Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Aisha Sharhan 9/13/2016

Aisha Sharhan

Today went to go meet the panel of the first day of the diverse voices.  This group of panelist were all from Cali, now Michael Mendez mentioned the questions as to why California and that because its an important site of inquiry, it has a  long history of success, they have green house gases solution. Daniel Nepstaib gave a presenting on taking enviornmental justice to scale through international offsets. I feel as though he gave a great introduction as to the topic and at the same time voice his options and still give valuable information as to how the environment is in california along which other panelist. Mari rose taruc asked an important question "will this policy help or hurt kids with asthma?" which then connects to environmental issues/ justice, incourged after getting kicked out of the protects against REDD. She also talked about AB32 is supposed to lower emissions pollution in low income communities.They suffer more during extreme weathers events and breath dirter air. She also mentioned that there are three E's :equity, environment, economy.

Dante Frazer 9/27/16

Dante Frazer 
9/27/16
Environmental Leader

This week the environmental leaders had a panel speaker by the name of Susana De Anda. Susana co-founded and co-directs the Community Water Center. The Community Water Center helps which helps build strategic grassroots capacity to address water challenges in low income communities. She has dedicated over 15 years of her life for this cause. Her discussion was very thought provoking and her passion inspired me as an environmental leader to do more in my community.




Dante Frazer 9/13/16

Dante Frazer
9/13/16
Environmental Leader


This week the environmental leaders had a panel speaker that all had opposing voice on cap and trade. Cap and trade is the most environmentally and economically sensible approach to controlling greenhouse gas emissions. The primary driver of global  emission is greenhouse emission. I agreed mostly with Daniel Nepstaib because his plan was the most comprehensive. Everyone had very good points and are passionate about the environment, even if its in different ways.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

9/20 Diverse Voices Lecture

In Sudha's lecture, she descriptively explained the role of environmental justice in Seattle, Washington. Like many other major cities, the discrepancy between where people of low socioeconomic status live and where the wealthy do is huge, and brings to light some serious environmental inequality. In Seattle, areas of high poverty often contain much higher levels of pollution in the atmosphere and in their water. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the people here are people of color, and this is partly due to the extremely large income gap found in the city. Sudha's job is to come together with community leaders who represent people from all over the metro, and figure out the real problems the people are facing, and make them aware to everyone. The official environmental leaders in our country are often apart of the wealthy white class. Sudha want to makes these problems more accessible to the general public, especially when many of the problems trying to be fixed are affecting them the most - the most effective solutions will not be found if these voices are not heard.

9/13 Diverse Voices Lecture

Carbon offsets are incentives for companies to lower their carbon emissions, and in turn help fund their projects and other energy-sustainable practices. That being said, one of the major issues with this idea is that companies spend their offsets elsewhere and continue to be unsustainable - regardless of being more expensive. If I was a senator of California, I would work on trying to create the most ethical project possible, while keeping California at the top of the world in terms of sustainability. While this project may be very efficient for the government to implement, only large corporations have a say in what is happening, leaving the general public out of loop. Additionally, nothing is being done to relieve areas of California with high pollution (usually people in poverty), and the areas that need the cleaning up the least are getting it. I don't believe the bill that requires California to lower their emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 is feasible, because the state is still debating on a method that would be most effective to achieve this. The REDD offsets program has received lots of backlash from the public, keeping it from its full effectiveness - when the public does not agree, it is very difficult to make progress with something.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

09/20 Lecture Diverse Voice

Today's speaker is Sudha Nandagopal who is the new program manager for Seattle's environmental justice initiative. From the lecture, I learned more about the goals of the initiative and the presence of environmental injustice throughout the country. The three goals of the Equity and Environmental initiative are that all people and communities benefit from Seattle's environmental progress; that communities most impacted by environmental injustice are engaged in setting environmental priorities, designing strategies, and tracking environmental progress; and that people of color, immigrants and refugees, people with low incomes, and limited English proficiency individuals have opportunities to be part of, and leaders, in this movement. According to Sudha, in order to gather all the people impacted by environmental injustice, they must make them trust the government and their leader. They must take part in all the environmental projects and make a change. Without their help, then the movement will not be successful. I am glad to see that there is such a strong project happening from the opposite side of Connecticut, all the way at Washington.

09/13 Diverse Voice Lecture

REDD stands for Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation. It is an international offset project that claims to preserve forests in tropical countries. From the lecture and the articles, I believe that REDD should be kept out of California. California's top offset buyers are the state's most profitable oil companies and big corporations. They will not make emissions reductions on site, which will only threaten California's most vulnerable communities. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable communities consist of 62% people of color compared to 38% of whites. REDD also gives governments an opportunity to control and profit off of indigenous people's forests. These indigenous people will not be able to continue their cultural practices. There will definitely be violence and fights over the territory. Lastly, REDD clearly will not result in less emissions. Even when a government pledges to "avoid deforestation," it can turn around and cut down that same forest. REDD will not benefit California at all.