From the blog
William J. Barber III Joins CEE as Fellow
Environmental justice scholar and advocate William J. Barber III has joined CEE as a fellow for the Environmental Justice and Civic Engagement Program. He brings to the Center nearly a decade of social justice organizing experience along with deep academic training in both the science and the law behind environmental… Read more
Karenna Gore Denounces “Terrible Burden” of Mountain Valley Pipeline
On the 49th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, Executive Director Karenna Gore penned a guest column, “The common wealth of water,” in the Virginia Mercury. Gore urged Virginia’s state government not to certify the planned Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would bring fracked gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia. “Virginians… Read more
White House Announces Environmental Justice Advisory Council Members including Catherine Coleman Flowers
MARCH 29, 2021 • STATEMENTS AND RELEASES Today, the White House announced the members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The advisory council will provide advice and recommendations to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council on how to address… Read more
Water, Sanitation and Inequality in the US – Catherine Coleman Flowers project with The Guardian
Help us Investigate Sanitation Inequality in the US March 9, 2021 Categories: Public Programs & Events We know that access to sanitation – just like access to clean air and water – is so often divided along race and class lines. But while there’s never been more awareness that environmental racism… Read more
The Stench of American Neglect
by Caroline Fraser for The New York Review In her new book, the activist Catherine Coleman Flowers chronicles her efforts to expose criminally deficient sanitation in her home county of Lowndes, Alabama and around the US. February 25, 2021 issue In 1941 Walker Evans, a photographer, and James Agee, a… Read more
Bridging the rural divide
OPINION | ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT – THE HILL Catherine Coleman Flowers The deep divide between rural and urban communities is a polarization that has been exemplified by coronavirus, climate change and economic despair. It is estimated that approximately 60 million people live in rural America. Most of the landmass of the… Read more
How to Fix the Climate
Catherine Coleman Flowers offers a response to the Boston Review Forum on ‘How to Fix the Climate’. “The people least responsible for climate change are the most impacted. We must prioritize exposed, fence-line, frontline, and vulnerable communities.” Living in Alabama, a state bordered by the Gulf Coast, it is hard… Read more
Battling America’s ‘dirty secret’
Climate change raises the risk from failing sewage systems. So Catherine Coleman Flowers is working for a new way to deal with waste. Originally published DECEMBER 17, 2020 by Sarah Kaplan for the Washington Post – Climate Solutions. LOWNDES COUNTY, Ala. — To Catherine Coleman Flowers, this is “holy ground”: the… Read more
NY Times Book Review of ‘Waste’
Excerpt from The New York Times online. Originally published Nov 17, 2020. Read the complete review here. ———————————— Flowers brings an invigorating sense of purpose to the page. “Waste” is written with warmth, grace and clarity. Its straightforward faith in the possibility of building a better world, from the ground… Read more
Catherine Coleman Flowers, NY Times Opinion
Mold, Possums and Pools of Sewage: No One Should Have to Live Like This Before she died of Covid-19, Pamela Rush opened her home to show the world what poverty looks like. Originally Published Nov. 14, 2020 Ms. Flowers is the author of the forthcoming “Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against… Read more