The Elephant in the Room
Institutions intersect, overlap, and evolve to create and maintain environmental and climate injustice in our communities. Some are easier to see: energy companies, industrial sites, waste management, state and city government. Others are less visible, overlooked, or understood as problems separate from environmental justice: the punishment bureaucracy, declining infrastructure, gentrification, insufficient and costly healthcare, food deserts.
Throughout Earth Month, we’ll be hosting a writing series calling out these elephants in the room—the people, places, and things that actively try to prevent our people from living autonomous, healthy, and sustainable lives. We’ll also be spotlighting the local and regional efforts to RESIST environmental injustice and its underlying causes (racism and anti-Blackness, patriarchy, capitalism) in favor of mutual aid, food sovereignty, and abolitionism.
Join us in confronting the elephants in our own backyard.
In Solidarity with BLM
The Birmingham Earth Coalition stands in solidarity with the transnational Black Lives Matter movement and the local manifestation of the movement in Greater Birmingham. With regard to this current moment, we believe that defunding the Birmingham Police Department and...
One Bite at a Time
This essay is part of #TheRisingTide4ClimateJustice's Elephant in the Room series (link): a writing project calling out the institutions and ideas that contribute to environmental environmental injustice within the Birmingham community and across the South. --- By...
Composting Shame
This essay is part of #TheRisingTide4ClimateJustice's Elephant in the Room series (link): a writing project calling out the institutions and ideas that contribute to environmental environmental injustice within the Birmingham community and across the South. --- By...
Roots
This essay is part of #TheRisingTide4ClimateJustice’s Elephant in the Room series (link): a writing project calling out the institutions and ideas that contribute to environmental environmental injustice within the Birmingham community and across the South. — By Chris...
Pandemic
This essay is part of #TheRisingTide4ClimateJustice's Elephant in the Room series (link): a writing project calling out the institutions and ideas that contribute to environmental environmental injustice within the Birmingham community and across the South. --- By...
RELYING ON OLD SYSTEMS OF ABUSE WILL NOT SAVE US
This essay is part of #TheRisingTide4ClimateJustice's Elephant in the Room series (link): a writing project calling out the institutions and ideas that contribute to environmental environmental injustice within the Birmingham community and across the South. --- By...
The Spiritual Crisis of Creation Care
This essay is part of #TheRisingTide4ClimateJustice's Elephant in the Room series (link): a writing project calling out the institutions and ideas that contribute to environmental environmental injustice within the Birmingham community and across the South. --- By...
The Croup Kettle
This essay is part of #TheRisingTide4ClimateJustice's Elephant in the Room series (link): a writing project calling out the institutions and ideas that contribute to environmental environmental injustice within the Birmingham community and across the South. Image:...
Earth Month 2020: A Rising Tide for Climate Justice
As the coronavirus pandemic upends life across the country, making public rallies, gatherings and protests impossible, a coalition of local residents and social justice groups are announcing the launch of a virtual Earth Month campaign. In addition to celebrating...