Conference links poverty and environmental issues

“A Different Shade of Green: Race, Place and Environmental Justice,” organized by visiting professor Kimberly Smith, focused on the disproportionate effect of environmental problems on poorer and marginalized communities and the work that needs to be done to solve such problems.

Participants from universities and environmental activism groups across the country arrived on campus Monday afternoon for the conference, which lasted until yesterday afternoon. It was co-sponsored by the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI) and the Center for African American Studies.

Dorceta Taylor, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Michigan, set the tone for the conference in her keynote address Monday evening when she described “environmental racism.”

Minorities, Taylor said, have an “increased likelihood of being exposed to environmental hazards” and absorb “disproportionate negative impacts of environmental processes,” according to a copy of her remarks.

Minorities are also underrepresented in the environmental workforce, Taylor said. She explained that a number of factors might cause this problem, including that minorities may not be “as concerned about the environment as whites” or “not trained in environmental disciplines.”

PEI director and ecology and evolutionary biology professor Stephen Pacala noted during the conference that he was impressed with the progress that the environmental justice field has made despite the obstacles facing minority participation in environmentalism.

“Humanity never ceases to amaze me,” Pacala said. “Somehow, among the most dispossessed people, this movement continued to grow and coalesce spontaneously, without the help of others around it.”

Giovanna di Chiro, an environmental studies professor at Mount Holyoke College and a visiting professor at Princeton, described the important role universities play in promoting the environmental justice movement.

“I think the model we are trying to build in Holyoke, where there are partnerships between the institution and local communities, is very important,” di Chiro said, adding that building more community partners was a good first step for Princeton.

As part of the conference, students in a class taught by politics professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Smith, AAS 350/ENV 350/POL 338: African American Studies: Environmental Justice, presented posters on issues pertaining to environmental discrimination that they had researched.

Devon Damiano ’09 said that her project focused on lead poisoning in poor areas. “It’s not a traditional environmental issue, and people don’t focus on it, but it’s something that affects people in homes, schools and cities.”

Damiano added that lead poisoning is a big problem in New Jersey cities with an aging housing stock, particularly Trenton.

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One group’s project focused on black women who are involved in environmental justice. Tiffany Johnson ’09 said that her group “looked at their personal stories, what would cause African American women to become involved, how their involvement is different and how race plays a role.”

One of the women she studied, Beverly Wright, was a speaker at the conference, Johnson said.

Between 50 and 70 people attended each discussion, Smith said. Though she will not be at Princeton next year, Smith said that she hopes “Princeton continues to build on what we’ve done this year and that we continue to see attention and interest paid to environmental justice.”

Damiano said that the discussions she attended helped give her a new perspective on her Smith’s class. “I thought the speakers I saw had an interesting balance of theoretically based work ... and more scientific empirical work,” she said.