Long time no see!
This past weekend I spent three days in Philadelphia at the Students for Zero Waste Conference hosted by the the Post Landfill Action Network (PLAN) at the University of Pennsylvania. On Friday morning, several members of Eco-Action filled two vans and we were soon on our way there. At the conference, we met with several other universities across the country to address one of the most devastating problems of today: the environment.
The keynote speaker gave a very critical view of the many underlying problems that are connected with the environment. Here are some of the biggest takeaways I got from her speech:
- The biggest waste is the potential in people
- Environmentalism is not Environmental justice
- There is no environmental justice without the fight and liberation of all people. That being said, the fight for racial equity, gender equity, class equity, etc. are all at the base of the movement as well. We must center these issues to truly address the fact that the environment has disproportionately been used as a landfill, and disproportionately affects different people based on their identities. (for more info on this: article)
- The meaning of Zero Waste: If an item cannot be reused, recycled, or composted, then it should not be produced
- By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean (at the rate we’re going!)
- Just transition: Is a grounding framework for environmental justice with roots from indigenous communities. When we strive for a shift from an extraction economy to a living economy. What does that mean? Click here
- City council meetings are important and crucial to making local change and spots to be an advocate for things you care about
