School of Natural Resources and Environment

Environmental Justice

Air pollution near Michigan schools linked to poorer student health, academic performance

Air pollution from industrial sources near Michigan public schools jeopardizes children's health and academic success, according to a new study from University of Michigan researchers. The researchers found that schools located in areas with the state's highest industrial air pollution levels had the lowest attendance rates—an indicator of poor health—as well as the highest proportions of students who failed to meet state educational testing standards. The researchers examined the distribution of all 3,660 public elementary, middle, junior high and high schools in the state and found that 62.5 percent of them were located in places with high levels of air pollution from industrial sources.

Professor Taylor receives award for outstanding publication in environmental sociology

SNRE Associate Professor Dorceta E. Taylor has received the Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award from the American Sociological Association. The award is for Taylor's 2009 book, "The environment and the people in American cities, 1600s-1900s: disorder, inequality, and social change," published by Duke University Press.

Bryant receives two state honors for environmental activism

Bunyan Bryant, a founder of the academic field of environmental justice, is being honored with the state of Michigan's highest environmental honor. Professor Bryant, a faculty member in the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE), will receive the Helen and William D. Milliken Distinguished Service Award May 28. The ceremony takes place as part of the Tenth Annual Environmental Awards Celebration, coordinated by the Michigan Environmental Council (MEC). The annual Milliken Award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the protection of Michigan's environment.

Environmental-Justice Educator and Activist Bunyan Bryant Receives National Award for Lifetime of Pioneering Work

Bunyan Bryant, a prominent educator, social activist and pioneer in the environmental-justice movement, received national recognition on Oct. 20 for his personal contribution and dedication to environmental justice during a national symposium on the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, which hosted the event in New Orleans on Oct. 19-21, presented Bryant, a University of Michigan professor, with the Damu Smith Power-of-One Environmental Justice Award. The award honors the late Damu Smith, an activist who advanced the cause of environmental justice and paved the way for the formation of the first-ever national network of Black environmental-justice activists.

Toxic wastes and race: Report confirms no progress made in 20 years

Environmental injustice in people-of-color communities is as much or more prevalent today than 20 years ago, say researchers commissioned to conduct a follow-up to the 1987 landmark study, "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States." The new report, "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States, " shows that 20 years later, disproportionately large numbers of people of color still live in hazardous waste host communities, and that they are not equally protected by environmental laws.

Advancing the dream: Majora Carter to discuss justice in the 21st Century

Majora Carter, the founder and executive director of Sustainable South Bronx, a grassroots organization dedicated to urban revitalization in the nation's poorest community, will be the featured speaker on Jan. 15 at the School of Natural Resources and Environment during its annual observance of Martin Luther King Day. The environmental-justice activist and MacArthur Fellow will deliver her formal remarks, "Environmental Justice: Civil Rights for the 21st Century," at 5 p.m. in room 1040 of the Dana Building. The event is cosponsored by the School of Natural Resources and Environment, the School of Social Work, and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts

SNRE Envoys launch Diversity Speaker Series

Event Date: 
Thursday, September 26, 2013 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm

SNRED-Nation!

Are you interested in learning more about environmental justice in action and how graduates of SNRE use what they learn here in their careers? Then come join the SNRE Envoys for our first Diversity Speaker Series event of the year on Thursday, Sept. 26, at 6 p.m. in Dana 2024! SNRE alumna Diana Copeland from the East Michigan Environmental Action Council will be speaking to students about her work in environmental justice in Michigan and beyond and how SNRE shaped her career. Afterwards, Diana will be available for Q&A.

Food and refreshments will also be provided :)

About the SNRE Envoys:
We are a group of MS/MLA students working together to increase diversity, while creating an inclusive and supportive culture and community for all those who attend the school. For more information or if you are interested in working with us contact Daphne Medina (dcmedina@umich.edu).

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Lecture series explores "Achieving Climate Justice Amidst Climate Chaos"

Event Date: 
Thursday, November 21, 2013 - 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Location: 
Room 1690, Lane Auditorium, School of Public Health I

Jalonne White-Newsome, an environmental justice federal policy analyst, presents "Achieving Climate Justice Amidst Climate Chaos" as part of the Rackham Faculty Allies Diversity – Health Equity Speaker Series.

White-Newsome has been the Federal Policy Analyst at West Harlem Environmental Action ( WE ACT for Environmental Justice) since 2012.She also is a Kendall Postdoctoral Fellow in Climate Change and Public Health with the Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington D.C.; founder of Empowering a Green Environment and Economy (EGE2) in Detroit; and Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University’s School of Public Health, Washington, D.C.

White-Newsome has degrees in Chemical and Environmental Engineering; her Ph.D. is in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. White-Newsome’s research interest includes studying how vulnerable populations are impacted by extreme heat events, including the cost and benefits of community level adaption practices. She has conducted both quantitative and qualitative research, using survey methodology, epidemiological methods and GIS.

Her interdisciplinary activities include organizing an environmental justice symposium for the Washington metropolitan region, which discussed issues of climate justice, air quality and cumulative risk assessment with some of the nation’s leaders. As a result of this meeting,White-Newsome is leading the effort to establish a regional environmental justice coalition of stakeholders interested in research advocacy and policy engagement. White-Newsome has participated in the National Climate Assessment (NCA) Development and Advisory Committee meetings and provided technical input for the report, to be published in 2014; additionally she volunteers with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Environmental Justice National Climate Justice program.

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