Ep. 25, Duality of Environmental Justice Conference

Environmental Justice Conference

• Stanford Door School of Sustainability and Stanford Graduate School of Business held a two-day conference on environmental justice.
• Environmental justice emphasizes kindness, sharing, and diversity to build solutions.
• The term "environmental justice" can be interpreted in different ways.

Disproportionality and Ecosystem Services

• The conference focused on disproportionality and ecosystem services as the two main aspects of environmental injustice.
• Disproportionality refers to the harmful environmental aspects that disproportionately affect certain communities, such as pollution and climate change.
• Ecosystem services refer to the benefits of nature, such as cultural and recreational opportunities, which are not equally distributed among different sectors of society.

Extinction and Diversity

• Extinction is the only irreversible global environmental change.
• The planet has experienced five major mass extinctions in the past but has always come back with even greater diversity.
• Diversity is essential for adaptation to environmental change.
• The conference had a diverse representation of speakers, with a majority being African American and women.

Art and Anger in Environmental Justice

• Art was used as a means of storytelling, driving social change, and building community at the conference.
• Anger can be a constructive emotion in environmental justice movements, motivating individuals to take action and not give up hope.

Addressing Environmental Injustice

• The conference highlighted various environmental injustice issues being addressed, from open defecation to climate change.
• Reliable information is necessary to effectively address these problems.
• There was a sense of urgency and commitment to addressing environmental injustice, with a focus on community-based approaches, humility, and empathy.