environmental justice
Poverty & the Environment: A Grist Special Series
As you may know, Grist is publishing a seven-week series on the intersection of poverty and the environment, and we're writing to invite you to join in the ensuing discussion.
Much of popular and political culture dismisses the environmental movement as the pet cause of white, well-off Americans, yet the worst consequences of environmental degradation affect the homes, workplaces, families, and bodies of the poor. Grist is focusing on the environmental realities facing those below the poverty line -- a population of 37 million in the United States -- as well as the many additional millions of Americans who struggle to make ends meet. We hope this series will shed light on some frequently hidden environmental problems that the mainstream media rarely reports on, and serve as the beginning of a long-overdue conversation
on the connections between economic and ecological survival.
We encourage you to read the series and share it with students, friends and co-workers. Talk about this topic in your classes or study groups. Assign participation in our poverty and the environment discussion forum. Participate in our weekly Q&A with field experts. But most of all, be informed. Highlights of the series include:
- Mountaintop-removal mining is devastating Appalachia, but residents are fighting back
- How poultry producers are ravaging the rural South
- How developing countries prosper and get greener at the same time
- Facts and figures on poverty in the United States
- How the feds make bad-for-you food cheaper than healthful fare
- Could a western wildfire be the country's next Katrina?
There's lots more to come: a discussion of simple living vs. survival; stories on material consumption; the link between poverty, pollution, and the US/Mexico border; how the environmental movement is -- or isn't -- addressing these issues; and how best to move forward. Join the discussion; this conversation is too important to have without you.
-- The Grist Team
Write us at grist@grist.org.
Grist Magazine: Environmental News and Commentary
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