CLIMATE JUSTICE STORYJosé T. Bravo,
Executive Director,
Just Transition Alliance,
Chula Vista, California
Catching Jose Bravo as he's traveling from San Diego to Los Angeles, he describes the kinds of effects of climate change that he sees in California.
"In the inner cities like LA, temperatures are going up dramatically," says Bravo. "There's a higher incidence of asthma, a higher incidence of heat-related death. We see more dust problems, we see more particulate problems, and we see other problems."
A longtime California resident, Bravo is a leader in cleaning up Californian communities. He is a co-convener for Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy (CHANGE) and the head of Just Transition Alliance, an umbrella organization for environmental justice groups.
Jose has been a crusader for green public transit systems. In the communities in which he works, bus depots, oil refineries, fuel depots and chemical plants often emit carbon and other pollutants, jeopardizing the health of communities of color and low-income populations, communities where it's less likely that people have health insurance and other resources to heal from disease.
On the phone at his office in Chula Vista, California, in community meetings with hardworking people of the inner city, and pounding the pavement in Californian towns, Bravo works to bring just policies to vulnerable communities so that they can breathe clean air, drink clean water, and build local economies modeled on natural systems.
"From an environmental justice standpoint, this means communities of color or low-income communities that have historically housed these types of industries will be much safer," says Bravo.
One of the things that Jose is especially concerned with is cultural practices that are lost and transformed by climate change related natural disasters, and as sea level rises and land slowly disappears underwater. He describes cultural land that was impacted by Hurricane Katrina.
"There are native Americans that lived in the area of Louisiana whose culture is very specific to that land," says Bravo. "Hurricane Katrina had an impact on the culture of the South. The hurricane worked to erode some of that culture that had been there for many, many years."
As Bravo rushes to his next appointment with communities in LA, it's clear that people like Bravo are inspired and empowered to bring about the solutions to the climate change challenge that work to benefit all people equally.
