Blog Carnival: Clean Air and Environmental Justice

Environmental justice is an important issue to many Latino communities. Our communities are often located near smoke stacks, polluted land, undrinkable water, on and on. In Chicago, the Tribune ran a story today about our polluted communities*: 

Federal and state officials have known for more than six years about hazardous levels of brain-damaging lead in a vacant lot near Walsh Elementary School in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

Yet even after field investigators raised alarms about children possibly inhaling or ingesting contaminated soil, the half-acre lot hasn't been fenced off or cleaned up. Nor have government officials posted signs warning residents in the low-income, largely Latino neighborhood that the lot is tainted with toxic lead dust.

How are we expecting our children to grow up strong and learn all they can in school if they can't even breath clean air? If you ponder this question too, why not join in on a blog carnival that is happening?

MomsRising, NAACP, Presente, American Lung Association and Consumers Union invite everyone interested in Clean Air for All to participate in a blog carnival. This online event aims to raise a chorus of voices to elevate clean air as a public health and civil rights issue – among and for all communities – and to get the message to President Obama soon after the election: Make clean air your administration’s priority!

We invite all participants to think broadly, since clean air is connected to everything. Want to write about Hurricane Sandy, climate change and fairness? Go ahead!

Here are some blog post ideas:
• Clean air in communities
• Clean air in schools
• Clean air in playgrounds
• Asthma disparities
• Asthma healthcare and health costs
• Economic impact of pollution on community businesses
• Clean air as a civil rights issue
• Response to Hurricane Sandy in different New York neighborhoods
• Climate change and communities of color
• Obama’s environmental legacy
• Personal stories about asthma, mercury poisoning or other air-related illness, with fairness angle
• Mothers as community organizers for clean air
• The daily burden on parents in protecting their kids from air pollution
• Economic impact of pollution on families
• African-American women, gender and asthma mortality
• Any idea you may come up with related to clean air and environmental justice!


How the Blog Carnival Works

When many voices talk about the same issue at the same time, it helps the issue break through all the “noise” in the information landscape and register in the public consciousness. This blog carnival organizes many voices to talk about clean air and environmental justice at the same time.

We are accepting blog post submissions from now through Monday, November 26, 2012. The blog carnival “goes live” on Thursday, November 29.

All the links to all the contributed pieces will be gathered into one umbrella blog post, with an introduction written by Vernice Miller-Travis, Vice Chair of the Maryland State Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities and Co-founder West Harlem Environmental Action. The umbrella blog post will be published across all co-organizer websites.

TWITTER CHAT: Also on November 29, co-organizers will hold a Twitter chat at hashtag #cleanair4kids to further amplify the message of clean air and environmental justice by sharing information and highlighting individual pieces in the blog carnival.


How to Submit a Post

CHOOSE YOUR MEDIUM: For this blog carnival, in addition to text posts, we welcome video, art and photography – whatever your preferred medium – to be displayed in a blog post.

Please email the following to anita@momsrising.org by Monday, 5:00 PM EST, November 26, 2012, copying gloria@momsrising.org:

• Author name and email address
• Author head shot
• Author or organization Twitter handle as appropriate
• Post title
• Post content
• If a text post, if possible, include an accompanying photo or image, with photo or image credit. Photos and images are extremely effective in encouraging people to share blog shared around the Internet.
• We do welcome previously published pieces, but ask that authors include a few new sentences about why they are submitting it for this particular blog carnival. Please include the original blog post URL to receive credit.

The more blog posts, the merrier (and the bigger the impact we’ll have overall). So in addition to submitting your own blog post, if you know anyone else who may like to participate, feel free to share this invitation with them.

If you do not have a blog or think this issue won't fit at your current blog, Viva la Feminista is happy to host your guest post here. Just email me at veronica-dot-arreola-at-gmail-dot-com.

* You have to register to read this story. No fee should be attached.