In New York City, the ability for movements to flourish has allowed for growth in the Environmental Justice Movement as a whole. The involvement of different boroughs and age groups of all types has united NYC’s residents. Organizations like The Young Lords and their Garbage Offensive (1969) replicated the ways in which the Black Panther Party fostered community action. By blocking traffic with piles of garbage, they drew attention to the issues of sanitation in communities largely made up of Latinx and Black people.
Concerns about a lack of clean air and water in segregated areas of New York resulting from racist housing policies have also worked to unify marginalized groups. Environmental movements centering BIPOC communities targeted these discriminatory policies, but these issues continued even after the Fair Housing Act became law, outlawing discrimination in real estate and housing loans based on sex, race, religion, and national origin. The effects of segregated housing areas are still seen in NYC and environmental movements created in affected neighborhoods continue to draw attention to the oppressive forces altering their living environments.
In America, 3.2 million people have already been affected by climate change, and are susceptible to worsening conditions. Many of these people are low-income communities of color.
The issue of climate change disproportionately affecting marginalized communities is not new information, but there are many movements fighting the, unfortunately, high rates of vulnerability that go undermined.
Who are WE ACT?
WE ACT is an environmental organization started in 1988 by seven district leaders of West Harlem who protested the siting of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant. The construction of this plant would cause tons of pollution to streamline into communities of color. While it was still built, WE ACT co-founder Peggy Shepard worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council to successfully sue the City in order to minimize the negative impacts the sewage plant had on Harlem. This sparked WE ACT’s mission of addressing climate related issues with community involvement, protests, and research at a time when environmental movements were underrepresented.
In 1991, the organization attended The First People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. and helped with the creation of “The Principles of Environmental Justice”, which affirmed the importance of environmental unity, the Earth, and interdependence of all species that allows us to be free from ecological destruction. These Principles still guide America’s Environmental Justice Movement today.
In 1996, WE ACT worked with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct the first assessment of the pollution in Harlem, focusing their actions on improving the living conditions of the neighborhood as well as other neighborhoods with predominantly BIPOC inhabitants.
How did WE ACT change the landscape on NYC environmental movements?
WE ACT was the first NYC movement to be run by people of color, differing from the white environmentalist movements mainstream media had publicized since 1960.
The first Earth Day celebration (1970) in New York was used as the main example for environmental justice movements in history. While this celebration motivated New Yorkers to improve their city through greener ways of living, it perpetuated ideals of white environmentalism that excluded the presence of BIPOC.
WE ACT’s leadership in a Harlem-based initiative allows new movements and present-day media outlets to witness the abilities and impact of having marginalized voices highlighted in the environmental movement. The organization actively works with other groups to create alliances, collaborate, and change environmental policy-making through their Environmental Justice Leadership Forum to combat such exclusive ideals of environmentalism.
photo found on: https://diversegreen.org/spotlight-we-act-for-environmental-justice/
How does WE ACT’s mission manifest nowadays?
WE ACT’s mission continues to draw people of different classes, races, and genders together in the fight for environmental justice. More specifically, they focus on such identities and their role in the climate change crisis.
In 2015, they released the Northern Manhattan Climate Action Plan (NMCA) – a plan created to address a community’s ability to manage environmental disasters through investments in renewable energy and organizing spaces for activists. They identified key aspects necessary for creating change in their communities: cutting greenhouse gas emissions, creating well-paying jobs, and connecting these two aspects to coastlines and climate adaptation.
WE ACT actively incorporates such findings into their grassroots outreach and mutual aid. In the past 3 years, they’ve established a program in the Bronx that replaces gas stoves with stoves that do not require fossil fuels in public housing areas. They’ve also rallied to action through complaints to the government as large corporations continue to invade communities of Northern Manhattan. .
Why is it important to foster new movements in the city?
WE ACT demonstrates the necessity of centering community and sustainable energy consumption with the goal of addressing climate change in mind. A movement like this reminds us of the new perspectives the Environmental Movement as whole gains from taking multiple identities and their intersections into account.
Furthermore, the rich history of environmentalism and its origins in the city provides new and old movements alike with a plethora of examples for protests, possibilities for legislation changes, and flexibility in pushing for change with rising generations of activists experiencing first-hand the effects of climate change and environmental racism.