Missouri Environmental Education News
February 2019

Table of Contents: Feature: Environmental Justice, Things to Look Out for in February, MEEA News, Grants, Contests and Awards, Conferences, Workshops, Jobs, Teaching and Learning: The Human Cost

Protestors led by Reverend Joseph Lowery march against a toxic waste dump in Warren County NC in 1982.

Environmental Justice

The Civil Rights movement revealed that discrimination against minorities wasn't just about denial of voting rights, legal protections, and economic opportunity. It also uncovered an outsize exposure of minorities to pollution and polluting activities. Several key events crystallized awareness of the issue in the United States.

• 1968 - Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike over the hazardous working conditions that led to the deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker
• 1979 - Margaret Bean and other Houston residents sue Southwestern Waste Management over siting a landfill next to a minority neighborhood, in spite of the fact that all 5 city landfills, 6/8 incinerators and 3/4 of private landfills were already sited near minority neighborhoods even though blacks were only 25% of the population (It was this case that started Dr. Robert Bullard on his research showing hazardous activities were almost always put in minority neighborhoods)
• 1982 - Warren County takes North Carolina to court over its decision to site a PCB waste landfill in Warren County. The NAACP organized citizens of the county to lay in front of trucks carrying the waste. There were over 550 arrests in the largest collective non-violent direct action since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched through Alabamba.
• 1987 - The United Church of Christ released a study of five variables related to the siting of hazardous waste sites - 1) per cent minority population, 2) mean household income, 3) mean value of owner-occupied homes, 4) number of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites per 1000 persons, and 5) pounds of hazardous waste generated per person. Of the five factors, the single most predictive factor was per cent minority population, followed by income and value of homes. Neither the number of uncontrolled waste sites - used to assess geographic or historical factors affecting siting, and waste generated - used to assess importance of proximity to the waste producers, were significant. What mattered was race and class, and race mattered more.

In response to the growing awareness that minorities and low income communities were bearing an unfair share of the burden of hazardous waste produced in the U.S., President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 on February 16, 1994: Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations. As defined by the EPA, Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences of industrial, municipal, and commercial operations, or the execution of federal, state, local and tribal programs and policies.

The EPA is seeking proposals for its Environmental Justice Small Grants program, deadline March 8, 2019. It provides funds directly to community-based organizations to help underserved communities understand and address local environmetnal and public health issues. Underserved communities include minority, low income, rural, tribal, indigenous, and homeless populations that may be disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks.

 

Things to Look for (or Look Out for) in February!

(check out all the green holidays)

• 2 World Wetlands Day (annually)- http://www.wetland.org
• 27 International Polar Bear Day (annually)- http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/our-work/international-polar-bear-day

What to Look for Right Now - MDC's list of What's Out There in February!

MEEA News

• People Team
  • Memberships - Welcome to new member Mackenzie Adelman
  • Networking - no updates
• Purpose
  • Conference - Next year's conference will be in the St. Louis Area, the first weekend of November. If you are interested in being on the planning committee or helping in some other way, email weaver@meea.org.
  • Missouri Green Schools - MEEA, DESE, MDC and DNR met to review nominations. Selected schools will be submitted to the US Department of Education later this month. The schools will be notified at the same time.
  • Grants - MEEA awarded Environmental Education grants to Helping Paws Get Recycling, RiverVision Leadership Project: Mammal Investigations, An Inquiry into Missouri Backyard Birds. Check out their projects at http://www.meea.org/meea-grant-recipients.html#y2018
• Resources
  • Accounting - The Q4 ledger was reviewed by the board, Jan is working on the 990EZ
  • Fund Development - no updates
• Governance Team
  • Board of Directors - Look for a ballot sometime in the first week of February.
  • Administration - The board will be meeting on February 4. Agenda items include hiring for the Executive Director Position and a by-law change reducing the number of At-Large Board Members from 6 to between 2 and 4. If you are interested in listening in on the conference call, contact Jan Weaver at weaver@meea.org for the call-in number.

Coming Up in the Next Two Months

• Grants, Contests and Awards Deadlines details here
  • Exploravision (2/8); Lowe's Toolbox for Education (2/8); Live Deliberately Essay Contest (2/15); Land and Water Conservation Fund Grants (2/15); World of 7 Billion Video Contest (2/28); Swantz Family Foundation (3/1); Clean Tech Competition (3/15)

• Conferences and Meetings details here
  • February 21-26 - MO Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Interface Conference (1) - https://web.cvent.com/event/9e58d058-584b-477b-8433-fab825db2456/summary
  • April 8-9 - Green Schools Conference and Expo (1) - http://greenschoolsconference.org

• Workshops and Events around Missouri details here
  • Owl Power (2/21) Kirksville
  • Animal Tracks (2/9) Parkville
  • Nature Unbound (2/22) Crocker
  • Introduction to Caves and Caving (2/9) Kirkwood
  • Mammals in Winter (2/9) Joplin
  • Nature Unfolds and Nature Unleashed (2/14) West Plains
  • Nature Unhooked (2/8) Cape Girardeau

(These count for Environmental Educator Certification categories 1, 2 or 3. Visit the EE Certification page here)

• Outdoor, Nature, Environmental and Sustainability Event Calendars- visit our page of organization and agency calendars - if you would like to have your organization's regularly updated calendar added, email Executive Director Jan Weaver

EE Jobs details here

• nothing in Missouri at this time, but check the link for jobs in other areas

 

Teaching and Learning: The Human Cost

Environmental problems impact people as well as wildlife and natural resources. In this lesson students pair up and choose an image representing a particular environmental problem or event and explore its meaning by exchanging impressions of it, developing questions about it, researching it, and – individually – writing about it. As a class, students can compare their images and descriptions with each other to explore similarities and differences in the problems and events depicted to identify common social factors that account for what happens.

The Human Cost Lesson and The Human Cost Images
Grades: 9-12
Social Studies: various themes
Resources: internet access
Time: 90 minutes to 3 hours