One Book 2023-2024: Environmental Justice & No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies: A Lyric Essay

Tell Your Story

Climate Storytelling: A Quick Guide
A linked PDF quick guide from APHA’s Center for Climate, Health and Equity workshop with tips and guidance on the ways one can use their own story in climate change activism

Environmental Justice Activism

“Leadership is rooted not in power and authority, but in service and wisdom”

-Kimmerer, in Braiding Sweetgrass, Pg. 21
(cited below)

Featured Resources by Source Type: Activism

Featured Organizations & Online Resources

350 Pacific
Pacific Climate Change group. 350 Pacific is a youth led grassroots network working with communities to fight climate change from the Pacific Islands.
350.org
Climate 350 is an international organization working to end the use of fossil fuels and build sustainable and equitable energy sources.
All We Can Save Project
Our mission: To nurture the leaderful climate community we need for a life-giving future
The problem: the climate crisis is a leadership crisis.
Carbon Footprint Calculator
From Conservation.org
Center for Earth Ethics
The Center for Earth Ethics advances policy and education on four key programs: Eco-ministry, Environmental Justice & Civic Engagement, Original Caretakers, and Sustainability & Global Affairs
Climate Reality Project
"The Climate Reality Project is holding 24 Hours of Reality: Spotlight on Solutions and Hope, a global day celebrating action and solutions that confront the climate crisis."
The Global Indigenous Youth Caucus
"The Global Indigenous Youth Caucus is comprised of numerous Indigenous youth from various States, organizations, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds from each of the 7 UN Regions."
Intersectional Environmentalist
“As an organization, Intersectional Environmentalist is working on being the change we hope to see, by contributing to the larger movement of individuals radically imagining a better future. We want to hold space for art, joy, rest, and community, and invite anyone interested in joining us, to do so."
MobilizeGreen
An organization aiming to remove barriers and create opportunities for youth in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics)-related fields.
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"MobilizeGreen empowers future leaders to create a just and equitable planet. We believe that young people can solve the worlds’ environmental challenges and that those young people must reflect the values and rich demographic mix of America. Through the use of mentoring, internships, and engagement, MobilizeGreen helps employers build a talent pool of future leaders, removing barriers, creating opportunities, and supporting the young person’s progress."
The NDN Collective
"NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms."
NRDC - Natural Resources Defense Council
OPAL: Organizing People Activating Leaders
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon Builds Power for Environmental Justice and Civil Rights in our Communities. We believe that it is necessary for community members who are most impacted by these issues every day—particularly BIPOC, low-income, youth, and transit-dependent folks—to organize and be heard.
Pacific Climate Warriors
Project Drawdown
"Founded in 2014, Project Drawdown® is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help the world reach 'Drawdown'— the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline."
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
"The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters."
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Carbon Footprint Calculator
"The calculator estimates your footprint in three areas: home energy, transportation and waste. Everyone's carbon footprint is different depending on their location, habits, and personal choices."
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: What You Can Do
The Years Project
"The Years Project is a multimedia storytelling and education effort designed to inform, empower and unite the world in the face of climate change....
We’re a team of journalists, strategists, filmmakers, artists and social media experts."
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Note - be sure to accept the cookies or the site cannot be viewed
The Sunrise Movement
"The Sunrise Movement is a youth movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. We’re building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people."
Union of Concerned Scientists
"The Union of Concerned Scientists is a member-supported nonprofit that’s fighting for a safer and healthier world."

Featured Articles

Use the links below to find articles from different publication types.

Reference Articles

These background or overview articles are useful for defining and understanding the history and key concepts of a topic. They come from subject-specific books and reports and aim to help you understand the basics. Find more articles like these in the databases Gale Ebooks, Opposing Viewpoints, or CQ Researcher.

The Environmental Debate : A Documentary History, with Timeline, Glossary, and Appendices Encyclopdedia of the history of the environmental movement
What Is Environmental Justice? a 2020 article from Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability
Conservation and Activism An article from Environmental Issues: Essential Primary Sources
Earth First! A 2019 article from Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History
Houston, Texas: Segregation, Sewage, and Environmental Racism A 2020 article from Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability

Popular Source Articles

These kinds of articles are from mainstream publications like the "Washington Post," "The Atlantic," or other publications aimed at the general public., as well as a wide variety of websites, both commercial, educational, and governmental. Find more sources like this in Academic Search Complete, ProQuest Combined, or Science In Context.

Judge Rules in Favor of Montana Youths in a Landmark Climate Case
NY Times Aug. 14 2023
At 75, the Father of Environmental Justice Meets the Moment
New York Times, 9/12/22
Meet 13 Indigenous Young Indigenous Rights Activists
An article about young, indigenous EJ activists from the UN
7 Young Indigenous Activists Standing Up for Their Communities
A short article with info about activists, from DoSomething.org
One World, Many Defenders
The Progressive, Oct/Nov2021
America's Dirty Shame: Living amid Raw Sewage
By Catherine Coleman Flowers
The Climate Crisis Is a Call to Action. These 5 Steps Helped Me Figure Out How to Be of Use
By Katherine Wilkinson

Scholarly Articles

Scholarly journal articles are written by scholars/experts/researchers for others in their field with the aim of sharing, reviewing, and building new information. These publications can give us insight into the ways that environmental justice topics are being studied at a research-based, academic levels. Find more articles like these in ProQuest Combined, Agricola, OR Global Issues in Context.

What is Degrowth? From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement Degrowth is the literal translation of 'decroissance', a French word meaning reduction. Launched by activists in 2001 as a challenge to growth, it became a missile word that sparks a contentious debate on the diagnosis and prognosis of our society. 'Degrowth' became an interpretative frame for a new (and old) social movement where numerous streams of critical ideas and political actions converge. It is an attempt to re-politicise debates about desired socio-environmental futures and an example of an activist-led science now consolidating into a concept in academic literature. This article discusses the definition, origins, evolution, practices and construction of degrowth. The main objective is to explain degrowth's multiple sources and strategies in order to improve its basic definition and avoid reductionist criticisms and misconceptions. To this end, the article presents degrowth's main intellectual sources as well as its diverse strategies (oppositional activism, building of alternatives and political proposals) and actors (practitioners, activists and scientists). Finally, the article argues that the movement's diversity does not detract from the existence of a common path.
“We Make Our Community”: Youth Forging Environmental Identities in Urban Landscapes Insofar as race, class, and gender have profound effects on people’s environmental experiences, and consequently their activism, the environmental field needs more work on the environmental experiences and insights of groups whose voices have been missing, including youth of color who live in urban areas in the U.S. In this paper, we focus on African American and Latinx students engaged in environmental projects in their urban communities and the impact of such projects on promoting pro-environmental leadership, agency, and behavior. We draw from written reflections and focus group interviews of several hundred 4th–12th graders (majority middle- and high-school students) who participated in place-based civic science projects. Thematic analyses of student responses found that students engaged in work on local environmental issues cultivated an appreciation for the natural world and an understanding of human-nature interdependence and the ties between the local environment and their communities’ health. Through taking action with others in their communities, students viewed themselves as contributors to their communities and started to form environmental identities in ways that are not traditionally measured. Findings point to the need for forms of environmental education that are contextually grounded and centered on environmental justice in urban areas.
Wood Waste and Race: The Industrialization of Biomass Energy Technologies and Environmental Justice In the 1980s, engineers developed new ways to use one of humanity's oldest fuel sources-wood-to create electrical power. This article uses envirotechnical analysis to examine the development of a wood-burning power plant in Flint, Michigan, and argues that when public officials began working with major energy corporations to build industrial biomass facilities in the 1980s and 1990s, new energy technologies designed to run on renewable fuels became part of an entrenched fossil fuel-based power structure that maintained deep historical inequalities. Like other examples of environmental injustice, the burdens of industrial-scale biomass power systems tended to fall on poor, nonwhite communities. By exploring the creation of the Genesee Power Station as part of an envirotechnical regime in Flint, this research seeks to develop conceptual bridges between the history of technology, environmental history, and environmental justice, and demonstrates the use of history to inform contemporary debates about sustainability.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Salience of Publicly Disclosing Demographic Data in American Environmental Nonprofits There has been a scholarly interest in the demographic characteristics of American environmental organizations since the 1960s, but until recently there was no readily available way of knowing the composition of the staff or board of these institutions as few revealed any of their demographic data publicly. For the past five years, there has been a high-profile campaign to get environmental nonprofits to disclose their demographic data. This paper examines 12,054 small, medium-sized, and large environmental organizations to find out how many of them have released diversity data on GuideStar. The article also examines how the state in which organizations are located, region of the country, urban or rural setting, organizational typology, amount of revenue, size of the staff, size of the board, gender of the chief executive officer (CEO), race of the CEO, and the year of completion of the GuideStar profile influenced the disclosure of diversity data. The researchers collected financial data from Internal Revenue Service tax forms and diversity data from GuideStar. The study found that 3.7% of the nonprofits studied divulged diversity data. However, organizations in the Pacific and Mid-Atlantic regions were most likely and nonprofits in the South least likely to report diversity data. Urban nonprofits were more likely to divulge diversity data than those located in the suburbs or in the rural areas. The highest level of reporting was in Washington, D.C. In addition, environmental justice organizations were more likely to disclose diversity data than other types of organizations. The larger the staff and the higher the revenue, the more likely it is that the organization divulged its diversity data. Organizations with female CEOs were more likely to reveal diversity data than male-headed nonprofits. Environmental organizations with ethnic/racial minority CEOs were also more likely to disclose demographic data than organizations with white CEOs.

Featured Videos

There are some DVDs you can check out from the library on environmental topics as well. The links here, however, are largely for online videos as there are so many great organizations with content. Streaming education films can also be searched in the database Films on Demand, linked in the "Digging Deeper in Your Research" tab of this guide, or from the library's homepage.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: How to find joy in climate action
TED Talk
Refugees Are Fleeing Climate Change A short 2020 video from The YEARS Project
TED Talks: Earth Appreciated A playlist of talks all about the beauty, wonder, and fragility of the natural world
What Can You Actually Do About Climate Change? A ~5 min. video from the "Hot Mess" series, streaming on Films on Demand
Why Humans Are So Bad at Thinking About Climate Change A short 2017 video from Vox
Indigenous activists on tackling the climate crisis: 'we have done more than any government' A short video from The Guardian, 2021
10 Questions With an Intersectional Environmentalist A 10+ minute video with activist Leah Thomas from Climate in Colour
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Leah Thomas (@greengirlleah) is an intersectional environmentalist, activist, and eco-communicator. After witnessing the fallout of Ferguson in her hometown of St. Louis, Leah switched her major to focus on environmental justice. She now works at Patagonia, where climate marches and communicating messages about a circular economy are on her daily to-do list. She has just launched her amazing platform @intersectionalenvironmentalist, check out the website to find a plethora of resources covering the intersection of social justice and climate justice.
How These Youth Climate Activists Are Changing the Future A 2019 video from NowThis
Climate Activist Greta Thunberg on the Power of a Movement A short video from PBS NewsHour
Wangari Maathai: For Our Land Through her Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai-environmental activist, social justice advocate, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient-has planted 30 million trees in Kenya while protecting existing forests endangered by development. A veritable force of nature herself, Maathai communicates her infectious fervor as she advocates environmental action and government reform in this documentary. The program also captures a sense of modern Kenya's history: a country co-opted by British colonialism, energized by independence, and mired in a repressive era of political corruption.

Featured Podcasts

Linked below are some well-known podcasts pertaining to climate change and other environmental issues

Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast
The Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast is a biweekly program where we dive into the career paths, research, and big ideas from past and present fellows, as well as other leaders in the field.
Breaking Green Ceilings
"Breaking Green Ceilings is a bi-weekly podcast series that amplifies the voices of environmentalists from historically underheard communities including Disabled, Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and people of color."
Broken Ground Podcast
Broken Ground is a podcast by the Southern Environmental Law Center
Brown Girl Green
Brown Girl Green is a Filipina American climate activist who interviews diverse, boundary-pushing leaders and advocates redefining what it means to be an “environmentalist” in the 21st century. It's time to put Brown back in the Green Movement.
Costing the Earth
A BBC Radio 4 Podcast - "Fresh ideas from the sharpest minds working toward a cleaner, greener planet"
Environmental Insights
"a podcast at the intersection of economics and environmental policy...intended to inform listeners about important issues relating to an economic perspective on developments in environmental policy, including – but not limited to – the design and implementation of market-based approaches to environmental protection."
Green Teens Environmental
"a podcast that raises awareness about caring for our environment and encouraging teens to take action. Your host Venya Sharma will take you on an environmental journey!"
How to Save the World: The Psychology of Environmental Action + Behavior
What *really* gets people to take action for the planet? Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, takes you on a wild intellectual journey into the heart of the environmental psyche.
Indigenous Action
Founded on August 25th, 2001 to provide strategic communications and direct action support for Indigenous community’s sacred lands defense. We are a radical volunteer crew of anti-colonial & anti-capitalist Indigenous media makers, designers, artists, writers & agitators that work together on a project by project basis for liberation for Mother Earth and all her beings. Over the years we’ve organized hundreds of actions, marches, banner drops, workshops, conferences, benefits, and much more.
The Joy Report
A "podcast dedicated to sharing stories about climate solutions and environmental justice grounded in intersectionality, optimism, and joy. Financial support for The Joy Report goes towards curating episodes and paying BIPOC writers for sharing stories on the organizations and heroes fighting for equity + inclusion in the outdoors"
Living on Earth - PRI Podcast
"Living on Earth from PRX is a weekly broadcast-based public radio podcast, timing in at just over 50 minutes each week. The focus of this podcast is climate change and its effects on ecology and human health."
On the Green Fence
"DW reporter Neil King sits on the fence and explores the role business, society and science play in our transition to a more environmentally friendly world. In so doing, he aims to make sense of issues that affect us all, but which are often over-simplified or convoluted by ideology and lobbyism. On the Green Fence stands for an open-minded, relevant and entertaining approach to the environment."
The Sustainable Jungle Podcast
"The Sustainable Jungle Podcast is a mission driven show, focusing on solutions for the world’s sustainability and conservation challenges. ...Join us as we create a place to encourage and galvanize positive change."
Terrestrial
"Terrestrial explores the choices we make in a world we have changed. Host Ashley Ahearn travels the country to bring listeners stories about people making personal choices in the face of environmental change."
The Way Forward For People And Our Planet: An Earth Day Special
Earth on the Air Podcast, Earthday April 22 2022
The Yikes Podcast
"Yikes is a podcast which leans into the Yikes of the world rather than letting it overwhelm us. We breakdown the issues in an accessible intersectional and nuanced way to guide us towards action together"

Sources used on this page:

Kimmerer, R. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass : Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.

Featured Books & eBooks - click on titles to access

Activists to Know

Activists to Know

The activists linked below are just a start. You can also search the library's collection for resources about these activists.

You can help us compile a more robust list by sending us your suggestions!

Lyla June Johnston
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Catherine Coleman Flowers
Naomi Klein "Naomi Klein is the UBC Professor of Climate Justice (tenured) at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Arts (Geography Dept). She is the founding co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice. "
Leah Thomas "Leah Thomas is an eco-communicator, aka an environmentalist with a love for writing + creativity, based in Ventura, CA. She’s passionate about advocating for and exploring the relationship between social justice and environmentalism. You could say she’s tryna make the world a little more equal for everyone and a little nicer to our home planet. "
Dr. Robert Bullard
Meet 13 Indigenous Young Indigenous Rights Activists
An article about young, indigenous EJ activists from the UN

Books by or About EJ Activist

Featured Books & Ebooks

Silent Spring

Main Collection

Banning DDT: How Citizen Activists in Wisconsin Led the Way

Nature's Justice: Writings of William O. Douglas

In print in the Main Collection 347.7326 D737n 2000

A Word for Nature: Four Pioneering Environmental Advocates, 1845-1913

Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America's Environment