Environmental Justice Resources

ENVIRONMENT RESOURCES

ORGANIZATIONS

A ROCHA Christians in conservation.

Conservation Law Foundation (617) 350-0990

Earth Island Institute 300 Broadway, Suite 28, San Francisco, CA 94133
Tel: (415) 788-3666

Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. Government Agency)
401 M Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20460 Tel: (202) 382-2096

Environmental Policy Institute

/Friends of the Earth 218 D Street, SE, Washington, D.C. 20003 Tel: (202) 544-2600

Forest Service - National Tel: (202) 447-3760

Green Roundtable 38 Chauncy St., 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02111 Tel: 617-374-3740 Fax: 617-457-7839

National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration 

Tel: (202) 377-2985

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tel: (202) 208-3171

United Nations Environment Programme 2 United Nations Plaza, New York City, NY 10017 Tel: (212) 963-8093 or (212) 963-8138

Environmental Defense Fund 

257 Part Ave. South, New York, NY 10010
Tel: (212)505-2100 Provides public education, litigation, and legislation.

Greenpeace International 1436 U St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20009
Tel: (202) 462-1177 Organizes nonviolent protests to protect endangered species monitoring of toxic waste, etc.

National Audubon Society 950 Third Ave. New York, NY 10022 Tel: (212) 832-3200 Offers research programs to aid endangered species camps and workshops for children and adults.

Natural Resources Defense Council 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10114-0466 Tel: (212) 727-2700. In California, call: (415) 777-0230 or (213) 892-1500. In Washington, D.C., call: (202) 783-7800. In Hawaii, call: (808) 533-1075.

Rocky Mountain Institute (970) 927-3851, Snowmass, CO; (303) 245-1003, Boulder, CO

Sierra Club 730 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109 Tel: (415) 776-2211 Promotes protection and conservation of natural resources; maintains library; attempts to influence public policy.

US Green Building Council US: 1-800-795-1747; Other Countries: 202-742-3792; Fax: 202-828-5110; U.S. Green Building Council 1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036

Worldwatch Institute 

1776 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
Tel: (202) 452-1999 Facilitates global problem solving; sponsors research on global warming.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Amicus Journal

(A publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council). Published quarterly of thought and opinion for the general public on environmental affairs, particularly those relating to policies of national and international significance. See address of NRDC above.

Bach, J.S. & Hall, L. (eds.). (1986). The Environmental Crisis: Opposing Viewpoints

. St. Paul, MN: Greenhaven Press. As part of the Opposing Viewpoint Series, this text for students is a good starting point for those who want to contrast different opinions about threats to our environment. This series fits well into the aim of the Youthworker’s Encyclopedia as it culls from newspapers, magazines, journals, and books a wide range of viewpoint from experts and organizations. After a brief introduction, each chapter raises a different issue: "Is There an Environmental Crisis? Should Corporations be Held Responsible for Environmental Disasters? Have Pollution Regulations Improved the Environment? Is Nuclear Power an Acceptable Risk? How Dangerous are Toxic Wastes? How Harmful is Acid Rain? Six answers are given in as many essays. Bibliographies, organizations to contact, and an index conclude this book.

Balchandran, S. (ed.). (1993). Encyclopedia of Environmental Information Sources

. Gale.

Cromartie, M. (ed.). (1995). Creation at Risk? Religion, Science, and Environmentalism

. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Ten scholars and activists "explore and clash" over the relationship of the position of the environmental movement to Judeo-Christian beliefs about humankind’s proper relationship to the natural world. There is substantive scholarly discussion here and strong differences of opinion.

Devall, W. (1988). Simple in Means: Rich Practicing Deep Ecology

. Salt Lake City: Gibbs, Smith.

Firestone, D.B. & Reed, F.C. (1983). Environmental Law for Non-Lawyers

. South Royalton, VT: SoRo Press.

Hardin, G. (1977). The Limits of Altruism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Hawken, Paul.  The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability (New York: HarperBusiness, 1993).

Hawken, Paul, and Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins.  

Natural Capitalism:
Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1999).

Lewis, M. (1992). Green Delusions : an Environmentalist Critique of Radical Environmentalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Lomborg, Bjorn.  The Skeptical Environmentalist (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001).

McDonough, William and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (New York: North Point Press, 2002).  Thoughtful and very readable call for the next industrial revolution.

This is a helpful resource as well.

Myers, N. (ed.). (1984). Gaia: An Atlas of Planet Management. Anchor Press. An amazing amount of information packed into colorful and informative charts and maps.

Suzuki, David and Holly Dressel.  Good News for a Change: How Everyday People are Helping the Planet (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2002).

World Directory of Environmental Organizations

. (4th ed.). (1992). California Institute of Public Affairs. Lists organizations worldwide.

Worldwatch Institute. State of the world: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society

. New York, London: Norton & Co. Published annually.

Worldwatch Institute.Vital Signs: The Trends That are Shaping Our Future

. New York, London: Norton & Co. Published annually.

Wright, N.G. & Kill, D. (1993). Ecological Healing: A Christian View. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. The authors of this book draw on the global, ecumenical experience of Coordination in Development (CODEL). This network, a consortium of Christian agencies, supports people who have little chance of influencing economic and political decisions that greatly affect their lives. It is a call to hear the worldwide cries of the poor so that we might "live lovingly, joyfully, and peacefully on this Earth." The book concludes with strategies and tactics for attaining such goals.

Crossfeld, S. (1997, May 25). A World Pact Reduced to Ashes: Rhetoric of Environmental Resolve has not Translated into Action. The Boston Globe

, pp. A1, 26.

OVERVIEW

(Download World Pact Reduced to Ashes overview as a PDF)

Paragominas, Brazil, lies 3° below the equator, amidst the world’s largest rainforest. From a plane the patches of decimated forest are enough to break the heart of an environmentalist. Along the streets, children sweating in 100° heat and choking in winds of charcoal smoke and dust can anger those who care for the welfare of the next generation.

Although Brazil hosted the Earth Summit (the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in 1992), its government has not been able to live up to its plans for monitoring forest devastation. Its environmental offenses do not match those of the United States, but concern about its forest—the world’s largest absorber of carbon dioxide (and now 18% destroyed)—is growing. The Brazilian government recently reported that none of the 34 Paragominas logging companies passed minimum requirements set by the regulatory ITTO

(International Tropical Timber Organization).

Pollution in Paragominas is so bad that three of every four residents suffer a respiratory disease.

In Paragominas, in the northern state of Para, everyday looks like doomsday; although half the sawmills are already gone in search of cheaper and closer wood. It is impossible to tell where the smoke ends and the clouds begin. There are no water services, no lights, no garbage collection, and no sewers—only wood huts with mud floors built within feet of the ovens.

In the charcoal camps, the cremation of the rainforest is methodical. Tree trunks are stacked like toothpicks, chopped, burned, raked, and transported to power massive pig iron factories.

The Brazilian government has progressive environmental and child labor legislation, but this has not adequately curbed abuses in either area. A program that pays children an amount equal to possible salaries to stay in school is not working in Paragominas. Monitoring child labor in charcoal production, Sonia Levi of the UN’s International Labor Office

says:

It’s hard work and hazardous conditions. They (young children) work directly with fire. Their bodies are impregnated with charcoal dust. They have physical problems, problems with their lungs, they carry very heavy loads of wood. They have back problems. It must be hell.

The pictures of children that accompany this article are poignant. Antonio, 15, wipes sweat, sawdust, and smoke from his burning eyes with mud-caked hands and arms. He wears only shorts, and doesn’t even look up as he answers the interviewer:

‘I don’t go to school. I can’t read and I can’t write. I build the ovens, but I don’t get paid. I want to get out of here, but I can’t.’

Mario is only 11, but says he works three hours a day without pay for his father. His job is to rake charcoal out of the igloo-shaped ovens with a pitchfork.

‘I have a fever and malaria. (He says matter-of-factly, and then adds as a lumber truck roars by...) I’d like some day to be a driver.’

Elaine, 14, is lucky enough to be in school, which may have made her, at this point, more critical than understanding:

‘People here are stupid. They think this is a life and that it is enough. There’s very few that want better. People are afraid to try and do another thing. There are many boys here who don’t go to school. I want to be a teacher. My brother is there to work in charcoal and he thinks the charcoal is forever.’

Just three miles from this shanty town and the charcoal ovens, wealthy teenagers visit the mall in their designer jeans, purchase clothes, cosmetics and music items, and select a snack from among twenty flavors of Amazon fresh-fruit ice cream. According to the World Bank

, Brazil has the largest disparity between rich and poor in all the world.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What most impresses you in this article? What do you want to discuss?
2. To what extent should national governments and world agencies work to protect the rights of children? What do you consider to the be rights of all children?
3.  

1. Consider all the economic factors and actors in the drama of deforestation and child labor abuses. They include wealthy Brazilian businessmen, government officials, middle class bureaucrats, subsistence workers, and American and global citizens, their bankers and politicians. The debt demanded by the developed nations is another important factor.

IMPLICATIONS

1. No education is complete if it is not a global education. We must decide if the goal of education is to raise the living standards of individuals and each particular country or whether it is to bring about a more just global community. Schools and youth work must make some effort toward global understanding.
2. Children suffering anywhere impinge on the quality of all our lives. To neglect our children, or children anywhere, is to deny our human commitment.
3.  

1. Term papers in school and programs for youth groups should include such issues as these.

Peart, K.N. (1995, April 7). Green Teens Get Results

. Scholastic Update, pp. 14-16.

OVERVIEW

(Download Green Teens Get Results overview as a PDF)

Young people are leading the way in helping to protect the environment. In town after town, teens are becoming more aware of the dangers facing the environment and are taking steps to protect it. The following three examples cite instances in which teens have played an integral part in defending the environment: from planting trees to saving lakes to taking on a large corporation.

NO REFUSE

When Browning-Ferris Industries

(BFI) made plans to build a garbage plant in Titusville, Alabama, they did not expect much resistance. However, when construction began, community activists who were worried about air pollution from the garbage plant organized protest marches. The protesters claimed they were victims of "environmental racism," the practice of placing most garbage and toxic waste sites in minority communities. The Titusville community is mostly poor, elderly, and black. BFI claimed that race was never a factor in its decision. A lawsuit stalled the opening of the facility, but did not halt construction.

At this point, teens from Titusville and neighboring communities rallied to the cause. "The elderly people needed our help...we didn’t want the same thing to happen to other black communities," said Olly Taal, 18. In 1993, when the plant was built and ready to open, Taal and other teens organized a march through the streets of Birmingham to City Hall. When the teens ignored police requests to stop, Taal and 13 others were arrested. Newspaper accounts of the event united Birmingham against the plant. The city agreed to buy the facility and BFI agreed to leave.

SIGNS OF LIFE

Members of the Lake Park High School Earth Club

in Roselle, Illinois, spend Saturday mornings at the shores of Goose Lake, a neighborhood pond that was nearly dead three years ago. The club’s goal is to produce the area’s first nature sanctuary.

Members are already seeing results from their work. "When we started the pond was disgusting and bare," says Katharine Pionke, 17. "The water was thick with waste and there was a big fish kill-off...Now we’re beginning to see some evidence of wildlife." After Goose Lake is restored, the club will move on to four other ponds in the area. Student members of the club raise most of their money by recycling cans and selling bird feeders. They also receive grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

.

GREENSPEAK

In Boston, Massachusetts, kids between the ages of 12 to 18 have the latest news about the environment. Twenty-four students from eight inner-city high schools make up the staff of Greenspeak

, a newspaper of kid-friendly articles about the environment. Greenspeak has become a popular tool in improving reading, science, and problem-solving skills of its staff, and it is often used as a teaching tool for younger students. The eight-page paper is published five times a year and covers topics such as plants, water, recycling, energy, endangered species, wildlife, and the weather. The newspaper now reaches 4,000 students in more than 50 of Boston’s 80 public elementary schools.

"I wanted to help younger kids learn about the environment and to value it more," says Margaret Pham, 16. "...The best thing is visiting a classroom and seeing the excited look on the fifth-graders’ faces when the teacher passes out Greenspeak." Project organizer Elizabeth Gilmore says that staff members also serve as role models. "Younger students see that older students care about them and see, by example, that education and community involvement are very important," she says.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What do you think of the programs and efforts described here?
2.  

1. What other types of programs do you think would help older kids teach younger kids about the environment?

IMPLICATIONS

1. It is important to provide environmental education in schools so that young people gain an awareness of the dangers facing the environment at an early age.
2.  

1. Teens can really make a difference in conserving the environment. Youth groups and schools should organize environmental programs so that young people can immediately see the difference they make.

ENVIRONMENT OVERVIEW

(Download Environment overview as a PDF)

Young people are leading the way in campaigns to protect the environment. This trend toward environmental activism is reflected in schools: 99 percent now offer environmental education programs or have ecology clubs. Young people across the nation are taking up environmental causes and, in some cases, are winning huge battles for their communities.

SOME CASE STUDIES

Here are some examples

of students who have made a difference:

• Students at George Middle School in Portland, Oregon, became concerned when the noticed that heavy rains caused sewers to overflow into a body of water near Columbia Slough. The students, worried about the effect of the pollution on the fish, wrote the mayor, talked to people in the community, and eventually participated in a government study of the problem.
• Central Florida has become a battleground between environmentalists and developers. At risk are the scenic rivers and the Ocala National Forest. More than 100 middle school students in Marion County, Florida, volunteered for a special summer study of the environment using technology. They researched databases, videotaped interviews, and performed a variety of experiments. From their research, they prepared a 10-minute presentation to show to community leaders.
• Eric Champlin of North Canton, Ohio, became a barn owl activist after studying owls for his science project. He built nest boxes for the owls and placed them in farmers’ barns. He made tapes of the owls to attract them during mating season and developed the "Adopt a Barn Owl" program.
• Teens in Yucca Valley, California, worked with the head ecologist from nearby Joshua Tree National Park

• to develop a project to save the desert tortoise from extinction. The students used math and science to find the number of tortoises, the habitat suitability, and behavior. From their findings, students recommended moving the tortoises to a safer habitat.

GETTING INTO THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT

Groups such as the Nature Conservancy welcome student members. Before starting a group from scratch, students should look for existing groups that may have local chapters. Organizations such as Save the Rain Forest, Save Our Rivers, Adopt a Manatee, and Adopt a Sea Turtle

were each started by people concerned with unique problems in their areas.

An article in Current Health

magazine (Kelly, 1995) recommends working with established groups. "Organizations are very happy to have interested young people and will go overboard to help them," says Kelly. If you wish to move out on your own after working with a group, the following suggestions may help.

• Locate a core group in your school. Find a faculty advisor.
• Define your goals. Develop one to three goals.
• Find a name. Make the name positive, not hostile-sounding.
• Announce the first meeting and its agenda. Prepare handouts and posters with goals, suggested group names, and a brief background on the issues.
• Involve as many interested people as possible.
•  

• Once your project is formed, you may be eligible for a grant to fund your work.

THE "VEGGIE" MOVEMENT

Teens today who are concerned with the environment and the ecology are often choosing to go "veggie" (vegetarian). This can be disturbing for parents who worry that their kids are not getting the proper nutrition or who are tired of cooking special meals for their meatless teens. Nevertheless, the movement is on. Teenage Research Unlimited of Northbrook, Illinois, found that 35 percent of girls and 18 percent of boys thought that being veggie was "in." In another survey, 37 percent of teens said that they try to avoid red meat. This number is 50 percent higher than people a generation older. Danny Seo

, 18, founder of a teens-only advocacy group called Earth 2000, says that the "defining focus" of his generation will be "no animal cruelty, no meat."

Concern for animals is the primary reason for kids giving up meat. Groups like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and Animalearn

have made teens a prime target for their messages. Most veggies are indignant about factory-farming practices and link eating meat with ecological destruction. Celebrity followers have given the veggie movement a boost. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Michael Stipe of REM are both vegetarians.

Note: The following sources were used for this topic discussion:

• Kaufman, L., Springen, K., Rogers, A., & Gordon, J. (1995, August 28). Children of the Corn. Newsweek, pp. 60-62.
• Kelly, E.B. (1995, July). Get Involved with Protecting Your Paradise. Current Health, pp. 13-15.
• Peart, K.N. (1995, April 7). Green Teens Get Results

• . Scholastic Update, pp. 14-16.