Today, April 22^nd 2020 marks the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day; founded in Wisconsin in 1970 by Sen. Gaylord Nelson. Nelson was one of many treasured environmentalists in Wisconsin’s history including some of the nation’s premier conservation advocates: Increase Lapham, whose advocacy in Wisconsin influenced the likes of Henry David Thoreau; John Muir where his youth spent farming led to a deep appreciation of the land; Aldo Leopold’s famous Sand County Almanac; and followed by familiar Wisconsinites like Robert LaFollette, Charles Van Hise and John Nolen.

On this Earth Day 50 years later, we must not only acknowledge the dominant names, past and present, in advancing environmental movements and global icons like Greta Thunberg, but it is equally important to honor and recognize the true champions and standard bearers of our state and nation’s most valuable resources, advocates for clean water, wilderness protection and responsible and measured conservation: our indigenous communities across the state and nation. From the Menominee’s early forest conservation in the 1800s against logging to water quality protection for all communities as demonstrated by opposition to the establishment of mining on ancestral land adjacent to the Menominee River.

It is imperative to center communities of color in this acknowledgement of Earth Day both for their contributions to our collective understanding of the importance of caring for our environment, planet and its resources but also to draw attention to the intersection of deep seeded racism and environmental injustice. As a result of structural and systemic racial inequity, the vulnerabilities in our black and brown communities have been laid bare in recent weeks in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disproportionate numbers of black and brown folks in our communities are becoming infected, hospitalized and dying. Against shameful and incredibly harmful rhetoric, this is not the consequence of individual habits or choices, it is the result of environmental injustice dating back centuries. The disproportionate locating of transportation hubs polluting and contributing to higher rates of asthma in black and brown neighborhoods, the development and industry location and planning decisions built on NIMBY-ISM (not in my backyard), the unmitigated and continuous harmful effects of the presence of lead in paint and pipes in poor and underserved communities, the presence of overcrowded and unclean low-income housing complexes and often the lack of affordable healthy food (food deserts)  have contributed to underlying health conditions making these populations more susceptible to increased severity of infection.  Again, all of which are a consequence of structural and systemic choices that burden those most marginalized and those in the least position to choose other options.

Current reports indicate places like the Navajo Nation, Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles have higher rates of death in poorer neighborhoods of color with higher air pollution and environmental degradation than others. Thus, having a safe, clean environment in which to live is in and of itself a privilege that has been reserved for the majority white and economically secure parts of our society. Now more than ever, as we all seek the outdoors for clean air, open space and a break from the quarantine, we must also acknowledge and reflect upon the critical presence of easy access to city, county and state parks, clean air and water- the basic foundations to community health.

Honoring Earth Day and its 50^th anniversary with a laser focus on environmental justice is of paramount importance and critical to the well-being of communities of color. Characterizing the need to address environmental issues in our urban and rural communities, and across this state and nation, is not an issue reserved for a few, but is of crucial and urgent importance for those of us who are also advocating for racial and economic equity as they are all inextricably linked to one another. We cannot have environmental justice without racial justice – they are not separate issues. Just like Wisconsin made a key contribution then, it must make a key contribution now and focus on environmental justice with the same energy and activism that launched Earth Day fifty years ago. 

Erica Nelson