It's more important than ever before to confront environmental inequality - please read:? ? ? ? Friend,

We find ourselves in difficult times. Across the country and around the world, we are facing unprecedented challenges, stresses, and concerns for our families and friends. All of us at LCV hope that you and your loved ones remain safe and healthy.

What is certain is that while we are all impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we're not all impacted the same way because of the compounded effects of systemic injustice and institutional racism. COVID-19 is hitting communities of color hardest ? especially Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. And President Trump's racist and xenophobic rhetoric in response to the crisis has threatened the safety of Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander communities across the country. This pandemic is yet another example that our fight to protect public health is inextricably linked to advancing racial justice.

Many cities and states are reporting disproportionate infection and mortality rates among people of color. In New York City, Black and Latinx people, who make up 51% of the city's population, account for 62% of the city's deaths. The Navajo Nation, which spans across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, has more confirmed cases of coronavirus per capita than all states except for New York and New Jersey ? a crisis that is exacerbated by the communities' lack of access to clean running water. In Illinois, where Black people make up a mere 15% of the population, they account for 28% of positive coronavirus diagnoses and 43% of the deaths. In Louisiana, where a third of the state's population is Black, Black people have accounted for 70% of the state's coronavirus related deaths. [link removed]

There are many systemic reasons why communities of color are facing greater risks of contracting this virus, including unjust red-lining policies, predatory banking systems that undermined the ability of families of color to build generational wealth, and inequitable access to healthcare, but environmental injustices are chief among them.

New research confirms what communities of color have experienced: Coronavirus patients who lived with more air pollution before the virus are more likely to die from the virus. And air pollution and other toxic pollution is concentrated higher on average in communities of color all across the country, leading to higher rates of asthma, heart and respiratory conditions, and worse health outcomes ? all of which multiply the danger of the novel coronavirus.

It's clear that our work to advance environmental justice and protect the health of families across the nation is more important in the face of this tragedy than ever before. LCV is committed to working alongside environmental justice groups leading the fight to build a more equitable and just world for all of us. But we can't do it without all of you on board.

Join us in supporting the Climate Justice Alliance and 5 Principles of a #PeoplesBailout to improve the public health and well-being of all communities while tackling the current coronavirus and ongoing climate crises ? [link removed]

Trump's response to the pandemic has disregarded science, cost lives and livelihoods, and magnified the devastating impact of this crisis on communities of color. From gutting the EPA's ability to hold toxic polluters accountable to decimating cleaner car standards that protect the air our families breathe, the Trump administration is doubling down on their toxic anti-environment agenda in the middle of a public health crisis. As you read this, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is undermining the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) to allow the release of more mercury, carcinogens, and other neurotoxins into our air.

This work is critical, it cannot wait, and it takes all of us working together to build a more equitable environmental movement. Stay safe, and thank you for all that you do.

LCV Membership Team ? ? ? ? ? This email was sent to [email protected]. If this isn't the best email address at which to reach you, update your contact information [link removed]. Click here to unsubscribe [link removed] from our supporter list. Send us any comments, criticisms, or feedback here mailto:[email protected]?subject=, or just reply to this email! Thanks for your support.

740 15th St NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC xxxxxx
202-785-8683 [link removed] ? ? ? ? [link removed]