The Vital Role of the Environmental Justice Community in Addressing the Climate Crisis

Recent devastating events have made clear what experts have been warning for decades: climate change is not only real, it is here. Moreover, its impacts are coming more quickly and intensely than even many of the most alarmed among them had predicted. Much of the time, the worst of those impacts fall disproportionately on those who have done the least to contribute to their causes and who are most vulnerable to them. This reality is consistent with a long history in this country and globally of burdening traditionally marginalized communities with the dirtiest, most polluting and least healthy industrial and commercial facilities. The environmental justice and, more recently, the climate justice movements have evolved from these harsh circumstances, borne of the necessity of fighting back against grossly unfair systems and the health and environmental impacts imposed on the communities they represent. After decades of being themselves marginalized, if not outright ignored, by the larger environmental community. there is finally recognition of the crucial role that these movements must play in addressing our most imposing existential threats. Critically, the Biden Administration has made addressing environmental injustice core to its climate strategies. In this session, Kate Sinding Daly will explore the history and current role of the environmental justice movement. Not a product of the movement herself, Kate will bring the perspectives of an environmental attorney, advocate and philanthropist who works in allyship with environmental and climate justice partners.

Registration is $18 in advance/$24 at the door. Masks are required.

GUEST SPEAKER:
Kate Sinding Daly, Esq., is the executive director of NorthLight Foundation, which is the family foundation of Dan and Sheryl Tishman, and focuses on advancing equitable and enduring solutions for environmental and human health. Prior to her current role, she was senior advisor to the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and, before that, a senior attorney and deputy director of NRDC’s New York program. Before she joined NRDC in 2006, she was a partner in the specialty environmental law firm of Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C. She has taught environmental law at Columbia University and Fordham University. She is a graduate of New York University School of Law, the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and Barnard College.