The Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969 and sparked the modern environmental movement. Today rivers aren’t on fire, but they are poisoning children.
Environmental issues are fundamentally about justice. Minorities and the poor always pay the highest price for environmental degradation. Poisoned water, air and food inflict a constant, insidious violence on our country’s most vulnerable, and I’m sick of it.
There’s a reason coal plants pop up in poor communities. There’s a reason black children are more likely to suffer from lead poisoning. There’s a reason folks in Appalachia deal with asthma at a much higher rate than the national average.
This blog is about acknowledging and talking about those reasons. It is also about giving a platform to voices that have been historically marginalized in the mainstream environmental movement.
There is a growing awareness of how all social justice issues – from Black Lives Matter, to raising the minimum wage, to fighting global warming – are connected. A River on Fire is about forging even stronger ties between all people and groups working toward a truly just, clean and safe future for all of us.
Thank you for being here.
A River on Fire 