Experts links environmental effects, social groups

A symposium held Friday recognized that the community is key to addressing environmental concerns.

At the Environmental Justice Symposium in Perkins Library, three speakers discussed how environmental dangers disproportionately affect different social groups. Race, class and gender were analyzed along with different environmental risk factors.

The Nicholas School of the Environment, the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy at the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, the Office for Institutional Equity and American Literature sponsored the event.

The speakers—who discussed the importance of involving the community with their research—included Manuel Pastor, professor of geography and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California; Peggy Shepard, executive director and co-founder of the New York-based organization WE ACT for Environmental Justice; and Marie Lynn Miranda, associate professor of environmental sciences and policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment.

Pastor said his research revealed that low-income and non-white communities are often located near dangerous or high-risk areas in Southern California. He said he aims to involve the communities in addressing the environmental hazards in their cities.

“[My research] revealed long-standing tensions between activists and researchers and suggests the need to repair that divide,” Pastor said.

Shepard spoke about the ways in which politics sometimes impedes progress and noted ways in which these barriers can be overcome.

Sometimes factual information and raw data are not enough to spark change in politics, Shepard said, but activism within a community is where a successful campaign can begin.