Environmental Justice at Western

Reflecting On Our Practices

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. In Fall 2020 the group read Sarah Jaquette Ray’s A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety. This post reflects and extends our discussion. Reflecting On Our Practices By: Skylar Tibbetts, Kate Brunell,…

Micro-plastics: The Smallest Biggest Problem In The Ocean

Micro-plastics: The Smallest Biggest Problem In The Ocean By: Ryland L. Hopkins Many chemicals and materials produced throughout the planet act as pollutants in the ocean. A vast majority of ocean-related issues portrayed by mass media are observable and easily tangible issues, such as: point-source discharge of wastewater, oil spills, pollution relating to the…

From Doom to Empowerment: Self- Help Tools to Help Us Navigate Disaster and Difference

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. In Fall 2020 the group read Sarah Jaquette Ray’s A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety. This post reflects and extends our discussion. From Doom to Empowerment: Self- Help Tools to Help…

Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition: Finding Justice in a Toxic Valley

Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition: Finding Justice in a Toxic Valley By: Liz Zimmerman BJ Cummings grew up with a deep connection to the Puget Sound. As a young child she regularly took trips from her home in New York to the PNW as a young child. Through years of studying environmental issues outside…

An Introduction to Climate Anxiety

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. In Fall 2020 the group read Sarah Jaquette Ray’s A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety. This post reflects and extends our discussion. An Introduction to Climate Anxiety By: Anna Thomas, Hailey…

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…