According to Wikipedia, Upcycling, is the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality and environmental value. People love to do crafts, but often projects send us to the store to purchase items that will end up in a landfill. Simply by looking around your house or going to a local thrift store, you can find many or most of the items you need to make so many cool projects.
Writers, artist, and activists love a new journal. There are many ways to use a cereal box to create a journal. We will be sharing one of our favorite methods today, but feel free to research more ideas online.
You will need:
1.) A cereal box.
2.) Scissors or Exacto-Knife
3.) Yarn, twine or thick string.
4.) Markers
5.) Glue
6.) Old magazines, comics, pictures, etc. – item good for making a collage
7.) Safety Pin or Old Button – Optional
Here is a series of pics demonstrating how to make a cereal box journal. Send us pics of your journal once decorated.
Gather your materials and prepare your cereal box, cutting off the edges as shown above. Measure the box into thirds and fold (6”, 6” and 5.5” - size may differ based on size of your box.)
Measure the bottom edge of the cereal box up 1 to 2 inches to create a fold. Fold four pages of paper four times so you have four booklets. Hole punch the box and paper twice. Make sure they line up.
Use yarn to bind the notebook as shown above.
Once you finish binding, tie a knot on the outside of the journal.
Stick a safety pin through the front cover of your journal, creating a clasp to wrap your yarn around to secure your journal when you aren’t using it.
Cut out pics from old magazines or comics to decorate your journal. Iris and I used a cover of one of my Plastic Girl proofs and an old Pistil comic. Use a marker to write whatever you want on your journal. Now, start writing those world changing ideas down.
Take Global Initiative
Research and engage with an environmental non-profit
Mari Copeny “Little Miss Flint” is a youth activist who was enraged by the Flint water crisis and did something about it. Here is her website. You can follow her on twitter as well as the hashtag #WednesdaysforWater where each week she shares a community that does not have clean water.
Donations to the United Way of Genesee Country will help the residents of Flint who still don’t have clean water to drink get bottled water.
Donations of water on pallets will be directed to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. The Food Bank will deliver the pallets to the three community Help Centers located at Greater Holy Temple, Asbury United Methodist and Bethel United Methodist.
Water.org has empowered more than 29 million people with access to safe water or sanitation. Access to safe water at home directly helps families in need prepare and protect themselves from this pandemic, because they can wash their hands and don't have to leave their homes to collect water.
There are many international water organizations. Find one you love and figure out how to get involved. Access to water is a big climate justice issue.
Research a political, social action climate or environmental group.
Youth led is critical when it comes to the social action and political action around climate change. Here are a few to check out.
FFF is the organization that frew out of Greta Thunberg’s Friday climate strikes. They have a digital strike every Friday. Go to their website for ways to get involved.
Currently, Youth Climate Strike LA is organizing a digital amplification campaign #EndDependence with Last Chance Alliance. You can participate on July 1st.
In my April newsletter, Sunrise was showcased. Click here to read more info.
Bonus books:
Kid Brooklyn Genesis (comic) by Jaden Anthony
Jaden Anthony a young activist and creator decided to write a comic book about saving the world with the intention of changing the world. Some of each sale goes to Green For All to help raise money to rebuild pipes in Flint, MI.
War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi (YA dystopian)
“In a world ravaged by nuclear war, climate change, and resource conflict, two sisters dare to dream of peace… The intense plot is narrated in alternating third-person perspectives, and the author explores themes surrounding colonization, family, and the injustices of war.”
As far as social, Wicked Tree Press is on Facebook. I am on Instagram and Twitter. Please feel free to follow me on either. I would love to hear from you in the comments below, directly through e-mail - (jessica@wickedtreepress.com) or on any of my social media platforms.
Thanks for joining us, loving the planet, and getting involved. We need to prevent future generations from actually living in the world of Plastic Girl, and I know we can, together.
