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Episode #2314
Blacks Going Green
Holt: It seems that everywhere you listen people are talking about the greening of America. But is green just a hip new buzz word or is it a wide open window to wealth? We’ll talk about the budding opportunities that the green revolution presents and who will benefit as well as some of the social justice implications and who stands to lose, next on Black Issues Forum.
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Holt: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Black Issue Forum. I am Deborah Holt in for Mitchell Lewis and Natalie Bullock Brown. Today discussions around energy conservation, biofuels, solar panels and organic foods are on the lips of everyone from scientists and politicians to big corporations and Hollywood actors. It’s being said that the greening of America truly is green because it is a billion dollar industry. The door is wide open for African Americans to freely participate as equals in this new industrial opportunity. But while the green revolution holds great wealth building potential, there are very few African Americans taking part in the discussion. At the same time black, Latino, Asian and Native American communities are the ones living in some of the most environmentally unsafe regions of our country and state. On today’s program we will talk about the disconnect and try to fill in some of the gaps. To help us do that I would like to introduce today’s panel. We have Anita Brown-Graham, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues which will be addressing the issue of global energy at this year’s Emerging Issues Forum. We also have Joe Jackson, Director for Grounds Sanitation and Recycling Services at Duke University. Joe is also a long term member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Professional Grounds Management Society. And we have Yazmin Fozard, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Earth and Geospatial Sciences at North Carolina Central University who is also a landscape architect working to develop a sustainable low income community in Durham. Welcome to all of you.
Let’s just start off with defining that term of green community. It is very, very broad. Anita, can you kind of explain, what do we mean by the greening of America?
Graham: You know, when we talk about the greening of America we are talking about a new level of consciousness as it relates to environmental sustainability. It’s the notion that we can continue to engage in the kind of life activities we have come to enjoy as humans but do that in a way that is sensitive to the environmental implications.
Holt: And there is another key buzzword out there: sustainability. You just mentioned it. What are we really talking about when we say sustainability? Joe?
Jackson: Well, Deborah, let me say this, because I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here with the panel this morning. This is such an important issue for us and this is a very good forum to present this—the good and the bad about this topic. Sustainability in itself is a process, a process that you put in place to deal with the greening issues. It’s the processes you put in place in order to have long term social economic and environmental benefits as it relates to our natural systems, the natural resource systems that benefit us and that we need to protect. In short it is simply doing the things today, sustainability type things today, that we are sure that we have a planet for our children, our children’s children to live on.
Holt: And often it seems as though the whole green discussion is something that is pretty elite, kind of a luxury. Why should we be excited about African Americans about this topic, Yazmin?
Fozard: Well, I think one of the things that we take for granted is that the planet belongs to someone else. We live here, we operate here, we do our business. We enjoy recreational activities. But we never think about what and where we are. We don’t think that, oh, by the way, earth is supporting us. So one thing I think is that we should be excited because now everybody is talking about it. And that means that once it is out there, that we have to engage in and we have to understand it and we have to educate ourselves to know that if we don’t protect our planet now we won’t have a planet in the future.
Holt: So for those people who are interested in the here and the right now, how is this really relevant? What do we want to try to share with them and our audience about, say, the economic opportunities that are coming up within the green revolution?
Graham: You know, I think there are two things that I would say about the here and right now. By definition this focus on sustainability, or a green economy, forces you to think beyond the here and right now. So for those who would want to say, I want to worry about today, the truth is just worrying about today means that you are compromising tomorrow, not just for our children and subsequent generations but, quite frankly, given the rate of environmental consequence for our own generation. And we only need to look to the current drought to see that there are already immediate implications for the way we utilize our resources.
But more importantly, I think given those implications it is clear that the marketplace will continue to force innovations that will allow us to have higher efficiency in terms of the energy that we consume, the water that we consume. And that those innovations are necessarily going to create new jobs, new companies, more opportunities in communities all across this state and all across this country. The question is how do we all start to think about positioning ourselves so that we can maximize those opportunities that we know are coming in this near future? Many people have said the new green economy is what the dotcom economy was ten years ago. This is where we are going to see all of our technological innovations and we need to be positioned to take advantage of that.
Holt: And, Joe, you are very involved in all of these discussions. Where are African Americans at the table?
Jackson: Well, unfortunately, Deborah, we are not at the table. Certainly not in the numbers that we need to be. And that’s an unfortunate situation because of the fact that we need to understand that the way that we conduct our daily lives, the ways that we need to just deal with life activities, we need to do those kinds of things and in such a way that we have the least impact on our environment and on our natural resource systems again. And that’s all of us. The unfortunate thing is that we don’t have enough African Americans at the table, you know, entering into this debate and making the statements that we need to make as it pertains to our community and this very important topic.
Holt: And, Yazmin, I would like to ask you, how do all of these things around the green revolution directly impact African Americans where they are living today in terms of what we can be doing to make a change, to take control, and in terms of what things, the kind of decisions that are now being made that are out of our control as we are not involved?
Fozard: Okay, what I think we need to do is first of all we need to understand our environment and I work a lot with inner city youth and one of the things that happens with inner city youth is that there is a height in respiratory diseases. We are not thinking that, oh, it’s the environment that is causing our respiratory diseases but in Baltimore, for example, the smokestacks and this is an industrial city, there are smokestacks everywhere. And when the prevailing winds cross the city most of the—many of the communities that is being affected are the lower income communities and a lot of the people that are now having respiratory diseases are the youth that are outside playing. So I had a camp this summer called Eagle __ Camp and that was inner city Baltimore youth. And we got together and we decided that one of the things that they were going to do was to establish an environment, they would become environmentalists. And I let them decide what would be the problem what would be the most important problem that would face you today that you can address. And one of the things that they said, “We want clean air.” I did not tell them you need to clean your environment, you need to look in the harbor. You know, they decided that we want clean air. So that was their target and coming up with that idea was very important because I guess what they see is their friends and their families suffering. And seniors suffering because, you know, cold orange days, cold red days, those are days when they say don’t go outside because the air is not breathable for you. So they decided to take that issue and they decided to go to different schools. So being environmentalists they had to kind of put their arms around the environmental issue and become and environmentalist, they came up with two slogans. One was, teens against bad air, and the other one was environmental go-getters. So that movement is continuing on in the schools and I go back each summer and check to see and then I hold another camp and try to figure out other ideas. But I think it’s happening to us today and it is happening to our youth and I think that gradually we are acknowledging it and that’s the whole thing. We have to acknowledge it.
Holt: And as you talk about the things that are happening in the inner cities and clean air issues, it kind of brings up the topic of environmental justice which is a tremendous area that communities of color should be concerned and particularly low wealth communities. Anita, can you kind of talk about what we mean by environmental justice and how that really impacts African American communities?
Graham: Sure. I think it goes without question that historically low and minority—low income and minority communities have borne the brunt of environmental hazards. So if there were questions about where you would site the landfill you would go to the place of least resistance and that always seemed to be across the nation in a low income community or in a minority community. As a result minority communities have suffered exactly the kind of health hazards that you were just articulating, are so prevalent in places like Baltimore. The notion of environmental justice is to suggest that if there are going to be environmental consequences they ought to be fairly distributed across the community, everybody ought to bear them. Some communities ought not to be responsible for a disproportionate share of those hazards.
Holt: And, Joe, I see that you kind of want to comment here.
Jackson: Well, I think we are right on target with the statement here. Because of the way that certain land use decisions were made, because the effect—say, like, the fact that many of our concentration of African Americans live in those areas where there are high industrial type activities and it is a land use issue. We find ourselves around brown fields. We find ourselves in those communities where we are susceptible to some of the most vicious results of global warming and things like that. And it is not necessarily—and the thing that concerns me is that we are still being dumped on in these communities as we try to move other communities try to move beyond this issue. We are still receiving the brunt of a lot of the bad results of bad industrial type activities. And it is something that needs to change in that regards.
Holt: And non-involvement.
Jackson: Yeah, ____. And then that is a big issue. You are absolutely right. We have got to make sure that we are knowledgeable, you know, about what’s going on, that we get involved in the processes, that we are positioned in places where we can make certain public policy influences and as it relates to the environment. And we are not doing enough of that. So we are subjected—we are being subjected to these harsh environments and we need to try to get out of it.
Holt: And so what kinds of things are happening at Duke University? What kinds of things are you directly involved in to take part in the discussions and be present at the table?
Jackson: Well, at Duke University and it is a different situation than I think the average situation. I mean, on any campus for the most part. But certainly at Duke. Duke is in a position where it really needs to do what it is doing and that is to be a leader and showing the kinds of things that we can do with our buildings, with out grounds, that speak to doing the right things from an environmental standpoint. We have a number of buildings on our campus that are certified, ___ certified buildings. And that stands for leadership and energy and environmental design. That is a certification process that says, yes, you are attempting to do the right things with your buildings and your grounds that conserve on the energy that conserve on your water usage and things like that. So Duke is a little bit ahead of the curve. But Duke is in a position that it should be ahead of the curve.
Holt: And I was going to bring you in but go ahead.
Fozard: Well, I just wanted to say that I am on the board of a North Carolina Environmental Educators and one of the bills that is coming up to be voted on that we are supporting is called No Child Left Inside. And this goes to a basic level of environmental science being taught on the early level in the elementary school and in the junior high school because what has happened in the past is science is taught but not environmental science. So they are not really teaching us about our environment so they are not teaching the youth about what they can do in the future, because they are our future, to help save our environment. So what the Environmental Educators are supporting and hopefully this bill will be passed is that every school will provide an environmental sustainability type course or environmental education type course. And it called No Child Left Inside and that means that we have to go outside and we have to study our environment at an early age.
Holt: And that concern for protecting and preserving the environment, it comes back home on an individual level in terms of preserving your own health and your quality of life. Can you talk a little bit about the health implications of preserving the environment and just some specific ways, some specific things that we can each be doing as individuals in our daily lives to help protect the environment and in turn prolong our quality of life. Anita?
Graham: Sure. You know, it’s not a __ relationship so you could do a lot of things to protect the environment and if your neighbor is not doing the same thing I am not sure that it necessarily will ensure that you prolong your quality of life. But you hope that you might be able to lead by example and you might be able to share by knocking on their door and saying something. But I think this is a very important question because for so many people, when you start talking about environmental issues it feels so overwhelmingly big and certainly there are global dimensions to this issue and people go, well, what can I possibly do to reverse the trend of carbon dioxide emissions in our atmosphere. And I think it is important for people to recognize that this movement is going to be built on each individual’s changed behavioral patters one at a time. So for individuals watching this show, things to think about, conservation practices, how often do you leave your lights on when you are not in the room? There is no benefit to you for doing that but there certainly is a consequence for doing that and it goes beyond your electricity bill, that is energy that is being utilized and that is carbon dioxide that is going into the air unnecessarily. What kind of appliances do you buy? There are now opportunities to buy appliances that are stamped as being energy efficient. Think about that. It may require you to pay an extra $20 for the appliance but the cost saving implications over the lifetime of the appliance will be to your benefit and they will certainly be to the benefit of the environment. The kind of house we live in, the truth is that increased energy demand in the residential sector is directly related to the size of the houses that we are all living in. The more square footage you have, the more it takes to heat and cool it. That is going to have an environmental consequence. The kind of car you drive. There are opportunities now to think about cars that are hybrids and in a five year horizon we will have even more options in terms of clean energy sources of fuel. If you are driving an SUV that gives you nine miles to the gallon, there is an environmental consequence to that.
So in our everyday lives as we get out of the bed and make our way through work and play, there are all of these activities in which we engage that have implications for the environment and, quite frankly, it would not be that difficult for us to change some of our consumer demand habits.
Holt: And those are some of the individual ways but, Joe, I wanted to ask you about changes or ways that we can begin thinking to get in on the action in terms of building wealth and being a part of the industry.
Jackson: Well, let me give an example, though, because she really talked about some things, some everyday type things that can be done. And one example of how important it is that we each can play small roles but they can be very large roles. You know, if every household in this country switched out three bulbs, light bulbs, to fluorescent compact bulbs, you know, just three within your household, that would be the equivalency of taking three million cars off the roads. That’s a tremendous reduction in emissions. You know, and that’s not a large, that’s not a huge undertaking. But we just, we just haven’t done it. And we just need to have the will to do something like that.
Now, the benefits, I think, that comes from this, and I think we have touched on this, alluded to it a little bit already, is that it is a generation of jobs in this area whether it is ethanol plants that are created and employ people, material recovery facilities, ___ recycling area, those facilities need people. And the big thing is we need engineers and we need environmental scientists. You know, we need our young folks and we need people getting into those disciplines. And lest I be remiss, we need to get landscape architects. So we need the scientists. We need the people that have the background and the training. And so those areas that we can gain at.
Holt: And, Yazmin, I wanted to ask you, I know you want to respond to the question, but also be thinking about, share with us your project for building this sustainable community in low wealth community.
Fozard: Yes. I want to say one thing pretty quickly. One of the things that people need to do is weatherize their homes. I don’t know if you know this or not but poor people spend more money on energy than wealthy people. And the reason that they do so is because they have little cracks around the doors or cracks around the windows, that can easily be taken care of, it can easily be sealed up. If you can see any—if you can see the outside from your, from the inside of your house, you need to seal it up.
Holt: And that’s something you can do yourself?
Fozard: You can do it yourself simply by going to the store and buying putty and buying some various types of tapes that you just fill it up with, the energy stays inside and it doesn’t escape outside. So that lowers your energy bill. So that is one very, very important thing that I think people need to be knowledgeable of and address pretty quickly because gas prices are really, really high. So that was the one thing I wanted to say. Now, one of the things that I am doing as a landscape architect and as a land planner is developing a small community that addresses energy efficiency. The community is called La Villa Green and it is located right here in Research Triangle Park area. And we are looking at providing affordable housing units for poor people. Most—one of the reasons I wanted to do this was the first time I actually saw a panel was when I took a jog down the American Tobacco Trail and I was more in the wealthy communities and I saw solar panels. And I was like, wow, they are using solar panels. And then when I came back into my community I was like, we don’t have anything like this in our community. So we need to start to use what nature has for us. The sun, the wind, the water. And I came up with the idea, we can have sustainable energy efficient homes, we just need to design them, implement the development and then teach the community how to live in a sustainable environment. So it’s only 14 units and we are using both passive and active solar energy. All of the streetlights and outside lights are solar, will be solar powered. And the entire unit can sustain by itself without electricity but one of the things is that a lot of people are afraid when they hear total solar home. So we will provide everything that every other house has, the same electricity, the same, all of the same sources. But what we will do is you won’t have to use those sources unless the sun doesn’t shine for a week. So we are hoping that that definitely will not ever happen.
Holt: A very real possibility. In our last couple of moments here I would just like to get you from quickly, very quickly, how can we bring African Americans more into the fold where this conversation is concerned, Anita?
Graham: You know, you asked us earlier about environmental justice and it just struck me as I was listening to that example that in the old paradigm environmental justice was all about don’t dump on us, leave us alone. But the new environmental justice movement ought to be about, don’t forget about us. If you are building energy efficient homes in expensive subdivisions, please make that affordable in affordable housing communities. If you are creating high paying jobs for scientists and engineers, what about the construction industry? How do you ensure that people have the right set of skills so that they are out there building green jobs? There is an economic spectrum to those who can be beneficiaries of this new green economy and I think it is really important for folks in the African American community to stand up and say, we want to have our fair share of that pie too.
Holt: And our last few seconds, Joe, I am going to give it to you.
Jackson: Well, I will say that we all have a tremendous responsibility. I mean, we have been blessed with this earth that we are on. And the position that we are in. And we need to do all that we can to preserve it. Again, not just for today, but for tomorrow and the years that are to come for those other generations. So it is very important that we do that. And we need to instill in our young folks and even our not so young folks how important this issue is.
Holt: Wonderful. Joe Jackson, Yazmin Fozard, Anita Brown-Graham, thank you so much for joining us on this very important discussion. If you would like to get in touch with our guests or obtain a copy or transcript of tonight’s show, visit us online at unctv.org/bif. When you visit please be sure to give us your comments and program suggestions. You can also contact us on the BIFline at 919-549-7167. Please be sure to join us again at this time every week as we bring you people and discussions to better inform your decisions. For Black Issues Forum, I am Deborah Holt. Thank you for spending your time with us.
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