Environmental Justice at Western

Climate Anxiety: Soothed By Tunes

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This Fall (2020), we read and discussed Sarah Jaquette Ray’s A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, which provided useful tools to manage our anxieties around climate, but also around COVID-19, anti-Blackness, political…

Deserts within the Cityscape: How Food Deserts are Affecting Urban Communities

Deserts within the Cityscape: How Food Deserts are Affecting Urban Communities By: Jacob Quintana, Jaclyn Samson Food security is a problem affecting many Americans. Food deserts are a result of low income residents living more than a mile away from a grocery store, with limited transportation access, according to the US Department of Agriculture…

Celebrity and Collective Action: How (Not) to Sustain a Resilient Movement

Celebrity and Collective Action: How (Not) to Sustain a Resilient Movement By: Audrin Thorn, Jamie Sayegh, and Kenzi Garner In the Raíces Verdes podcast episode “Black Environmentalism and Settler Colonial Education,” Samara Almonte (host) and Ashley Arhin discuss, among multifarious other issues, the problem of celebrity within social justice movements. Social and environmental justice…

An Introduction to Climate Anxiety

An Introduction to Climate Anxiety By: Anna Thomas, Hailey Schmidt, and Amber Crabb This week, we read the introduction and first chapter of Sarah Jaquette Ray’s A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet. These sections discuss Ray’s journey to understanding climate anxiety, and how educators may…

Covid-19 and Relating News

This quarter, students in ENVS 467: Power, Privilege, and the Environment are meeting weekly in discussion pods as a way to build connections while physically distancing. This week, the pods talked about news articles related to environmental justice. News Roundup: Covid-19 Article: My Mother is Getting Busy Ready to Die by LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant In the…

Should There Be Reparations for Climate Based Migrants?

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This quarter (Spring 2020) the group is reading environmental justice-related news articles and recent podcasts. This post reflects one of the recent discussions. Should There Be Reparations for Climate Based Migrants? By:…

Amazonian Activists Highlight Slow Violence Through Art

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This quarter (Spring 2020) the group is reading Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. This post reflects and extends our virtual discussion. Amazonian Activists Highlight Slow Violence…

COVID-19: Do High Densities Contribute to This Epidemic?

Below is a news round-up of articles relating to urban densities and COVID-19 COVID-19: Do High Densities Contribute to This Epidemic? By: Jessica Ibes 4/10/2020 As concerns about COVID-19 spread from person to person, country to country, one can only wonder how urban landscapes participated in its advancement throughout the world. Dense urban…

Growing the ‘Low Hanging Fruit’

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This quarter (Winter 2020) the group is reading Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything. The following entry reflects one of our group discussions. Growing the ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ By: Sarah Parker, Mikaela Keator…

Extractivism and Consumerism and How Community Can Help

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This quarter (Winter 2020) the group is reading Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything. The following entry reflects one of our group discussions. Extractivism and Consumerism and How Community Can Help By: Cassidy…