The Morton Arboretum’s Post

Farzaneh Khayat, IRJ postdoctoral fellow, is sure of these two things: 1. Environmental racism must be addressed in anti-racist strategies. 2. The best solutions for communities come from them. Learn more about research projects covering tree equity, widening access to community gardens, and her journey of awakening in this profile: https://bit.ly/452ooW4

These are 4 ways you can acknowledge this day. Which one of these 4 works for you?

Today, we honor Juneteenth, a monumental day in American history, celebrating freedom, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of justice. As we reflect on the journey toward equality, let's also recognize the importance of environmental justice in building a fair and sustainable future for all. Environmental justice ensures that everyone, regardless of race or income, has access to clean air, water, and a healthy environment. It's about addressing the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on marginalized communities and fighting for a world where everyone can thrive. Together, we can honor the legacy of Juneteenth and build a future where both social and environmental justice prevail. #Juneteenth #EnvironmentalJustice #FreedomAndEquality #SustainableFuture #CleanAirForAll 

Sharing my latest blog post dedicated to my all-time environment and human rights defender, Professor Wangari Maathai, in the hopes of inspiring and informing.

A wonderful, thought-provoking book with our map on the cover 📙 💚 🗺️ #MapsReimagined #throwback When are borders justified? Who has a right to control them? Where should they be drawn? Today people think of borders as an island's shores. Just as beaches delimit a castaway's realm, so borders define the edges of a territory, occupied by a unified people, to whom the land legitimately belongs. Hence a territory is legitimate only if it belongs to a people unified by a civic identity. Sadly, this Desert Island Model of territorial politics forces us to choose. If we want territories, then we can either have democratic legitimacy, or inclusion of different civic identities--but not both. The resulting politics creates mass xenophobia, migrant-bashing, hoarding of natural resources, and border walls. To escape all this, Paulina O. Espejo's On Borders: Territories, Legitimacy, and the Rights of Place (Oxford UP, 2020) presents an alternative model. Drawing on an intellectual tradition concerned with how land and climate shape institutions, it argues that we should not see territories as pieces of property owned by identity groups. Instead, we should see them as watersheds: as interconnected systems where institutions, people, the biota, and the land together create overlapping civic duties and relations, what the book calls place-specific duties. This Watershed Model argues that borders are justified when they allow us to fulfill those duties; that border-control rights spring from internationally-agreed conventions--not from internal legitimacy; that borders should be governed cooperatively by the neighboring states and the states system; and that border redrawing should be done with environmental conservation in mind. The book explores how this model undoes the exclusionary politics of desert islands. Text from: https://buff.ly/3pRa5SQ You can order yours at all major booksellers or check your local library! #tbt #bookcover #northamerica #riversofnorthamerica #onborders #onbordersbook #watersheds #paulaochoaespejo #environmentalconservation #environmentalism #territorialpolitics

Social justice IS environmental justice. “Environmental hazards disproportionately impact Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income people. At the forefront of many environmental movements, these communities deserve clean water, air, land, and basic human resources.” @naacp Housing rights are environmental rights. We all deserve a safe home on a safe planet. We will continue our justice work so Black Americans and other people of color can enjoy a healthy & thriving planet and a safe home. #EarthDay #environmentaljustice #racialjustice #environment #earth #socialjustice #protecttheearth #land #water #air #housingisahumanright #housingjustice #njnonprofit

We are about to finish a book co-created with wood-cutters of Panabaj Canton, in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. I have read a lot about environmental peacebuilding, but their reflections, the way they link their wisdom, knowledge(s), identity, history and culture to the environment has taught me more than a bunch of articles. Environmental peacebuilding from the bottom-up, from unfolding different interpretations and bonds with nature, risk, peace , weelbeing. People may think this is about romanticising indigenous communities, but is is about creating spaces for dialogue and sharing differents ways of feeling-thinking with territories. #Ixchelproject #environmentalpeacebuilding #doingresearchasawayofbeinginthisworld

Indigenous communities have studied and preserved physical and environmental history for thousands of years. Sharing that generational knowledge helps us all to better understand our country, culture and history: https://ow.ly/tqcx30szlq8 #WHNPodcast

🌿 This Earth Day, let’s do more to embrace Indigenous Wisdom🌿 Did you know? Many of the world’s first inhabitants have long considered Nature and its resources sacred, living entities to be protected, not possessed, and commodified. These Indigenous beliefs call on us to be stewards of Earth’s resources, to, as the author Robin Wall Kimmerer says in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, give as much as we take. Conservation in this worldview is not an afterthought, necessitated by the need to consume more, but a prerequisite for the permission and privilege to take. These ideas are taking root in legal frameworks around the world. As of September 2022, 24 countries have formally adopted “rights-of-Nature” provisions in their legal systems. More will I hope follow. However, the low representation of women, Indigenous peoples, and local communities in decision-making bodies regarding the use and management of natural resources hinders the full transformative potential of these reforms. This Earth Day, I invite you to learn from and amplify Indigenous wisdom, recognizing that a diverse and inclusive approach to conservation is not just a moral imperative but a transformative one too.

“It is not enough to be at the table; our voices need to be considered and implemented for real change to occur.“ In this recent story for Planet Women titled "SheScape of the Colorado River Basin," the authors shine a light on professional women who are driving positive change in the conservation of the Colorado River. The article includes a mention of UC Assistant Professor Adriana Zuniga-Teran's 'Shades of Urban Greening' project. Full story here: https://lnkd.in/gvVYCViU