| Photo by Mark Peterson/Redux |
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| | Sierra Magazine |
“It’s no exaggeration to say that racism and white supremacy harm all of us,” says Hop Hopkins, the Sierra Club’s director of strategic partnerships. “In addition to robbing us of our humanity, racism is also killing the planet we all share. An idea—a long-overdue realization—is growing in the environmental movement. I really believe in my heart of hearts—after a lifetime of thinking and talking about these issues—that we will never survive the climate crisis without ending white supremacy. "Here’s why." |
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| Photo courtesy of Javier Sierra |
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| | En Español |
The marches and rallies in support of The Movement for Black Lives have been overwhelmingly peaceful, amid the violent repression they have suffered, fanned by Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric. Regardless of his attempts to asphyxiate everything that is decent in our country, his construction of a wall around the White House, and his hiding from the American people, Trump now lives right across the street from what used to be Lafayette Square, which DC Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza earlier this month. The country and its political system must work for all of us, no matter where we are from, our gender, or the color of our skin.
"There will be no peace without justice—for all." |
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| Photo by iStockphoto.com/LFO62 |
| | | Take Action |
Our nation is in the midst of a public health crisis brought on by a failed response to COVID-19. Making matters worse, an independent study has found that Black people are more than twice as likely to die from the virus than white people. This is unacceptable. A new bill, the Environmental Justice COVID-19 Act, will help investigate and address the disproportionate effects COVID-19 has had on Black communities.
Please help us get it passed. |
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| Myrtle Felton, Sharon Lavigne, Gail Leboeuf, and Rita Cooper of Rise St. James protest the Formosa petrochemical plant | Photo by Edwin Tse |
| | | Sierra Magazine |
More than 150 petrochemical plants line the banks of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans—an 85-mile stretch known since the 1980s as Cancer Alley. The communities living along Cancer Alley are predominantly Black and, according to the EPA, their risk of getting cancer from air pollution is almost twice the national norm.
Now they’re disproportionately dying from COVID-19. |
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| Photo courtesy of the Sierra Club |
| | | Michael Brune |
The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda when it ruled on June 18 that its rationale for terminating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) was “arbitrary and capricious.” The ruling grants a major reprieve to 700,000 “dreamers”—young people who came to this country before age 16—who no longer have to fear losing their jobs, being separated from their families, or deportation to countries they haven’t seen for years.
But the victory may be fleeting. |
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| President Donald Trump and US Attorney General William Barr | Photo by the White House |
| | | Take Action |
On June 1, US attorney general William Barr personally ordered US Park Police and the National Guard to attack a group of peaceful Movement for Black Lives demonstrators who had gathered near the White House, using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and batons. Tear gas is a chemical weapon, illegal for use even during wartime. Using it against civilians peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights is an unconscionable abuse of power.
Tell your members of Congress to support the call for William Barr's immediate resignation. |
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| 2020 Election | Sign Up |
Donald Trump has the worst environmental record of any president in history. He has sought to divide the country, and make it less healthy, less prosperous, less just, and less equal. This November, we must reject his non-leadership and begin to heal and repair our nation. Sierra Club Independent Action is working to reach as many voters as possible to be with us on Election Day. Join us in contacting voters in key states in our fight for justice. |
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| Paid for by Sierra Club Independent Action and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. |
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| Photo by iStockphoto.com/Sasiistock |
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| | Take Action |
Few things are more fundamental to our health than the water we drink. The Clean Water Act, signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1972, has been one of our nation’s most effective environmental laws. Yet the Trump administration has exempted seasonal streams, wetlands, and other waterways from Clean Water Act protections, putting the drinking water for one-third of Americans at risk. In response, the Clean Water for All Act now before Congress would halt this rollback and require a new standard rooted in science. Tell your representative to support the Clean Water for All Act.
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| Photo by AP Photo/National Parks Service |
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| | Sierra Magazine |
Last week, in a rare show of bipartisanship in the nation’s capital, the Senate passed the Great American Outdoors Act by a vote of 73-25. The bill makes two important contributions toward securing a sustainable future for public lands and waterways: It permanently allocates $900 million annually to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and directs $9.5 billion to fund the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog. The House is expected to pass the bill in early July, and President Trump has said... Read on. |
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| | Podcast |
In the latest installment of The Overstory, the Sierra Club’s podcast, we talk with some folks who are coping with the pandemic by getting closer—much closer—to the earth. The co-CEO of Johnny's Selected Seeds talks about the skyrocketing demand for vegetable seeds sparked by "pandemic planting," while urban farmers Kanchan Dawn Hunter and Novella Carpenter answer listeners' gardening questions. Our advice columnist Ms. Green talks with her mom about how to grow "zombie" crops on the kitchen counter—plus a radio diary from Nicole Hill, a woman who’s organizing against water shut-offs in Detroit.
Tune in, turn on, shelter in place. |
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| The COVID-19 crisis has not passed and continues to
disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people and other communities of color. The pandemic has revealed how the communities hardest hit are often the same communities that suffer from high levels of pollution and poor access to healthcare. The fight for environmental justice cannot be separated from the fight for racial justice. |
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