On Thursday, February 15th, the rain didn’t stop students and community leaders in environmental justice from attending the Spring 2018 Environmental Justice Ice Cream Social – if anything it quickened their pace to the Brown School for an evening of presentations, ice cream, and internship-seeking. Nearly 80 students from across campus, undergraduates and graduates, gathered to interact with the 25+ environmental justice and sustainability-focused St. Louis organizations.
Environmental Justice is often misunderstood, but should be perceived as the ways in which environmental shortcomings disproportionately affect under-served and marginalized communities. The burden of climate change and environmental neglect falls heaviest on low-income and underrepresented people whose health, prosperity, and quality of life suffer under these disparities. Environmental Justice is the intersection of sustainability and stewardship and social and economic equity. Undergraduate student Hanusia Higgins attended the event for the second time and shared her experience in the Student Life newspaper that can be read here.
This article was written by environmental justice interns, Linde Parcels and Annalise Wagner.