ATTN: A recording of this session is attached below. If you have trouble accessing this file, please contact one of the EIJC organizers.

This week's discussion, entitled Climate Justice, will be facilitated by Natascha Finnerty. She will be joined by two climate experts: Charlene DiCalogero, and Dr. Nathan Phillips (bios below). 

Prior to the session, please consider looking through the following materials:

1. The senior thesis of Viviane Garth, entitled Lessons from the 2018 Merrimack Valley Gas Fires: Comparing Recovery Processes. (Email for access)

2. TedTalk: Let's launch a satellite to track a threatening greenhouse gas (8 min; link)

3. Under Pressure: 2019 Senior Energy Documentary (47 min; link)

Biographies of speakers:

Natascha Finnerty, is the Export Compliance Officer of SAO and founded the Nashoba Valley Climate Coalition. She is also affiliated with the Sierra Club, whose mission is to promote action from our legislature, towns and ourselves towards a zero carbon future, while encouraging innovation and economic justice for those affected.

Charlene DiCalogero is a member of 350 Central Mass, a climate education and action group. In 2019, she was a founder, planner and spokesperson for the Worcester Climate Strike Coalition (WCSC), which organized a multi-strategy effort to activate central Mass residents around the climate emergency in August-September 2019. One outcome of the WCSC’s and other groups’ efforts was the unanimous passage of a “Declaration of Climate Emergency,” a first for a municipality in Massachusetts (Worcester City Council, Sept 17, 2019). In her capacity as the co-chair of the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts (the state's affiliate of the Green Part of the United States), Charlene recruits and advises candidates, including those from underrepresented constituencies, on running for local, district and state office.

Dr. Nathan Phillips, is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University, where he researches and teaches on land-climate interactions, urban infrastructure ecology, and the transition from fossil fuels to clean, safe & sustainable energy systems.  

Key discussion notes and additional resources:

1. A related book that might be interesting to some: Eco-Justice -- The Unfinished Journey. It can be found for free through Hollis (and your HarvardKey login), or elsewhere online. 

2. There are so many accounts of devastating environmental accidents in the Boston area. To name a couple more: a pillar of fire that erupted from a broken gas main, and the Weymouth gas pumping station, which is in very close proximity to another pumping station that handles sewage waste from Boston's South Shore.

3. A Somerville Climate Forward Ambassador brought to our attention this resource, which "explore[s] the relationship between historical race-based housing segregation and the current and predicted impacts of climate change."

4. Throughout this session, there were many comparisons drawn between the climate crisis and the global pandemic which is very visibly impacting our lives. In response to that, someone brought this petition to the attention of the group. Its goal is to require that Harvard continue to pay its subcontracted workers throughout these incredibly difficult times.