Leah Thomas | |
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Personal information | |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Environmental activist |
Website | www |
Instagram information | |
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Leah Thomas, also known as Green Girl Leah, [1] [2] is an American environmental activist active on Instagram whose work focuses on the application of intersectionality to environmental justice. [3] [4] She has been recognized in the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list of notable young professionals. [5]
Thomas grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri, 10 minutes from where the shooting of Michael Brown by police happened. [6] She found no one was talking about the intersection of environmental and social injustices, such as the Flint, Michigan water crises where 57% of the population is Black. [7]
She gained notoriety after an Instagram post of hers that used the phrase "intersectional environmentalism" and called for environmental activists to support Black Lives Matter in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. [2] [8] [9]
She runs Intersectional Environmentalist, a website targeted towards people interested in the relationship between the environment and social justice. [2] She is the author of The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet, which provides advice to environmental activists and describes theories of relationships between race, privilege, social justice, and the environment. [10] [11]
Thomas advocates for climate change activists to adopt anti-racist approaches in order to facilitate an intersectional environmental movement. [12]
Thomas graduated Chapman University in Orange, California in 2017 with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy. [13]
An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities". An environmentalist is engaged in or believes in the philosophy of environmentalism or one of the related philosophies.
Youth activism is the participation in community organizing for social change by persons between the ages of 15–24. Youth activism has led to a shift in political participation and activism. A notable shift within youth activism is the rise of “Alter-Activism” resulting in an emphasis on lived experiences and connectivity amongst young activists. The young activists have taken lead roles in public protest and advocacy around many issues like climate change, abortion rights and gun violence.
Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed.
Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecologism combines the ideology of social ecology and environmentalism. Ecologism is more commonly used in continental European languages, while environmentalism is more commonly used in English but the words have slightly different connotations.
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Christian views on environmentalism vary greatly amongst different Christians and Christian denominations.
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Michael D. Shellenberger is an American author and journalist who writes about politics, the environment, climate change, and nuclear power. He is a co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute and the California Peace Coalition. Shellenberger founded the pro-nuclear non-profit Environmental Progress in 2016.
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Sustainability studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the interdisciplinary perspective of the concept of sustainability. Programs include instruction in sustainable development, geography, environmental policies, ethics, ecology, landscape architecture, city and regional planning, economics, natural resources, sociology, and anthropology. Sustainability studies also focuses on the importance of climate change, poverty, social justice and environmental justice. Many universities across the world currently offer sustainability studies as a degree program. The main goal of sustainability studies is for students to find ways to develop novel solutions to environmental problems.
Dorceta E. Taylor is an American environmental sociologist known for her work on both environmental justice and racism in the environmental movement. She is the senior associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Yale School of the Environment, as well as a professor of environmental justice. Prior to this, she was the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Michigan's School of Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), where she also served as the James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor of Environmental Justice. Taylor's research has ranged over environmental history, environmental justice, environmental policy, leisure and recreation, gender and development, urban affairs, race relations, collective action and social movements, green jobs, diversity in the environmental field, food insecurity, and urban agriculture.
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Leah Namugerwa is a youth climate activist in Uganda. She is known for leading tree planting campaigns and for starting a petition to enforce the plastic bag ban in Uganda. Following inspiration from Greta Thunberg, she began supporting school strikes in February 2019 with fellow Fridays for the Future Uganda organizer Sadrach Nirere.
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Kevin J. Patel is an American climate justice activist and community organizer. Patel has openly shared his experience as a frontline climate activist diagnosed with respiratory issues. He is also the founder and executive director of OneUpAction, an international youth-led nonprofit based in the U.S. that supports marginalized youth by providing them with resources to create change in their communities.
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