LVEJO was a proud presenter at the 2007 Greenfest held on April 21st & 22nd at McCormick Place.
Kimberly Wasserman Nieto, Coordinator presented on the "Eco-Justice Communities of Color" Panel and LVEJO hosted a table at the event with information on Public Transit and the Clean Power Campaign. Below are reviews of that days events.
More details:
http://www.worldchanging.com/
http://www.worldchanging.com/local/chicago/
http://www.worldchanging.com/local/chicago/archives/006582.html (reprinted below)
Green-Collar Jobs and Environmental Justice at Green Fest
Lisa Hodges April 27, 2007 7:51 AM
Last weekend, Green Festival swept through Chicago, bringing thousands together in a tribute to the growing influence of "going green." While enjoying my saliva-inducing plate of Soul Vegetarian’s barbeque soy bits, I couldn’t stop thinking about one striking difference between this and previous green events in Chicago. A glance down the list of speakers showed several talks focused solely on broadening the green movement to include low-income communities and communities of color. In Chicago, this inclusion seems particularly important. Issues such as rising asthma rates and lack of access to fresh produce plague much of the city. Expensive green initiatives, such as installing solar panels or switching to a hybrid car, do not address these problems. Easily the most recognizable speaker on this topic, Van Jones drew a large and enthusiastic crowd. His talk was mainly an expansion of an article he wrote for Conscious Choice this month. He celebrates the growing inclusiveness of the green movement, but implores us to question, "Who are we going to take with us, and who are we going to leave behind?"
For Van, the current environmental movement lies divided sharply between rich and poor. Each have fundamentally different priorities: the rich focus on conservation and lifestyle choices, while the poor remain concerned about basic care all too often denied their communities, such as health care and job creation. The solution, he instructs us, is simple. Create an industry of "green-collar" jobs. Green vocational education should be institutionalized in struggling communities across the country. In order for the green movement to succeed, we must move away from our current course of "eco-apartheid" and work towards broader solutions.
Another panel, "Eco-Justice in Communities of Color," featured Chicago-based activists. Kim Wasserman, an infectiously dynamic speaker, rallied the crowd with her denouncement of Chicago’s coal plants located in the two minority-dominated communities of Little Village and Pilsen. Her organization, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (in Spanish: "El Viejo," the Old Man), has been a powerful neighborhood force for years. Their impressive environmental health resume includes reducing lead in schools and creating urban agriculture programs. They were also instrumental in campaigning for a bill passed in 2006 to reduce mercury levels at Illinois power plants. Read more about the organization’s successes and current projects at www.lvejo.org.
Kim’s southside counterpart, Tammy Steels, is another neighborhood force. She utilizes her experience in corporate environmental health to build community knowledge and infrastructure to address local environmental health issues. She sums up the main obstacle to grassroots organization in her community (though it certainly pertains to a much larger community) as, "How do you become proactive when community leaders are only reactive?" In communities barraged by instances of violence and joblessness, grassroots activism is reduced to ineffective defensiveness. By organizing youth to create public awareness campaigns, she helps to educate her community and point out the fundamental importance of environmental health to the overall success of the community. Support her organization, Urban Sustainability Authority, in their second annual fundraiser May 5.
There has been much talk lately of the mainstreaming of the green movement. These talks remind us of the breadth of issues touched by environmentalism, and how we have to change our thinking to ensure that we are serving our communities as a whole. They were a welcome, and essential, presence at Green Festival.
For those of you that missed Green Festival, never fear. Recordings of all speeches should soon be online at www.greenfestivals.org/audio
Weird Weather Is Result of Global Warming
Planning for A Less Warmer Future
(CBS) CHICAGO There's snow in Texas today and not a shovel's worth here in Chicago. What's going on?
More and more experts are beginning to believe it may be caused by global warming. There are some who even believe Hurricane Katrina was the result of global warming. CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot has more on a town hall meeting in Chicago today to discuss the city's plan for the future. Katrina, the hurricane that ravaged New Orleans; the 1995 heat wave that left more than 700 people dead in Chicago -- experts say both of these devastating natural disasters were caused by global warming. "It's going to get a lot worse, a lot faster than anybody realizes," said UIC College of Medicine doctor Howard Ehrman.
More than 200 people gathered here at Whitney Young Magnet School for a global warming, town hall meeting. They came to hear city officials and community groups express the importance of taking care of the environment, now. "It's great for people to change light bulbs in their house and to walk -- that's all very important -- but themajor paradigm shift that has to be made is basically to get off carbon dioxide and fossil fuels," Ehrman said. The primary cause of global warming is carbon dioxide. It comes from power plants, airplanes, and car emissions. The carbon dioxide, along with pollution, collects in the air. The sun's heat is trapped. Then the Earth, warms up.
"It means we've got to put billions, not millions, but billions of dollars into public transit and we've got to stop building coal power plants and close the ones that exist down," added Ehrman. Young people at the meeting said they're willing to do their part to help the planet. "I'll probably shut off the lights, when they don't need to be on," said Whitney Young seventh grader Patrick Wieckowski. "I'll probably recycle more and I'll try to save water in my house."
The student said by taking action now, he'll protect the environment for future generations.
Today's global warming meeting is the first in a series of gatherings to take place this year about the issue.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Buggy Brigade Campaign:
Click on any image for full size |
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Little Village Community Residents attend the Baby Buggy Brigade to push the Illinois Pollution Control Board to pass the Governors Mercury Rule that would cut Mercury emission from Illinois Coal Power Plants |
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LVEJO Coordinator Kim Wasserman translates Community Organizer Elda Godinez Speech to the Press |
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Elda Godinez, Community Organizer for the Clean Power Campaign gives her speech to the press about the Mercury Rule and invites 1st Lady Patti Blagojevich to come tour the Little Village community and see the effects of the Coal Power Plants firsthand. |
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EPA ruling bad for our health
Friday, October 8, 2004
What kind of Environmental Protection Agency is this that has no concern for the citizens it is paid to protect? And what kind of governor is it that has no concern for his constituents' health?(Last month) the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency announced that reducing toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants would have "significant public health and welfare benefits," but it has decided to do nothing. Apparently, despite more than 1,300 premature deaths, more than 157,000 asthma cases and the fact that women cannot eat fish for fear that their babies will be born with health defects, the EPA will continue to do nothing but ensure that you will have increased health insurance costs and lost days from work. The agency's concept is that Illinois alone can't have an effect on the environment. (Yet) other states, including Wisconsin, have already taken the initiative to protect citizens with stringent pollution controls, while Illinois' polluting coal plants have had no pollution controls for more than 30 years. We must let the governor know that we want our tax money put into clean, renewable industries. The EPA admits: "Adverse health impacts can be minimized through the use of technology and renewable energy," yet the governor won't make the decision to create 57,000 new jobs in the clean, renewable energy field.Please let your opinions be known.
Call your representative and the governor.
Ellen Rendulich - Carol Stark - Sandy Burcenski
Directors - Citizens Against Ruining the Environment - Lockport
Illinois EPA rejects tougher pollution rules
for coal-burning plants
Wednesday September 29, 2004 - By CHRISTOPHER WILLS - Associated Press Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) After years of study, the state Environmental Protection Agency has concluded it would be ``irresponsible'' for Illinois to act on its own and order coal-burning power plants to reduce the amount of soot and mercury they release into the air.
It recommends that Gov. Rod Blagojevich put aside the idea of imposing tougher standards on 21 older power plants that are now exempt from the strictest federal regulations. Instead, the focus should be on getting the federal government to tighten standards nationwide, according to a summary of the agency's findings that was released Wednesday. The study concludes that it's not clear how much air quality would be improved by tighter regulations in just one state. Meanwhile, standards that go beyond what the federal government already imposes might hurt the state's economy, drive up consumer costs and endanger reliability of the electricity supply, the summary said. ``Moving forward with a state-specific regulatory or legislation strategy without fully understanding all of the critical impacts ... would be irresponsible,'' the agency concludes. ``Illinois EPA recommends that the governor continue demanding that the federal government act nationally to reduce power plant emissions.''
Environmental activists and health organizations say the old plants endanger Illinoisans, causing 1,700 premature deaths each year, triggering thousands of asthma attacks and contaminating fish with mercury. They have pressed Blagojevich to go further than the federal regulations and impose state limitations on the plants. The Democratic governor said during his 2002 campaign that he agreed the older plants should be required to meet tougher pollution standards.
Rebecca Stanfield, staff attorney with the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, called the report's conclusions disappointing, especially given the g overnor's past support. ``This resembles the industry's talking points and it does not at all resemble what this agency has said on the topic in the past,'' she said. ``It seems like they have substituted the judgment of scientists and experts with that of the industry.'' But she said the report offers a silver lining in the state EPA's call to continue studying the unanswered questions about health, jobs and more. She said the agency should finish reviewing those questions within 90 days. Blagojevich agrees with the report's conclusion that it would be a mistake for Illinois to act before answering all the questions spelled out in the EPA report, said spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch. He is not abandoning his campaign promise, she said just delaying it while experts study the issue.
``There are a lot of aspects of this debate to consider,'' she said. Lawmakers ordered the state EPA three years ago to begin studying whether it made sense to impose the tougher standards including the impact on jobs and electricity prices and come up with recommendations by Sept. 30. The agency concludes there are still too many unanswered questions to justify recommending that Illinois impose tougher pollution standards on the plants.
``Critical information gaps remain that must be addressed before any responsible proposal to reduce power plant emissions can be developed,'' the executive summary says. The summary acknowledges that reducing power plant emissions would produce ``significant public health and welfare benefits.'' But EPA Director Renee Cipriano said Illinois, acting alone, might not be able to reduce emissions. ``Air pollution does not respect state boundaries. We've got pollution coming in to us from other states,'' she said. ``Really what we're saying here is the door is open and there are questions that have to be answered.''
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Air pollution hits Hispanics hardest, group says
September 24, 2004
- BY GARY WISBY Environment Reporter
Standing on a street Thursday in Little Village, Dr. Howard Ehrman asked a crowd of about 20 Hispanics how many of them had asthma or knew someone who did. Every right hand shot up. Ehrman, chairman of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, joined health and public interest groups in releasing a report showing that air pollution hits Hispanic communities the hardest. "Mrs. Sanchez misses work because she's having an asthma attack," said Ehrman, who is a professor of medicine at the University of Illinois and a 35-year resident of Little Village. "Mr. Cervantes' son is missing school because of his asthma."
Nationally, more than seven out of 10 Hispanic Americans breathe air that violates federal pollution standards, although they make up only 13 percent of the population, according to "Air of Injustice," the new report by the League of United Latin American Citizens. It's worse in Illinois, the report says, where the number of Hispanics breathing dirty air is nine out of 10. More than 92 percent of the state's Latinos live in the Chicago area.
In Chicago, all neighborhoods that are more than 90 percent Hispanic -- Little Village, Pilsen and Humboldt Park -- are less than five miles from either the Fisk or Crawford power plants on the West Side. Coal-fired power plants are the largest industrial source of air pollution.
" We are standing at ground zero of health impacts from these plants," said Rebecca Stanfield of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group.
She noted the timeliness of the report. Under a 2001 law passed by the General Assembly, Gov. Blagojevich must report by next Thursday on the need for new standards at the power plants. Federal government figures released Wednesday showed that emissions of sulfur dioxide from coal-fired plants increased by 3percent from 2002 to 2003 in Illinois, said Brian Urbaszewski of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago. Sulfur dioxide is the chief source of fine particle pollution, or soot.
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