Hi John,

We have two great events this week that I wanted to share as you plan for your week ahead. With 9 days until the 2020 Presidential Election(!), we are excited to highlight important environmental justice issues as well as talk about what advocacy looks like in this moment. 

Monday, October 26, from 7-9 pm

Environmental & Climate Justice: Anti-Racist Movements and Principles for Practice

Championed primarily by African-Americans, Latinos, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans, the environmental justice movement was built on a statistical fact: residents of America’s most polluted environments are commonly people of color and the poor. Environmental justice advocates have shown that this is no accident. The environmental justice movement fights for the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in developing, implementing, and enforcing environmental laws, regulations, and policy. Climate justice, deeply intertwined with the environmental justice movement, seeks to shift the discourse on climate change from a strictly scientific arena into a social justice and civil rights one, recognizing that climate change impacts often have disproportionate effects on historically marginalized or underserved communities. 

We’re proud to co-sponsor this event with the Energy and Environmental Law Society at the University of Maine School of Law.  Register here! 

Friday, October 30, from 12-1 pm

Lunch & Learn: Advocacy Amid Crisis

Michael Kebede, Policy Council for the ACLU of Maine, will reflect on the reckoning that the mass movement currently roiling America has meant for established advocacy groups like MCV and the ACLU. Drawing on scholarship, strategy, and political theory, he’ll reflect on the disjuncture, and possible complementarity, between policy advocacy and social movements and upheavals. Register here!

I hope you’ll plan to join us this week as we cultivate a deeper understanding of both environmental justice and the current state of advocacy in the United States.

Warmly,

Will

P.S. I look forward to our Lunch & Learns each week and I hope you do, too! Check our website to watch recordings of past events.  As always, if you have any suggestions for future Lunch & Learn topics, please email me!