Partnership restores prairie, supports largest monarch migration in 10 years and new revenue model for generating clean, renewable energy

Proposed Clean Power Plan Replacement Is “Appalling Abandonment” of EPA Responsibility

This unique partnership between Environmental Defense Fund, Smithfield Foods and Roeslein Alternative Energy is working to support recovery of the beloved monarch butterfly and other pollinators that rely on healthy prairie habitat.

This unique partnership between Environmental Defense Fund, Smithfield Foods and Roeslein Alternative Energy is working to support recovery of the beloved monarch butterfly and other pollinators that rely on healthy prairie habitat.

This blog is a follow up to an earlier blog published: 4 Trends in Corporate Sustainability for 2018. Earlier this year, I identified 4 corporate sustainability trends that all business leaders should be watching in 2018. Those trends were: growth in companies setting Science-Based Targets, greater attention towards reducing supply chain emissions, tech and internet […]

This stereotype is holding back the environmental movement

Minority groups are expected to make up a majority of young Americans in just two years, and become the nation’s new majority by 2045. That’s good news for the environmental movement – because these groups actually care more about clean air and water than your average middle-class white American does. So do low-income groups.

Surprised? So were we when we recently compiled results for a just-published study on the topic. It showed that all of us – including low-income Americans or people of color – have long stereotyped “environmentalists” as white people with a college education while overlooking the attitudes of groups that ultimately suffer the most from pollution.

Within days of a critical midterm election, this paradox suggests that more people than we thought may bring climate change and other environmental concerns to the ballot box. Importantly, our study points to a huge and untapped opportunity to reach and engage people in the fight for strong clean air and water policies – assuming we do it right.

This is what an environmentalist looks like

More than half of Latinos – 54 percent – indicated in our survey that they were “very” or “extremely’ concerned about the environment, while 39 percent of African-Americans did. The same level of concern among Whites was just 32 percent. Asians, at 37 percent, also scored higher than Whites.

Not only that: Americans earning less than $15,000 a year are more concerned than Americans with incomes above $150,000.

And still, all surveyed groups seemed to agree that people of color and poor Americans are actually less focused on the environment than their White middle-class counterparts. This belief paradox reflects deep-seated and inaccurate stereotypes that explain, at least in part, why environmental advocacy outreach to minority and low-income groups has historically fallen short.

Lack of diversity perpetuates problem

As many businesses understood a long time ago, to reach an increasingly diverse market you must employ people of different backgrounds. Advocacy groups and government agencies in the environmental space have not yet cracked that nut; to this day, people of color make up just 12 percent of their staff. Similar disparities exist within the environmental sciences.

Meanwhile, local groups that serve communities of color do great work to protect their natural spaces are often not seen as representative of environmentalism.

The lack of visible diversity in the mainstream movement helped shape and perpetuate the image of the typical American environmentalist as a white, well-educated, middle-class person – because it reflected the people inside these organizations.

We need to adjust our message

To raise public engagement and bring millions of new people into the environmental movement, we must – as we continue to diversify our ranks – break down that stereotype and adjust our message for the people we’re trying to reach.

Opinion polls and studies, including ours, have shown that rather than trying to increase awareness about environmental threats, of which these groups are already well aware, we need to start from a different vantage point.

It goes like this: We know they know, and we know there are environmental inequalities – a situation we’re working to address. We get that climate change and extreme weather affect low-income people more than the rich, as has been the case with Hurricane Harvey and Florence. And that African-Americans are exposed to more pollution than White Americans, regardless of wealth. It’s an American problem we can solve together.

Communities of color must share spotlight

All people, including minority groups, need to voice our beliefs and invite conversation that normalizes environmental interests and action. A wide range of research in social, behavioral and health sciences shows us that humans act in accordance with the behaviors and beliefs seen as valued by their communities.

We think it’s time to talk more openly about our concerns and take a rightful place in an environmental movement that has room for people from different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Likewise, it’s important for those who have been fighting for environmental change to know they may have more support than they think.

It’s time for Americans to fight together for a cleaner and more just environment for all. We all stand to win.

Act when it matters most

Every day more than 60 people sign up for news and alerts, to find out when their support helps most. Will you join them? (Read our privacy statement.)

Donate to support this work $35 $50 krives October 31, 2018 - 04:21

See comments

Your article rings true. This is why it is so important to get the endorsement of as many city councils and mayors of our land to the Declaration of Human Right and Climate Change.

Bill Kucha October 31, 2018 at 8:17 pm

Fascinating and thought-provoking — thank you.

Elgie October 31, 2018 at 10:31 pm

This is great Rainer! Very relevant and timely...

Daniel Morchain November 3, 2018 at 4:17 am

You make a mistake in the first paragraph about the environmental concerns of different racial groups. We know that partisanship plays an overwhelming role today in how people see the world.

To lump all whites together without specifying partisanship is either amateurism or intentional misleading: Whites with Republican tendencies will tend to reject many environmental dangers and draw the white averages down. If you want to be serious, you must give also the results for racial groups after sorting them according to partisanship.

It could even be that Whites have the highest environmental concerns within both partisan groups, that’s actually not ruled out by your presented numbers… Because the rest of the article is based on the first result, it stands or falls with a good analysis of the data.

Peter T November 3, 2018 at 3:32 pm

Regardless of “partisanship,” the outreach of environmental groups to low-income folks and communities of color has always been lacking. Whether Republicans or Democrats! I know this as fact because I have been involved in environmental actions for pretty much my entire life and as a black man who has attempted to communicate this to folks from the “white“ environmentalist community.

It is beyond frustrating to continue to witness the lack of outreach and concern for the situations that low-income and folks of color communities are dealing with! It is equally troubling that current leadership in folks of color communities are missing the boat on this issue, as well as the church community waiting for their white Christian god to make everything better!

Climate change and global warming are as nonpartisan as you can get, therefore the urgency to be inclusive in the messaging and information sharing in the current environmental movement.

Furthermore, it is the financing of white supremacy gained by the environmental degradation the world has been experiencing for too long that needs to be addressed! tRump and the “old white dude money“ that is pushing the fossil fuels expansion as opposed to green renewable energy industries (not LNG!) is devastating OUR environment and it will take all of us to turn the tide of insanity that white supremacy places on our humanity!

Peace Love & Guidance

Les Pogue Jr. November 6, 2018 at 2:18 pm

In reply to You make a mistake in the… by Peter T

I agree with Mr.Pogue totally. I am 63 years young, Hispanic, and I live on a fixed income (below the poverty level). I have been supporting environmental and social issues since the early 70s. Most of my life. Now as an elder I feel a desperate need to become active in an organized way. I gave up my gas-guzzling vehicles seven years ago in order to reduce my footprint. I see a great need to change peoples’ attitudes about climate change and the dire condition our Mother Earth is in, at the grassroots level.

Most people I talk to in our area (Taos County, New Mexico) believe that someone else will do the work, or they simply don’t care.Many are retired miners (from Chevron’s molybdenum mine) or don’t see the urgency of our situation. I believe we will not be successful if the people on the streets do not believe they can make a difference. The individual will make the difference if attitudes change.

I believe that now more than ever we need all Americans to unite and address this issue that affects all humans regardless of political affiliation. With guidance from groups like EDF, Sierra club etc. we can make an inpact. We need groups like EDF to take on.the goverment, corporations,etc. at that level while some like myself take to the streets.Together we can slow down global warming and give our grandchildren and those not yet born a cleaner livable Earth.

Andrew N.Reyes December 3, 2018 at 10:55 am

In reply to Regardless of “partisanship”… by Les Pogue Jr.

This stereotype is holding back the environmental movement

Minority groups are expected to make up a majority of young Americans in just two years, and become the nation’s new majority by 2045. That’s good news for the environmental movement – because these groups actually care more about clean air and water than your average middle-class white American does. So do low-income groups.

Surprised? So were we when we recently compiled results for a just-published study on the topic. It showed that all of us – including low-income Americans or people of color – have long stereotyped “environmentalists” as white people with a college education while overlooking the attitudes of groups that ultimately suffer the most from pollution.

Within days of a critical midterm election, this paradox suggests that more people than we thought may bring climate change and other environmental concerns to the ballot box. Importantly, our study points to a huge and untapped opportunity to reach and engage people in the fight for strong clean air and water policies – assuming we do it right.

This is what an environmentalist looks like

More than half of Latinos – 54 percent – indicated in our survey that they were “very” or “extremely’ concerned about the environment, while 39 percent of African-Americans did. The same level of concern among Whites was just 32 percent. Asians, at 37 percent, also scored higher than Whites.

Not only that: Americans earning less than $15,000 a year are more concerned than Americans with incomes above $150,000.

And still, all surveyed groups seemed to agree that people of color and poor Americans are actually less focused on the environment than their White middle-class counterparts. This belief paradox reflects deep-seated and inaccurate stereotypes that explain, at least in part, why environmental advocacy outreach to minority and low-income groups has historically fallen short.

Lack of diversity perpetuates problem

As many businesses understood a long time ago, to reach an increasingly diverse market you must employ people of different backgrounds. Advocacy groups and government agencies in the environmental space have not yet cracked that nut; to this day, people of color make up just 12 percent of their staff. Similar disparities exist within the environmental sciences.

Meanwhile, local groups that serve communities of color do great work to protect their natural spaces are often not seen as representative of environmentalism.

The lack of visible diversity in the mainstream movement helped shape and perpetuate the image of the typical American environmentalist as a white, well-educated, middle-class person – because it reflected the people inside these organizations.

We need to adjust our message

To raise public engagement and bring millions of new people into the environmental movement, we must – as we continue to diversify our ranks – break down that stereotype and adjust our message for the people we’re trying to reach.

Opinion polls and studies, including ours, have shown that rather than trying to increase awareness about environmental threats, of which these groups are already well aware, we need to start from a different vantage point.

It goes like this: We know they know, and we know there are environmental inequalities – a situation we’re working to address. We get that climate change and extreme weather affect low-income people more than the rich, as has been the case with Hurricane Harvey and Florence. And that African-Americans are exposed to more pollution than White Americans, regardless of wealth. It’s an American problem we can solve together.

Communities of color must share spotlight

All people, including minority groups, need to voice our beliefs and invite conversation that normalizes environmental interests and action. A wide range of research in social, behavioral and health sciences shows us that humans act in accordance with the behaviors and beliefs seen as valued by their communities.

We think it’s time to talk more openly about our concerns and take a rightful place in an environmental movement that has room for people from different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Likewise, it’s important for those who have been fighting for environmental change to know they may have more support than they think.

It’s time for Americans to fight together for a cleaner and more just environment for all. We all stand to win.

Act when it matters most

Every day more than 60 people sign up for news and alerts, to find out when their support helps most. Will you join them? (Read our privacy statement.)

Donate to support this work $35 $50 krives October 31, 2018 - 04:21

See comments

Your article rings true. This is why it is so important to get the endorsement of as many city councils and mayors of our land to the Declaration of Human Right and Climate Change.

Bill Kucha October 31, 2018 at 8:17 pm

Fascinating and thought-provoking — thank you.

Elgie October 31, 2018 at 10:31 pm

This is great Rainer! Very relevant and timely...

Daniel Morchain November 3, 2018 at 4:17 am

You make a mistake in the first paragraph about the environmental concerns of different racial groups. We know that partisanship plays an overwhelming role today in how people see the world.

To lump all whites together without specifying partisanship is either amateurism or intentional misleading: Whites with Republican tendencies will tend to reject many environmental dangers and draw the white averages down. If you want to be serious, you must give also the results for racial groups after sorting them according to partisanship.

It could even be that Whites have the highest environmental concerns within both partisan groups, that’s actually not ruled out by your presented numbers… Because the rest of the article is based on the first result, it stands or falls with a good analysis of the data.

Peter T November 3, 2018 at 3:32 pm

Regardless of “partisanship,” the outreach of environmental groups to low-income folks and communities of color has always been lacking. Whether Republicans or Democrats! I know this as fact because I have been involved in environmental actions for pretty much my entire life and as a black man who has attempted to communicate this to folks from the “white“ environmentalist community.

It is beyond frustrating to continue to witness the lack of outreach and concern for the situations that low-income and folks of color communities are dealing with! It is equally troubling that current leadership in folks of color communities are missing the boat on this issue, as well as the church community waiting for their white Christian god to make everything better!

Climate change and global warming are as nonpartisan as you can get, therefore the urgency to be inclusive in the messaging and information sharing in the current environmental movement.

Furthermore, it is the financing of white supremacy gained by the environmental degradation the world has been experiencing for too long that needs to be addressed! tRump and the “old white dude money“ that is pushing the fossil fuels expansion as opposed to green renewable energy industries (not LNG!) is devastating OUR environment and it will take all of us to turn the tide of insanity that white supremacy places on our humanity!

Peace Love & Guidance

Les Pogue Jr. November 6, 2018 at 2:18 pm

In reply to You make a mistake in the… by Peter T

I agree with Mr.Pogue totally. I am 63 years young, Hispanic, and I live on a fixed income (below the poverty level). I have been supporting environmental and social issues since the early 70s. Most of my life. Now as an elder I feel a desperate need to become active in an organized way. I gave up my gas-guzzling vehicles seven years ago in order to reduce my footprint. I see a great need to change peoples’ attitudes about climate change and the dire condition our Mother Earth is in, at the grassroots level.

Most people I talk to in our area (Taos County, New Mexico) believe that someone else will do the work, or they simply don’t care.Many are retired miners (from Chevron’s molybdenum mine) or don’t see the urgency of our situation. I believe we will not be successful if the people on the streets do not believe they can make a difference. The individual will make the difference if attitudes change.

I believe that now more than ever we need all Americans to unite and address this issue that affects all humans regardless of political affiliation. With guidance from groups like EDF, Sierra club etc. we can make an inpact. We need groups like EDF to take on.the goverment, corporations,etc. at that level while some like myself take to the streets.Together we can slow down global warming and give our grandchildren and those not yet born a cleaner livable Earth.

Andrew N.Reyes December 3, 2018 at 10:55 am

In reply to Regardless of “partisanship”… by Les Pogue Jr.

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist.  Stephanie Schwarz, J.D., is a Legal Fellow. This story is about chemicals known as chlorinated paraffins.  They are used as flame retardants, plasticizers and lubricants, among other things.  They come in three main versions:  short, medium, and long-chain.  Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) have been banned or are set to […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist.  Stephanie Schwarz, J.D., is a Legal Fellow. This story is about chemicals known as chlorinated paraffins.  They are used as flame retardants, plasticizers and lubricants, among other things.  They come in three main versions:  short, medium, and long-chain.  Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) have been banned or are set to […]

Written by Diane MacEachern

As parents, we have two overarching responsibilities to our kids. One is to protect them. The other is to empower them so they can protect themselves. Joining Moms Clean Air Force has empowered over a million parents across the country to take steps to protect...

As the hot summer approached, Texas leaders expressed concern about potential blackouts and brownouts. Yet, thoughtful planning, a functional electricity market and clean energy helped ensure the lights stayed on. Power outage concerns Hotter temperatures and continued population and commercial growth drove record electricity demand this past summer. Additionally, in early 2018, Luminant (now Vistra) […]

As the hot summer approached, Texas leaders expressed concern about potential blackouts and brownouts. Yet, thoughtful planning, a functional electricity market and clean energy helped ensure the lights stayed on. Power outage concerns Hotter temperatures and continued population and commercial growth drove record electricity demand this past summer. Additionally, in early 2018, Luminant (now Vistra) […]

As the hot summer approached, Texas leaders expressed concern about potential blackouts and brownouts. Yet, thoughtful planning, a functional electricity market and clean energy helped ensure the lights stayed on. Power outage concerns Hotter temperatures and continued population and commercial growth drove record electricity demand this past summer. Additionally, in early 2018, Luminant (now Vistra) […]

As the hot summer approached, Texas leaders expressed concern about potential blackouts and brownouts. Yet, thoughtful planning, a functional electricity market and clean energy helped ensure the lights stayed on. Power outage concerns Hotter temperatures and continued population and commercial growth drove record electricity demand this past summer. Additionally, in early 2018, Luminant (now Vistra) […]

The post 3 reasons Texas’ electric grid survived a summer that pushed its limits appeared first on Energy Exchange.

Environmental Defense Fund and The Wilderness Society file formal protest of the Bureau of Land Management's plans to lease public land for oil and gas development without adequate methane controls.

Written by Moms Clean Air Force

Voting is the right of every American over the age of 18. Moms Clean Air Force Ohio field organizer, Laura Burns shares some of her fun and informative children’s book picks to help teach kids about the importance of voting. “I think one of my...

We need large strides in policy, increased market opportunities, innovative approaches and collaborative partnerships to ensure U.S. farmers continue to provide a resilient and sustainable food supply for generations to come.