UCS Seeks to Elevate Communities' Resilience Efforts & Climate Solutions By: Johanna Chao Kreilick & Astrid Caldas
For the past few years, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has been intent on using our science and advocacy expertise to elevate and support communities in their resilience-building efforts. As part of this commitment, UCS has been working to center Environmental Justice (EJ) principles and traditional community knowledge into our work on climate impacts, resilience, and pollution, recognizing that low- income and racially marginalized communities are those hit “first and worst” by intensifying hurricanes, sea level rise, and extreme heat. These same communities are also those that have been disproportionately subjected to environmental hazards and overexposed to pollution from chemical plants, refineries, and other dangerous sites. In our ongoing effort to anchor justice and equity across our science and advocacy, we’ve been grateful for our partnerships with a growing number of local groups who are leading their communities’ environmental and climate justice fights.
The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science 2022 conference in Puerto Rico where UCS led the workshop “Speaking up for Science and Policy in Your Community;” A standing-room only discussion at the 2022 National Adaptation Forum in Baltimore, where UCS brought partners from five community organizations Through and through our participation in working groups and coalitions, UCS has actively incorporated sound EJ these connections provisions in policy and legislation such as the Justice 40 Initiative, the Preventing HEAT Illness and Deaths Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act, and many others. been participating in a variety of equity and justice focused events, including community-led and community- focused ones. Recent examples include: In addition, UCS has
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