A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

My early career days focused on international environmental policy, which involved both teaching and research. On the teaching side, the focus was on international treaties, such as the Montreal Protocols, which led to significant progress in forestalling the depletion of the ozone layer, and the law of the sea treaty, where negotiations did not conclude but the ideas within are more or less mutually enforced. On the research side, I took graduate students to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, where we heard the early discussions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, still a nascent concept. An important aspect of environmental policy at the international level was the early recognition that negative environmental impacts fall disproportionately on those most vulnerable, specifically poorer countries that receive the world’s cast-off items, ranging from computers and fast fashion, to garbage and nuclear waste. A recent study found that communities of color are likely to be more polluted and downwind of pollution sources (Professor Julian Marshall quoted in The Guardian, March 8, 2023). A stark example of this fact is that the most polluted air in the country is in Bakersfield, CA, specifically the eastern section, which was one of the only parts of the city where Black people could live due to redlining and other forms of racism.

To address this type of structural inequality, the term environmental justice was coined and meant to reveal such inequities and seek to redress them. Dr. Robert Bullard, a distinguished professor of urban studies and environmental policy at Texas Southern University, is credited with coining this term. At the core of his considerable scholarship is a social justice premise — he calls upon us to use such research to reduce environmental, social, racial, and health disparities.

In my work at a prominent business school, we called such work “the greening of business.” In a curriculum I helped to create, we taught emerging leaders about environmental racism and tools to remediate such racism. For example, we focused on establishing metrics for companies to use in supply chain management and discussed ways to analyze the life cycle of products, and to create more humane and conscious labor practices. We exhorted leaders of cities, towns, and countries to confront water issues, air pollution, and other environmental problems detrimental to healthy thriving and flourishing for all humans. We were making two salient arguments that you will see repeated here in this issue as we lay out the many Fielding stories of social and ecological justice. Our first point was that many types of injustice are interrelated, i.e., racism makes worse environmental degradation in communities of color, which leads to poorer health outcomes. Our second idea was that each of us, in our own professional sphere, can make choices that promote social and ecological justice. It is a matter of intention grounded in solid research and community practice.

As I read over this issue of FOCUS, I am struck anew by the deep commitment of all Fielding community members to strive for using the tools of our different social science disciplines to advance justice. In these stories, we see the power of collective action to make a positive social difference. May the people on these pages uplift and challenge us in equal measure.

With kind regards,

Katrina S. Rogers, PhD President