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Formation | 2007 |
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Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
The Neighbors for Environmental Justice (N4EJ) is an environmental justice group located on Chicago's Southwest Side. N4EJ was founded in 2017, in response to happenings of a local asphalt plant, MAT Asphalt. [1] As an environmental organization, N4EJ focuses its efforts on environmental justice, advocacy, public outreach, and education. [2] Additionally, N4EJ collects environmental data [3] and meets with local officials to discuss the prevention of future developments such as MAT Asphalt.
N4EJ was founded in 2007 by a group of community members, including Robert Beedle and Anthony Moser. The organization formed as a response to the development of a hot-mix asphalt plant, MAT Asphalt, located in Chicago's McKinley Park neighborhood. [4] MAT Asphalt neighbors a school, park, and residential units in McKinley Park. Despite community protest, MAT Asphalt has continued their operations. [5] These operations, according to N4EJ, could potentially have harmful effects on lung health, asthma, or worse, as a result of exposure to the dust and fumes the asphalt plant creates. [6] N4EJ is organized by local community members who are concerned about air quality and air pollution. Developments in Chicago, like Mat Asphalt, have undergone controversy regarding air quality violations in the past. [7] [8] In 2020, several complaints were filed against MAT Asphalt due to their failure in controlling airborne particles, foul odors, amongst other complaints. [9] With environmental concerns such as pollution in mind, N4EJ has partnered with other local and community-based environmental organizations including the Chicago Environmental Justice Network (CEJN), which also partners with organizations such as the Southwest Environmental Alliance (SEA), People for Community Recovery (PCR), [10] and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO). [11]
The Chicago Environmental Justice Network (CEJN) [12] is a community-based environmental justice coalition based on Chicago's South and West Sides. CEJN has a proposed mission of remediating environmental concerns, such as pollution, in Chicago residential areas. CJEN is affiliated with other local environmental justice organizations which are concerned with a variety of environmental, social, and economic issues. CJEN and its affiliates include the People for Community Recovery (PCR), the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), the Southwest Environmental Task Force (SETF), Blacks in Green, and The Neighborhood for Environmental Justice (N4EJ).
The Southwest Environmental Alliance (SEA) is a taskforce of environmental advocacy groups located near Chicago’s Southwest Side and neighboring industrial corridors.The alliance was founded in 2017. The areas covered by the alliance include Bridgeport, Canaryville, Brighton Park, and McKinley Park neighborhoods. [13] The environmental justice coalition was formed in response to community concerns regarding the industrial pollution in proximity to the Southwest Side. [14] The SEA's stated mission is to improve community health by mitigating the environmental concerns of the surrounding communities in the coalition. [15] SEA focuses its efforts on events that help the environment. An example would be the “Weed the Walk” event in which volunteers walk around learning about plants, animals, and how to take out weeds safely without damaging them. On top of that, SEA also set up dates to meet with electoral officials to discuss developers like Sims Metal Management, who cause harm to the environment. [16]
Founded in 1979 by Hazel Johnson, [17] People For Community Recovery (PCR) is an environmental justice group located near Altgeld Gardens. PCR was developed as a result of Johnson’s concerns regarding the correlation between cancer [18] and toxic waste sites, climate change, [19] equitable economic development, [20] and the overall environmental health of the neighboring communities which border industrial sites. [21] At the community level, PCR has developed or partnered with local programs, such as After School Matters, and Minority Worker training, which is intended for training locals for professions in the food and horticulture professions [22] as well as the construction industry that deals with the management of hazardous waste.
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) is a community-based non-profit organization based in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. LVEJO was founded in 1994 [23] following the concern of local parents who felt renovations at Joesph E. Gary Elementary might expose students to environmental hazards including pollution from air particulates, which could contribute to asthma and lead poisoning. [24] LVEJO's proposed mission is to promote environmental justice and community empowerment through sustainable community development, community organizing, and advocacy.
LVEJO's work primarily focuses on addressing environmental issues such as air pollution, water quality, and waste management, as well as promoting policies and practices that support social, economic, and environmental justice. [25] Notably, LVEJO played a key role in the successful advocacy for the closure of two coal-fired power plants in the Little Village neighborhood. [26] [27]
The organization offers various programs and services to fulfill its mission, including youth leadership development, community organizing training, and environmental education initiatives. [28] LVEJO also partners with other organizations and community groups to create green infrastructure projects that improve air and water quality in the Little Village neighborhood and beyond.
The environmental movement, is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. Environmentalists advocate the just and sustainable management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behavior. In its recognition of humanity as a participant in ecosystems, the movement is centered on ecology, health, and human rights.
Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in order to create a healthy environment must be determined. The major sub-disciplines of environmental health are environmental science, toxicology, environmental epidemiology, and environmental and occupational medicine.
Lower West Side is a community area on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is three miles southwest of the Chicago Loop and its main neighborhood is Pilsen. The Heart of Chicago is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the Lower West Side.
McKinley Park, one of the 77 official community areas of Chicago, Illinois, is located on the city's southwest side.
Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor and 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.
Environmental issues in Pakistan include air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, climate change, pesticide misuse, soil erosion, natural disasters, desertification and flooding. According to the 2020 edition of the environmental performance index (EPI) ranking released by Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, Pakistan ranks 142 with an EPI score of 33.1, an increase of 6.1 over a 10-year period. It ranked 180 in terms of air quality. The climatic changes and global warming are the most alarming issues risking millions of lives across the country. The major reasons of these environmental issues are carbon emissions, population explosion, and deforestation.
Altgeld Gardens Homes is a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing project on the far south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States, on the border of Chicago and Riverdale, Illinois. The residents are 97% African-American according to the 2000 United States Census. Built between 1944 and 1945 with 1,498 units, the development consists primarily of two-story row houses spread over 190 acres (0.77 km2).
WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a nonprofit environmental justice organization based in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. The organization was founded in March 1988 to mobilize community opposition to the city's operation of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant, and the siting of the sixth bus depot in Northern Manhattan.
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials into the atmosphere, causing harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damaging ecosystems. Air pollution can cause health problems including, but not limited to, infections, behavioral changes, cancer, organ failure, and premature death. These health effects are not equally distributed across the U.S population; there are demographic disparities by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and education. Air pollution can derive from natural sources, or anthropogenic sources. Anthropogenic air pollution has affected the United States since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
As with many countries, pollution in the United States is a concern for environmental organizations, government agencies and individuals.
The Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) is an organization founded in 1980 by Diane Takvorian and Tony Pettina, and includes a staff of 19 other individuals. Its goal is to achieve environmental and social justice in San Diego, California. Its work mainly concerns low income communities and communities of color in San Diego. It also works to affect public policy both locally and nationally. The coalition believes that by working closely with communities, it will be able to help mitigate the excessive amounts of pollution and other environmental hazards such as hazardous air pollution (HAPs), toxic waste disposal facilities, or superfund sites. One of its main goals is to prevent environmental injustice in San Diego and use that work to influence national environmental justice issues. Its mission statement is as follows:
Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), previously known as Citizens for a Better Environment, is a policy-focused non-profit organization started in 1971 by Marc Anderson and David Come in Chicago, Illinois. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, CBE expanded to California, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. CBE established itself in San Francisco in 1978 and expanded to Los Angeles in 1982. Today, CBE is based in Oakland, CA and Huntington Park, CA, effecting positive change in communities throughout California, including Richmond, East Oakland, Vernon, Huntington Park, Boyle Heights, Pacoima, Wilmington, and SE Los Angeles. CBE was the first environmental organization to practice door-to-door canvassing by directly involving community members. In 1980, CBE won the United States Supreme Court decision on Village of Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment 444 U.S. 620, protecting the 1st and 14th Amendment Rights of door-to-door activists with CBE and countless other public interest organizations. CBE's early combination of grassroots organizing with research and legal work provided the innovative edge needed to challenge large-scale industries and refineries, and government policies.
Kimberly Wasserman (Kimberly Wasserman Nieto) is an American environmentalist and grassroots leader As director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), she is a recipient of the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize for leading the successful lobbying campaign for the passage of the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance that resulted in the closing of the Crawford and Fisk coal-fired power plants.
KCBX Terminals is a petcoke, coal, salt, slag, cement, and clinker processing facility and ocean freight docking and loading services facility owned by Koch Industries located in Hegewisch, Chicago.
Exide is one of the world's largest producers, distributors and recyclers of lead-acid batteries. Lead-acid batteries are used in automobiles, golf carts, fork-lifts, electric cars and motorcycles. They are recycled by grinding them open, neutralizing the sulfuric acid, and separating the polymers from the lead and copper. In the US, 97 percent of the lead from car batteries is recycled - which is the highest recycling rate for any commodity. Most states require stores to take back old batteries.
Hazel M. Johnson was an environmental activist on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. She is considered to be the mother of environmental justice.
The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) is a non-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois. Originally founded in 1994, LVEJO's mission is to achieve environmental justice in the Little Village area of Chicago. LVEJO's work is centered around working with the community and aims to address the root of environmental issues.
El Puente is a non-profit arts and social justice organization located in the communities of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. El Puente was founded in 1982 by the late Luis Garden Acosta and co-founded with Eugenio Maldonado, and Dr. Frances Lucerna. Garden Acosta's mission was to stop the epidemic of violence stemming from youth gang/drug activity and street violence. El Puente's initiatives focus on fighting for a wide variety of social justice issues, including racial, environmental, immigration, educational, economic, housing justice, and more. As a renowned Latinx art's and cultural institution, El Puente does most of its activism through various visual and performative art forms.
Environmental racism is a form of institutional racism, in which people of colour bear a disproportionate burden of environmental harms, such as pollution from hazardous waste disposal and the effects of natural disasters. Environmental racism exposes Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanic populations to physical health hazards and may negatively impact mental health. It creates disparities in many different spheres of life, such as transportation, housing, and economic opportunity.
The Love Fridge Chicago, located in Chicago, Illinois is a mutual aid group addressing food waste and food insecurity by providing community fridges. The Love Fridge was started by numerous co-founders in July 2020 after seeing similar efforts in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic and completely operates on volunteer work and donations from local community residents.