Dear John,

Another Earth Week is coming to an end. During this year’s observance, a jury convicted Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murder in the killing of George Floyd.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters exists to protect our state, country, planet and everyone who inhabits it. Throughout the week, working with our members, volunteers, supporters, staff, and allies – the people working at the very frontlines of the fight for an equitable, safe, and clean future – was humbling and inspiring.

But this work we’re dedicated to means nothing if Black, AAPI, Indigenous communities, and all communities of color are not safe in the very environment we’re fighting for – no one should fear persecution or death because of the color of their skin.

No court verdict will ever deliver real justice for racist police violence against Black people. Nor can it erase the collective pain and trauma of those across the country, particularly Black people, who have had to repeatedly witness George Floyd’s murder, and live through more of these deaths even as his trial was underway.

While we are grateful a murderer is being held accountable for his crimes, we simultaneously grieve for George Floyd, for Daunte Wright, for Adam Toledo, and for every Black, Indigenous, and person of color who has endured systemic racism and abusive policing practices for generations.

Real justice requires comprehensive policing reform and transforming the institution to protect all communities, rather than protecting some at the expense of others. As an organization with “voters” in its name, we also acknowledge the long history of disenfranchisement of these same groups of people.

As Earth Day’s founder Wisconsinite Gaylord Nelson once said “the environment involves the whole broad spectrum of man's relationship to all other living creatures, including other human beings” and that involves the environment “in its broadest and deepest sense” including the environment of underserved communities that suffer most from pollution.

We express our deepest gratitude to everyone who attended our events this week, who support our work, and who perform that work through volunteering, voting, calling lawmakers, and educating themselves on the history of oppression in this country and in the environmental movement.

As we move forward, we’re using this Earth Week as another opportunity to strengthen our commitment to racial justice, climate justice, and to the love and care for all people who inhabit and are sustained by our planet.

We’ll be tracking federal and state legislation and local policy that addresses racism in all its forms and will keep you updated on how to act for justice, our shared environment, and an equitable future for all.

We encourage you to support organizations doing this important work in your community. Here is a short list of the many organizations to consider giving to and supporting: