Blog | Environmental Justice at Western

Frameworks of opportunity

By Maggie Langsted and Cheyanne Das In Spring 2024, students in WWU’s ENVS 499D: Readings in Environmental Justice are reading about climate hope and climate futures. This post reflects some of the group’s learning and discussion. Photo courtesy of Rob Wilson Photography @RobWilsonFoto, rawpolitics@gmail.com Image of NODAPL demonstration When thinking about the climate’s future, it can…

Fostering Hope Through Creativity: Climate Future Collages

In Spring 2024, students in WWU’s ENVS 499D: Readings in Environmental Justice are reading about climate hope and climate futures. This post reflects some of the group’s learning and discussion. By: Quinn Gohde and Taylor Lemke How do we grapple with a crisis that has been looming over us since birth? How do we express…

Power In Diversity, United In Accessibility

In Spring 2024, students in WWU’s ENVS 499D: Readings in Environmental Justice are reading about climate hope and climate futures. This post reflects some of the group’s learning and discussion. By Shilah Malaykhan and Brooklyn Wehr [Image Description]: A collaborative, proud, diverse collective coming together to embrace the inclusivity of people of all identities, bodies,…

Imagining Hopeful & Just Futures

In Spring 2024, students in WWU’s ENVS 499D: Readings in Environmental Justice are reading about climate hope and climate futures. This post reflects some of the group’s learning and discussion. Image Source By Elle Gasperini & Cassidy Schneider Grist is an online journalism outlet that focuses on “exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and…

Class Projects: Power, Privilege, and the Environment

In the Winter 2024 ENVS 467: Power, Privilege, and the Environment class, students completed four use-inspired or applied research projects (shared here with permission): Climate Justice Videos: WA HEAL Act: Metal Shredder Teach-In Student Food Insecurity

Class Projects: Carceral Environmental Justice

In Spring 2023, students in WWU’s ENVS 499D: Readings in Environmental Justice learned about the intersections between environmental justice and incarceration. We concluded the 1-credit seminar with several student-designed projects (shared with permission): Writing letters to incarcerated people: About half of the class wrote letters to incarcerated people. If you would like to do the…

Class Projects: Power, Privilege, and the Environment

In the Spring 2023 ENVS 467: Power, Privilege, and the Environment class, students completed five use-inspired research projects (shared with permission): York Community Farm Capacity Building Indigenous Acknowledgement in Parks HEAL Act Assessment East Whatcom County Safety and Recreation (coming soon!) Cross-border Environmental Justice

What Might Schools Be Like When the School-to-Prison Pipeline Ruptures?

In Spring 2023, students in WWU’s ENVS 499D: Readings in Environmental Justice are learning about the intersections between environmental justice and incarceration. This post reflects some of the group’s learning and discussion By Logan Ruch, Bianca C., & Casper Fields What is the School-to-Prison Pipeline Exactly? The school-to-prison pipeline came about in the 1990s when…

Justice Architecture as an Application of Restorative Justice

In Spring 2023, students in WWU’s ENVS 499D: Readings in Environmental Justice are learning about the intersections between environmental justice and incarceration. This post reflects some of the group’s learning and discussion By Shirley Zhou, Mallory Schaefbauer, & Natalie Harris In Deanna Van Buren’s TedTalk, “What a world without prisons could look like,” she introduces…

How a Culture of Individualism Hinders Prison Abolition

In Spring 2023, students in WWU’s ENVS 499D: Readings in Environmental Justice are learning about the intersections between environmental justice and incarceration. This post reflects some of the group’s learning and discussion By Emma S., Laila E., & Noah O A reading by the Marshall Project outlines The Case for Abolition as a “practical program…