1. EV’s, public eco-friendly infrastructure and a refinery protesting: A conversation with Sophia Schmidt
  2. Elves on Wheels: Creating urban green spaces with Black farmers
  3. Environmental Impact and Immigration: A Conversation with Magybet Mendez
  4. Philadelphia Must Rethink Its Impact on Chester
  5. New Documentary Explores Philadelphia’s Struggle for Land Sovereignty and a Greener Future
  6. Capturing Hope: Power Circle Mentors Inspiring Youth Through Nature and Photography
  7. Roishetta Sibley Ozane and The Vessel Project: A Beacon of Hope in Sulphur, Louisiana
  8. ecoFEST 2023: A Celebration of Environmental Justice
  9. A is for asbestos: The environmental challenges facing Philly schools
  10. The Age of Preparedness: Securing Your Finances in the Face of the Climate Crisis
  11. A Former Sugar Plantation Up in Flames: The Lahaina Wildfires
  12. From Heatwaves to Hydration: Philadelphia’s Water Landscape Explored
  13. A Sizzling Summer: Philly Faces Extreme Temperatures
  14. Get to Know The New Host of ecoWURD: Tamara P.O.C. Russell
  15. Funding the Fight for Climate Justice: Local and Federal Grants Propel Environmental Initiatives
  16. Where There is Fire, There Will Be Smoke
  17. Lessons at Sea: Capitalism, Climate Change and a Path Forward
  18. Investing in Women, Investing in the Future: The Wise Fund’s Vision for a Greener World
  19. HOW DID “NIMBY” SUDDENLY BECOME THE NEW “N-WORD?”
  20. The Gentrification Problem: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  21. The Roots Run Deep: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  22. There Is No Cost to Live: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  23. Fixing Up Philly’s Homes: Charles Ellison for WHYY
  24. Punishment Past Prison Walls: Environmental injustice in the Carceral State
  25. RACISM IN THE WATER
  26. THE “INFLATION REDUCTION ACT” IS NOW LAW. SO, HOW DOES IT HELP BLACK PHILLY?
  27. PHILADELPHIA HAS AN AIR TOXIN PROBLEM. WHAT IS THE CITY GOVERNMENT GOING TO DO TO FIX IT?
  28. Want to end gun violence now? Let’s save Philly block by block
  29. Here are steps Philly could take to cool urban heat islands
  30. The gas prices conversation we should be having
  31. Reclaiming Black land is challenging but not impossible
  32. Black clergy: Churches can sway views on climate crisis
  33. Can old Philadelphia refineries be cleaned up and restored?
  34. Here’s how Black Philadelphia can help in the environmental justice battle
  35. City Launches Environmental Justice Advisory Commission
  36. FIXING THE STRUGGLE SPACE
  37. SOLAR POLICIES ARE FALLING BEHIND – SO, HOW DO WE CATCH UP?
  38. IS PHILLY’S “TAP” WATER PROGRAM WORKING?
  39. Ian Harris
  40. Melissa Ostroff
  41. THE WATER BILLS ARE WAY TOO HIGH
  42. THE KEY TO APPROACHING FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES ON ALL THINGS GREEN
  43. ICYMI: Watch highlights, panels at ecoWURD’s 2021 Environmental Justice Summit
  44. BLACK MOTHERS NEED CLEANER & SAFER ENVIRONMENTS – IT’S A PUBLIC HEALTH IMPERATIVE
  45. USING DANCE TO SAVE A RIVER
  46. TRACKING PHILADELPHIA’S AIR QUALITY
  47. GETTING RELIGIOUS ON CLIMATE CRISIS
  48. WE NEED MORE BLACK PEOPLE IN AGRICULTURE
  49. WHEN THERE’S NO CLEAN ENVIRONMENT, WE HAVE NOTHING
  50. A PREMATURE END TO EVICTION MORATORIUMS
  51. THE LACK OF BELIEF IN CLIMATE CRISIS IS JUST AS MUCH A THREAT
  52. YOU CAN’T HAVE RACIAL JUSTICE WITHOUT FAIR HOUSING
  53. RUN OVER THE SYSTEMS: THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
  54. PENNSYLVANIA IS “WAY BEHIND” ON SOLAR. HOW DOES IT CATCH UP?
  55. Pandemic Relief For Black Farmers Still Is Not Enough
  56. A BLUEPRINT FOR THE NEXT URBANISM
  57. THAT ELECTRONIC & CLOTHING WASTE PILES UP. SO WHERE TO PUT IT?
  58. THE WOMB IS THE FIRST ENVIRONMENT
  59. WILL THERE BE ANY MASS TRANSIT LEFT AFTER PANDEMIC?
  60. A FRIDGE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S HUNGRY
  61. OLD SCHOOL FOSSIL FUEL ECONOMY VS. NEW SCHOOL CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY
  62. ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE IS THE TOP SOCIAL JUSTICE PRIORITY
  63. IN 2020, DID “BIG GREEN” BECOME LESS WHITE?
  64. CLIMATE ACTION CAN POWER OUR RECOVERY
  65. IN PANDEMIC, AN HBCU DOES IT BETTER
  66. A DANGEROUS LACK OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROTECTIONS
  67. HOW FAST CAN A BIDEN PRESIDENCY MOVE ON CLIMATE ISSUES?
  68. CRAFTING A BLACK-DRIVEN CORONAVIRUS AND CLIMATE “STIMULUS” AGENDA
  69. Penn to donate $100 million to Philadelphia school district to help public school children
  70. BLACK ECOLOGIES IN TIDEWATER VIRGINIA
  71. WHAT IS “FROM THE SOURCE REPORTING?”
  72. LEADERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
  73. THE ECOWURD SUMMIT LAUNCH
  74. National Geographic Virtual Photo Camp: Earth Stories Aimed to Elevate Indigenous Youth Voices
  75. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit 2020
  76. THE PLAN FOR A 100 PERCENT CLEAN FUTURE IS SAVING NATURE
  77. WHAT SHOULD A PRESIDENT’S ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AGENDA LOOK LIKE?
  78. THE NEED FOR ABOLITIONIST TEACHING
  79. PUBLIC LANDS & SAVING NATURE
  80. TOO MANY NATURAL GAS SPILLS
  81. GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK
  82. BLACK VOTERS ARE THE ECO-VOTERS CLIMATE ACTIVISTS ARE LOOKING FOR
  83. CANNABIS PROFIT & BLACK ECONOMY
  84. THE NATURE GAP
  85. BLACK PEOPLE NEED NATURE
  86. WHAT IS TREEPHILLY?
  87. IS AN OBSCURE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE IN HARRISBURG DOING ENOUGH?
  88. AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM’S RACIST ROOTS
  89. “THERE’S REALLY A LOT OF QUIET SUFFERING OUT THERE
  90. “WE NEED TO GET INTO THE SUPPLY CHAIN”
  91. “AN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW THAT GIVES YOU A VOICE”
  92. URBAN PLANNING AS A TOOL FOR WHITE SUPREMACY
  93. HEAT WAVES REMIND US CLIMATE CHANGE IS STILL HERE
  94. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land
  95. IN PANDEMIC, MAKING SURE PEOPLE EAT & HOW HBCUs HELP
  96. WE’RE NOT DONE, YET – MORE ACCOUNTABILITY IS NEEDED AT THE PES REFINERY SITE
  97. COVID-19 IS LAYING WASTE TO RECYCLING PROGRAMS
  98. THE PHILADELPHIA HEALTH EQUITY GAPS THAT COVID-19 EXPOSED
  99. THE POWER OF NEW HERBALISM
  100. THERE’S NO RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
  101. ecoWURD Earth Day Summit
  102. ecoWURD Earth Day Summit 2020 Press Release
  103. Too Much Food At Farms, Too Little Food At Stores
  104. THE LINK BETWEEN AIR POLLUTION & COVID-19
  105. CORONAVIRUS REVEALS WHY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IS STILL THE CRITICAL ISSUE OF OUR TIME
  106. FROM KATRINA TO CORONAVIRUS, WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
  107. COVID-19 SHOWS A BIGGER IMPACT WHERE BLACK PEOPLE LIVE
  108. THE CORONAVIRUS CONVERSATION HAS GOT TO GET A LOT MORE INCLUSIVE THAN THIS
  109. MEDIA’S CLIMATE CHANGE COVERAGE KEEPS BLACK PEOPLE OUT OF IT
  110. “WE DON’T HAVE A CULTURE OF PREPAREDNESS”
  111. PHILADELPHIA HAS A FOOD ECONOMY
  112. HOW URBAN AGRICULTURE CAN IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY IN U.S. CITIES
  113. MAPPING THE LINK BETWEEN INCARCERATION & FOOD INSECURITY
  114. PHILLY’S JAILS ARE, LITERALLY, MAKING PEOPLE SICK
  115. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit 2019
  116. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit
  117. “We Can’t Breathe: Zulene Mayfield’s Lifelong War with Waste ‘Managers’”
  118. “Is The Black Press Reporting on Environmental Issues?” by David Love
  119. “The Dangerous Connection Between Climate Change & Food” an interview with Jacqueline Patterson and Adrienne Hollis
  120. “An Oil Refinery Explosion That Was Never Isolated” by Charles Ellison
  121. “Philly Should Be Going ‘Community Solar'” an interview w/ PA Rep. Donna Bullock
  122. “Is The Litter Index Enough?” an interview w/ Nic Esposito
  123. “How Sugarcane Fires in Florida Are Making Black People Sick” an interview w/ Frank Biden
  124. Philly Farm Social – Video and Pictures
  125. #PHILLYFARMSOCIAL GETS REAL IN THE FIELD
  126. THE LACK OF DIVERSE LEADERS IN THE GREEN SPACE Environmental Advocacy Organizations – especially the “Big Green” – Really Need More Black & Brown People in Senior Positions
  127. PLASTIC BAG BANS CAN BACKFIRE … WHEN YOU HAVE OTHER PLASTICS TO CHOOSE FROM
  128. WE REALLY NEED POLITICAL STRATEGISTS LEADING ON CLIMATE CHANGE – NOT ACADEMICS
  129. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS IN A MUCH MORE CLIMATIC WORLD
  130. A SMALL GERMANTOWN NON-PROFIT “TRADES FOR A DIFFERENCE”
  131. IS PHILLY BLAMING ITS TRASH & RECYCLING CRISIS ON BLACK PEOPLE?
  132. BUT WHAT DOES THE GREEN NEW DEAL MEAN FOR BLACK PEOPLE?
  133. HOW GREEN IS PHILLY’S “GREENWORKS” PLAN?
  134. The Future of Work in Philly’s Green Economy event recap #ecoWURD #phillyisgreen
  135. Bike-friendly cities should be designed for everyone, not just for wealthy white cyclists
  136. RENAMING “GENTRIFICATION”
  137. FOUR GOVERNORS, ONE URBAN WATERSHED IN NEED OF ACTION
  138. JUST HOW BAD IS THE AIR HURTING PHILLY’S BLACK FAMILIES?
  139. EcoWURD Presents:The Future of Work in Philly’s Green Economy
  140. IF YOU ARE LOW-INCOME OR HOMELESS, THE POLAR VORTEX IS LIKE A FORM OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
  141. NOT JUST FLINT: THE WATER CRISIS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
  142. DO THE TRAINS STOP RUNNING? THE SHUTDOWN’S IMPACT ON MASS TRANSIT
  143. BLACK WOMEN & THE TROUBLE WITH BABY POWDER
  144. A WHITE COLLAR CRIME VICTIMIZING NICETOWN
  145. IN NORTH CAROLINA, CLIMATE CHANGE & VOTER SUPPRESSION WORKED HAND-IN-HAND
  146. LOW-INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS WOULD GAIN THE MOST FROM GREEN ROOFS
  147. YOUR OWN HOOD: CLOSING THE GENERATIONAL GREEN DIVIDE IN BLACK PHILADELPHIA
  148. THE PRICE OF WATER: LITERAL & FIGURATIVE THIRST AT WORK
  149. THAT CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT TRUMP DIDN’T WANT YOU TO SEE? YEAH, WELL, IT’S THE LAW
  150. RACIAL & ETHNIC MINORITIES ARE MORE VULNERABLE TO WILDFIRES
  151. NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTTS Philly Has a Cigarette Butt Problem
  152. HOW SUSTAINABLE CAN PHILLY GET?
  153. USING AFROFUTURISM TO BUILD THE KIND OF WORLD YOU WANT
  154. UNCOVERING PHILLY’S HIDDEN TOXIC DANGERS …
  155. WILL THE ENVIRONMENT DRIVE VOTERS TO THE POLLS? (PART I)
  156. ARE PHILLY SCHOOLS READY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?
  157. 🎧 SEPTA CREATES A GAS PROBLEM IN NORTH PHILLY
  158. 🎧 BREAKING THE GREEN RETAIL CEILING
  159. That’s Nasty: The Cost of Trash in Philly
  160. 🎧 How Can You Solarize Philly?
  161. 🎧 “The Environment Should Be an Active, Living Experience”
  162. Philly’s Lead Crisis Is Larger Than Flint’s
  163. Despite What You Heard, Black Millennials Do Care About the Environment
  164. Hurricanes Always Hurt Black Folks the Most
  165. Are You Going to Drink That?
  166. The Origins of ecoWURD
  167. We Seriously Need More Black Climate Disaster Films
  168. 🎧 Why Should Philly Care About a Pipeline?
  169. 🎧 Not Just Hotter Days Ahead… Costly Ones Too
  170. Philly’s Big and Dangerous Hot Mess
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
  1. EV’s, public eco-friendly infrastructure and a refinery protesting: A conversation with Sophia Schmidt
  2. Elves on Wheels: Creating urban green spaces with Black farmers
  3. Environmental Impact and Immigration: A Conversation with Magybet Mendez
  4. Philadelphia Must Rethink Its Impact on Chester
  5. New Documentary Explores Philadelphia’s Struggle for Land Sovereignty and a Greener Future
  6. Capturing Hope: Power Circle Mentors Inspiring Youth Through Nature and Photography
  7. Roishetta Sibley Ozane and The Vessel Project: A Beacon of Hope in Sulphur, Louisiana
  8. ecoFEST 2023: A Celebration of Environmental Justice
  9. A is for asbestos: The environmental challenges facing Philly schools
  10. The Age of Preparedness: Securing Your Finances in the Face of the Climate Crisis
  11. A Former Sugar Plantation Up in Flames: The Lahaina Wildfires
  12. From Heatwaves to Hydration: Philadelphia’s Water Landscape Explored
  13. A Sizzling Summer: Philly Faces Extreme Temperatures
  14. Get to Know The New Host of ecoWURD: Tamara P.O.C. Russell
  15. Funding the Fight for Climate Justice: Local and Federal Grants Propel Environmental Initiatives
  16. Where There is Fire, There Will Be Smoke
  17. Lessons at Sea: Capitalism, Climate Change and a Path Forward
  18. Investing in Women, Investing in the Future: The Wise Fund’s Vision for a Greener World
  19. HOW DID “NIMBY” SUDDENLY BECOME THE NEW “N-WORD?”
  20. The Gentrification Problem: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  21. The Roots Run Deep: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  22. There Is No Cost to Live: The Environmental Crisis of Unaffordable Housing
  23. Fixing Up Philly’s Homes: Charles Ellison for WHYY
  24. Punishment Past Prison Walls: Environmental injustice in the Carceral State
  25. RACISM IN THE WATER
  26. THE “INFLATION REDUCTION ACT” IS NOW LAW. SO, HOW DOES IT HELP BLACK PHILLY?
  27. PHILADELPHIA HAS AN AIR TOXIN PROBLEM. WHAT IS THE CITY GOVERNMENT GOING TO DO TO FIX IT?
  28. Want to end gun violence now? Let’s save Philly block by block
  29. Here are steps Philly could take to cool urban heat islands
  30. The gas prices conversation we should be having
  31. Reclaiming Black land is challenging but not impossible
  32. Black clergy: Churches can sway views on climate crisis
  33. Can old Philadelphia refineries be cleaned up and restored?
  34. Here’s how Black Philadelphia can help in the environmental justice battle
  35. City Launches Environmental Justice Advisory Commission
  36. FIXING THE STRUGGLE SPACE
  37. SOLAR POLICIES ARE FALLING BEHIND – SO, HOW DO WE CATCH UP?
  38. IS PHILLY’S “TAP” WATER PROGRAM WORKING?
  39. Ian Harris
  40. Melissa Ostroff
  41. THE WATER BILLS ARE WAY TOO HIGH
  42. THE KEY TO APPROACHING FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES ON ALL THINGS GREEN
  43. ICYMI: Watch highlights, panels at ecoWURD’s 2021 Environmental Justice Summit
  44. BLACK MOTHERS NEED CLEANER & SAFER ENVIRONMENTS – IT’S A PUBLIC HEALTH IMPERATIVE
  45. USING DANCE TO SAVE A RIVER
  46. TRACKING PHILADELPHIA’S AIR QUALITY
  47. GETTING RELIGIOUS ON CLIMATE CRISIS
  48. WE NEED MORE BLACK PEOPLE IN AGRICULTURE
  49. WHEN THERE’S NO CLEAN ENVIRONMENT, WE HAVE NOTHING
  50. A PREMATURE END TO EVICTION MORATORIUMS
  51. THE LACK OF BELIEF IN CLIMATE CRISIS IS JUST AS MUCH A THREAT
  52. YOU CAN’T HAVE RACIAL JUSTICE WITHOUT FAIR HOUSING
  53. RUN OVER THE SYSTEMS: THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
  54. PENNSYLVANIA IS “WAY BEHIND” ON SOLAR. HOW DOES IT CATCH UP?
  55. Pandemic Relief For Black Farmers Still Is Not Enough
  56. A BLUEPRINT FOR THE NEXT URBANISM
  57. THAT ELECTRONIC & CLOTHING WASTE PILES UP. SO WHERE TO PUT IT?
  58. THE WOMB IS THE FIRST ENVIRONMENT
  59. WILL THERE BE ANY MASS TRANSIT LEFT AFTER PANDEMIC?
  60. A FRIDGE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S HUNGRY
  61. OLD SCHOOL FOSSIL FUEL ECONOMY VS. NEW SCHOOL CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY
  62. ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE IS THE TOP SOCIAL JUSTICE PRIORITY
  63. IN 2020, DID “BIG GREEN” BECOME LESS WHITE?
  64. CLIMATE ACTION CAN POWER OUR RECOVERY
  65. IN PANDEMIC, AN HBCU DOES IT BETTER
  66. A DANGEROUS LACK OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROTECTIONS
  67. HOW FAST CAN A BIDEN PRESIDENCY MOVE ON CLIMATE ISSUES?
  68. CRAFTING A BLACK-DRIVEN CORONAVIRUS AND CLIMATE “STIMULUS” AGENDA
  69. Penn to donate $100 million to Philadelphia school district to help public school children
  70. BLACK ECOLOGIES IN TIDEWATER VIRGINIA
  71. WHAT IS “FROM THE SOURCE REPORTING?”
  72. LEADERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
  73. THE ECOWURD SUMMIT LAUNCH
  74. National Geographic Virtual Photo Camp: Earth Stories Aimed to Elevate Indigenous Youth Voices
  75. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit 2020
  76. THE PLAN FOR A 100 PERCENT CLEAN FUTURE IS SAVING NATURE
  77. WHAT SHOULD A PRESIDENT’S ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AGENDA LOOK LIKE?
  78. THE NEED FOR ABOLITIONIST TEACHING
  79. PUBLIC LANDS & SAVING NATURE
  80. TOO MANY NATURAL GAS SPILLS
  81. GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK
  82. BLACK VOTERS ARE THE ECO-VOTERS CLIMATE ACTIVISTS ARE LOOKING FOR
  83. CANNABIS PROFIT & BLACK ECONOMY
  84. THE NATURE GAP
  85. BLACK PEOPLE NEED NATURE
  86. WHAT IS TREEPHILLY?
  87. IS AN OBSCURE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE IN HARRISBURG DOING ENOUGH?
  88. AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM’S RACIST ROOTS
  89. “THERE’S REALLY A LOT OF QUIET SUFFERING OUT THERE
  90. “WE NEED TO GET INTO THE SUPPLY CHAIN”
  91. “AN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW THAT GIVES YOU A VOICE”
  92. URBAN PLANNING AS A TOOL FOR WHITE SUPREMACY
  93. HEAT WAVES REMIND US CLIMATE CHANGE IS STILL HERE
  94. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land
  95. IN PANDEMIC, MAKING SURE PEOPLE EAT & HOW HBCUs HELP
  96. WE’RE NOT DONE, YET – MORE ACCOUNTABILITY IS NEEDED AT THE PES REFINERY SITE
  97. COVID-19 IS LAYING WASTE TO RECYCLING PROGRAMS
  98. THE PHILADELPHIA HEALTH EQUITY GAPS THAT COVID-19 EXPOSED
  99. THE POWER OF NEW HERBALISM
  100. THERE’S NO RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
  101. ecoWURD Earth Day Summit
  102. ecoWURD Earth Day Summit 2020 Press Release
  103. Too Much Food At Farms, Too Little Food At Stores
  104. THE LINK BETWEEN AIR POLLUTION & COVID-19
  105. CORONAVIRUS REVEALS WHY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IS STILL THE CRITICAL ISSUE OF OUR TIME
  106. FROM KATRINA TO CORONAVIRUS, WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
  107. COVID-19 SHOWS A BIGGER IMPACT WHERE BLACK PEOPLE LIVE
  108. THE CORONAVIRUS CONVERSATION HAS GOT TO GET A LOT MORE INCLUSIVE THAN THIS
  109. MEDIA’S CLIMATE CHANGE COVERAGE KEEPS BLACK PEOPLE OUT OF IT
  110. “WE DON’T HAVE A CULTURE OF PREPAREDNESS”
  111. PHILADELPHIA HAS A FOOD ECONOMY
  112. HOW URBAN AGRICULTURE CAN IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY IN U.S. CITIES
  113. MAPPING THE LINK BETWEEN INCARCERATION & FOOD INSECURITY
  114. PHILLY’S JAILS ARE, LITERALLY, MAKING PEOPLE SICK
  115. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit 2019
  116. ecoWURD Environmental Justice Summit
  117. “We Can’t Breathe: Zulene Mayfield’s Lifelong War with Waste ‘Managers’”
  118. “Is The Black Press Reporting on Environmental Issues?” by David Love
  119. “The Dangerous Connection Between Climate Change & Food” an interview with Jacqueline Patterson and Adrienne Hollis
  120. “An Oil Refinery Explosion That Was Never Isolated” by Charles Ellison
  121. “Philly Should Be Going ‘Community Solar'” an interview w/ PA Rep. Donna Bullock
  122. “Is The Litter Index Enough?” an interview w/ Nic Esposito
  123. “How Sugarcane Fires in Florida Are Making Black People Sick” an interview w/ Frank Biden
  124. Philly Farm Social – Video and Pictures
  125. #PHILLYFARMSOCIAL GETS REAL IN THE FIELD
  126. THE LACK OF DIVERSE LEADERS IN THE GREEN SPACE Environmental Advocacy Organizations – especially the “Big Green” – Really Need More Black & Brown People in Senior Positions
  127. PLASTIC BAG BANS CAN BACKFIRE … WHEN YOU HAVE OTHER PLASTICS TO CHOOSE FROM
  128. WE REALLY NEED POLITICAL STRATEGISTS LEADING ON CLIMATE CHANGE – NOT ACADEMICS
  129. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS IN A MUCH MORE CLIMATIC WORLD
  130. A SMALL GERMANTOWN NON-PROFIT “TRADES FOR A DIFFERENCE”
  131. IS PHILLY BLAMING ITS TRASH & RECYCLING CRISIS ON BLACK PEOPLE?
  132. BUT WHAT DOES THE GREEN NEW DEAL MEAN FOR BLACK PEOPLE?
  133. HOW GREEN IS PHILLY’S “GREENWORKS” PLAN?
  134. The Future of Work in Philly’s Green Economy event recap #ecoWURD #phillyisgreen
  135. Bike-friendly cities should be designed for everyone, not just for wealthy white cyclists
  136. RENAMING “GENTRIFICATION”
  137. FOUR GOVERNORS, ONE URBAN WATERSHED IN NEED OF ACTION
  138. JUST HOW BAD IS THE AIR HURTING PHILLY’S BLACK FAMILIES?
  139. EcoWURD Presents:The Future of Work in Philly’s Green Economy
  140. IF YOU ARE LOW-INCOME OR HOMELESS, THE POLAR VORTEX IS LIKE A FORM OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
  141. NOT JUST FLINT: THE WATER CRISIS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
  142. DO THE TRAINS STOP RUNNING? THE SHUTDOWN’S IMPACT ON MASS TRANSIT
  143. BLACK WOMEN & THE TROUBLE WITH BABY POWDER
  144. A WHITE COLLAR CRIME VICTIMIZING NICETOWN
  145. IN NORTH CAROLINA, CLIMATE CHANGE & VOTER SUPPRESSION WORKED HAND-IN-HAND
  146. LOW-INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS WOULD GAIN THE MOST FROM GREEN ROOFS
  147. YOUR OWN HOOD: CLOSING THE GENERATIONAL GREEN DIVIDE IN BLACK PHILADELPHIA
  148. THE PRICE OF WATER: LITERAL & FIGURATIVE THIRST AT WORK
  149. THAT CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT TRUMP DIDN’T WANT YOU TO SEE? YEAH, WELL, IT’S THE LAW
  150. RACIAL & ETHNIC MINORITIES ARE MORE VULNERABLE TO WILDFIRES
  151. NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTTS Philly Has a Cigarette Butt Problem
  152. HOW SUSTAINABLE CAN PHILLY GET?
  153. USING AFROFUTURISM TO BUILD THE KIND OF WORLD YOU WANT
  154. UNCOVERING PHILLY’S HIDDEN TOXIC DANGERS …
  155. WILL THE ENVIRONMENT DRIVE VOTERS TO THE POLLS? (PART I)
  156. ARE PHILLY SCHOOLS READY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?
  157. 🎧 SEPTA CREATES A GAS PROBLEM IN NORTH PHILLY
  158. 🎧 BREAKING THE GREEN RETAIL CEILING
  159. That’s Nasty: The Cost of Trash in Philly
  160. 🎧 How Can You Solarize Philly?
  161. 🎧 “The Environment Should Be an Active, Living Experience”
  162. Philly’s Lead Crisis Is Larger Than Flint’s
  163. Despite What You Heard, Black Millennials Do Care About the Environment
  164. Hurricanes Always Hurt Black Folks the Most
  165. Are You Going to Drink That?
  166. The Origins of ecoWURD
  167. We Seriously Need More Black Climate Disaster Films
  168. 🎧 Why Should Philly Care About a Pipeline?
  169. 🎧 Not Just Hotter Days Ahead… Costly Ones Too
  170. Philly’s Big and Dangerous Hot Mess

We don’t know … and that’s a problem

by Malcolm Burnley | ecoWURD Contributor

Air pollution, like practically everything else in the United States, is a phenomenon tinged by racial segregation. And Philadelphia —  boasting an “F” grade for air quality from the American Lung Association, along with persistent racial and class segregation — would be no exception to these trends, which have real world implications for public health. However, in Philadelphia, like a lot of places in the country, there’s little infrastructure or baseline data in place for tracking how air toxins affect neighborhoods at varying levels throughout the city.

BAD AIR QUALITY IS A VERY BLACK PROBLEM

“African Americans are exposed to 38 percent more polluted air than Caucasian Americans, and they are 75 percent more likely to live in fence-line communities than the average American,” wrote the authors of a highly touted 2017 report co-authored by the NAACP and the Clean Air Task Force, titled Fumes Across the Fence-line.

Fenceline communities — a perennial subject of discussion among federal monitors at the Environmental Protection Agency — are places adversely impacted by industrial or service facilities (such as oil and gas plants, power plants, and hazardous waste facilities) due to their proximity to known emissions. They’re also vulnerable to leaks or other fugitive chemical toxins that are likely to go unnoticed. African-Americans and Latinos are overrepresented in fenceline communities. “Most fence-line communities in the United States are low-income individuals and communities of color who experience systemic oppression such as environmental racism,” the NAACP co-authored report reads.

In Philly, that would characterize those populations living adjacent to the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in Southwest, the Philadelphia Gas Works plant in Port Richmond, or, perhaps, in the near future, SEPTA’s proposed natural gas plant in Nicetown.

Yet comparing these neighborhoods — against each other or to others— and the unique air quality concerns within them is more of a fraught task than you might imagine. Despite the fact that Pennsylvanians have a civil right to clean air via the state constitution, there’s little evidence outside of a regional air quality data to judge whether this right is being protecting at the level of a zip code, ward, or residential block.

“The Clean Air Act is structured in a way that you look at regional air quality, meaning that the communities worst-off aren’t being represented in the way that is being collected in the data,” says Dr. Gwen Ottinger, director of the Fair Tech Collaborative, a social justice organization, and a professor at Drexel University. “And that’s a strategic choice. They weren’t thinking about it on a community level.”

PHILLY’S AIR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FALLS SHORT

Inside the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, the Air Management Services (AMS) is the closest thing we have to a local air pollution control agency. It’s tasked with monitoring federal air quality standards as outlined by the federal Clean Air Act by taking regular samples from 11 sites across the city.

It just so happens that those citywide samples from AMS are overwhelmingly located in zip codes where the White population of the city has been growing. Conversely, areas with historically low White populations have a smaller share of those monitors. For example, there are monitors in Brewerytown, Roxborough, Northern Liberties, Society Hill and Graduate Hospital. There are no monitors in North Philadelphia, Kensington, or Port Richmond. (The primary exceptions to this are two monitors in Point Breeze and Grays Ferry, which exist for tracking the industrial outputs of the PES refinery, the airport, and the Navy Shipyard.)

The racial disparity might be a coincidence, having less to do with local decision-makers and everything to do with the federal mandate of the Clean Air Act. The official response from the City on the distribution of AMS monitors throughout the city hued closely to this idea, citing strict federal guidelines for where its monitors are placed. .

“Factors in establishing such monitoring sites include, but are not limited to, population density, proximity to significant sources of air pollution, and presence of obstructions,” said James Garrow, director of communications for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, in a written statement.

The lopsided distribution is a consequence of these federal priorities. “Industrial facilities considered major sources of air emissions in the City are clustered in the southwest (ex: Airport, Philadelphia Refinery, Philadelphia Shipyard), or along the I-95 corridor (ex: AdvanSix Phenol Plant, Kinder Morgan Liquids Terminal) parts of Philadelphia.”

Besides, Garrow adds, Philadelphia gets a greater number of the state’s air-monitoring resources than one would expect. “In terms of numbers, Philadelphia occupies ~ 0.3% of the land in Pennsylvania but otherwise contains ~10% of the federally required air monitoring sites in the state,” he writes.

It’s also true that we may know more information soon. As of May 2018, the city has deployed 50 new air monitors — including a number in North Philadelphia — towards a new initiative called the Philadelphia Air Quality Survey. Garrow explains this new survey is designed to track some of the neighborhood-specific air quality data that’s proven elusive. Although the first set of data won’t be made public until late 2019 at the earliest.   

“It’s not that anyone is failing to do their job,” says Dr. Ottinger. “it’s that we’ve set up the system in a way that it’s nobody’s job to do.”

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

There’s a growing body of medical research that suggests the dirty air we breathe gets directly passed on to our sons and daughters in problematic ways, whether cities are tracking it or not..

In September, a scientific paper out of Europe sparked headlines by presenting, for the first time, documentation of carbon-pollution participles found in everyday fossil fuels within the placentas of non-smoking mothers. The implications seemed troubling: analysts suggested that fossil fuels are likely reaching the bloodstream of newborns in vitro. Such research compounded existing evidence of air pollution – including that exposed to mothers – as a contributing factor in early-childhood health outcomes.

Outside of case studies, however, conclusions about the air we breathe as it relates to broader public health concerns remains speculative. We know that Philly has high infant mortality rates compared to other big cities, and a growing maternal mortality crisis, but what role, if any, pollution from air toxins plays is a mystery.

“We have anecdotal stories of mothers dying shortly after child birth or a child with asthma. But if we don’t have the data, we can’t really come up with the solutions,” says State Representative Donna Bullock, who sits on the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in Harrisburg.

AN OLD PATTERN OF MONITORING NEGLECT

For some, the historic failure to assess health risks in African American areas fits an old pattern.

“Racism, discrimination and years of oppression have shaped the institutions that are responsible for providing care and providing resources in the city,” says Bullock. “All these issues are shaped by the ugly forces of racism and discrimination.”

It’s bad enough when recent studies show a correlation between bad air quality and a noticeable reduction in verbal and math test scores, according to a survey from the National Academy of Sciences released last year.  But potentially worse when interactive Philly-specific trackers published by the EPA in recent years fail to account for data on any granular level. There’s little more to offer from the state government. Neither the Office of Environmental Justice nor the Office of Health Equity (both within the PA Department of Health) could point ecoWURD to data on the health disparities stemming from air pollution in Philadelphia, either along racial lines or drawn by neighborhood boundaries.

Still, in a May 2018 Bloomberg report, Garrow seemed optimistic about the city’s overall ability to mitigate high air pollution levels.  

That was after the EPA discovered Philadelphia (between 2014 to 2016)  had a staggering 77 parts per billion of air pollution concentration – 7 points above the EPA’s own recommended target for such. When the agency ordered Philadelphia to meet those goals by 2021, Garrow simply responded: “We feel that our current activities have put us on track to meet that level by the three-year deadline.”  

Yet, we know that environmental pollutants in Philadelphia are disproportionately hurting African American families in the aggregate nonetheless. That was recently bolstered by a study compiled by a team of medical researchers from Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania, which looked at the “place-based stressors associated with industry and air pollution” using focus groups of Philadelphia residents. Researchers found that living in a polluted neighborhood adds a level of toxic stress that carries potentially severe health implications, irrespective of the respiratory concerns that are threatened by inhaling these particles. There’s a damaging psycho-social aspect to living in a polluted place, which, we know from the other studies referenced above, that affects African Americans more than others.

“These stressors can influence health by triggering negative emotions (such as fear, anxiety or depression), which affect physiological processes such as endocrine and immune systems and increase risk of disease,” the researchers found from interviews with the focus group of residents in high-pollution parts of Philly. “Social stressors have been shown to affect respiratory disease, asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, depression, and HIV/AIDS.”

It’s not known how much of a role air pollution plays in the well-documented health disparities in Philadelphia, although it’s safe to assume it exists. When a team of experts analyzed the troublingly high maternal mortality rate in Philadelphia in a 2015 report (new mothers in Philadelphia passed away at a rate that was 53 percent higher than the national average between 2010 and 2012) published by the 30-member Philadelphia Maternal Mortality Review, they found a negligible percentage of deaths were attributed to medical mismanagement. Instead, broader social factors led to these outcomes. In many ways, it was a precursor to a national investigation by the New York Times last year into maternal mortality among African American moms in the U.S., which suggested stress from discrimination — and other factors unique to Black mothers — was a leading factor in the disparity.

“Women who come to pregnancy with more stress make the pregnancy more difficult,” says Marianne Fray, executive director of the Maternity Care Coalition. “ Something that our advocates will do is identify any lead that might be present in the homes, because we are trying to improve the safety of mom and baby. If we identify lead, we can provide resources. But that doesn’t mean other environmental factors couldn’t be impacting the families as well.”

Environmental stressors like air pollution, and the internalization of living on a trash-strewn block, studies suggest, might very well fall into that same bucket. Whoever is to blame, the air quality outlook for many of the most densely populated Black neighborhoods in Philly remains, to a degree, a crisis lacking definition and needed attention.