Julie Sze: Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger

Extreme weather events throughout 2020 have devastated natural landscapes and human communities. Climate change contributes to the intensity and severity of these events, which disproportionately affect people in developing nations and marginalized communities within the US.

On September 23, 2020 at 7:00pm, UC Davis professor Julie Sze will present a timely lecture on her book, “Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger.” Her work examines the intersection of climate change with racism, class exploitation, indigenous struggles for land, and privatization, interwoven with threads to create an inspirational primer on restorative environmental justice. Sze commented, “We live in precarious times, and it is precisely in this moment that understanding environmental justice movements is essential.”

Julie Sze teaches American Studies and directs the Environmental Justice Project of the UC Davis John Muir Institute for the Environment. Her research investigates environmental justice and environmental inequality, culture and environment, race, gender, and power, and community health.

Sze will be joined in conversation by Adelita Serena, an organizer for Mothers Out Front, a grassroots climate action organization. Serena has a long history of human rights activism from marching with Cesar Chavez to advocating for youth and survivors of sexual assault. She explained, “As a mother and Indigenous woman, what we are currently seeing is a very clear and loud alarm from our mother earth and ancestors. We must change course off fossil fuels before it’s too late. I have two sons and I want them to have a future. We must act now with great urgency.”

This event is hosted by the Episcopal Church of St. Martin. According to Pamela Dolan, Rector of St. Martin’s, “it is almost a cliché for Christians to talk about loving our neighbors. But we can no longer separate loving our neighbor from loving the Earth on which our very existence depends. There is a long tradition, almost a counter-tradition, within Christianity that recognizes that all of creation is bound together as kin; a threat to any part of the web of creation is a threat to all of it, including humanity. Now, in this moment of danger, we must join together with people of all faiths or no professed faith to act on this understanding.”

Cool Davis, the Yolo Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice, the Yolo Climate Emergency Coalition, Mothers Out Front, and the Sierra Club Yolano Group are cosponsors of the event.

This event is free and will be hosted on Zoom. Please register in advance at http://bit.ly/environmentaljusticetalk