An environmental activist working in Harlem, NY, detailed her successful green efforts in a poor urban setting to emphasize the power of grassroots campaigns Wednesday night at Science Hall.
Peggy Shepard, executive director and co-founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, presented the talk on environmental justice, health and sustainability as part of a lecture series by the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Gregg Mitman, director of the Center for Culture, History, and Environment said Shepard has been at the center of the environmental justice movement, which traces its beginnings to the 1980s. WE ACT was founded in 1988.
A study done by a racial justice group in 1986, according to Shepard, found race and income as predictors of where toxic waste facilities are located.
Shepard said poor people of color live amongst the most pollution because they lack the information about health risks. Additionally, residential areas and industrial sites coexist as a result of bad land use and zoning decisions.
According to Shepard, research done by the Columbia Children's Environmental Health Center found that high prenatal exposure to pollutants found in diesel exhaust exists in Harlem. These pollutants increase abnormalities in fetal tissue and the risk of cancer.
East Harlem also has the highest asthma rates in the country, Shepard said.
To combat Harlem's pollution, WE ACT has already helped to pass legislation that requires the use of ultra low sulfur diesel. In addition, they created the Harlem Waterfront Council, which aims to curb pollution in the Hudson River and educate people about pollution's risks.
Shepard said an ongoing goal is to develop community planning, processes, trainings and resources that empower residents to participate in the effort to build environmentally friendly green"" buildings.
Tahroma Alligood, a UW-Madison graduate student at the Gaylord Nelson Institute, said she thought learning about environmental justice in class is not always the most educational way.
""Academics are one part of an education, but hearing what people are doing in the real world who are successful and who are having a great effect is almost more important,"" she said.
