Liveblog | Breakfast Keynote

Dr. Robert D. Bullard - Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark-Atlanta University

[9:18a] Opening remarks from Cecil D. Corbin-Mark (WeAct):

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” -Nelson Mandela

[9:24a] Dr. Bullard framed climate justice as an extension of "old struggles" for equality and civil rights:

"Its not about the facts" Bullard said, citing for example the well-documented connections between pollution point sources and childhood lead poisoning. "It's about political will. There has to be a political will if we are to really tackle environmental justice issues."

[9:38a] Dr. Bullard:

"Just because we have a president that happens to be an African-American; just because we have an EPA administrator that happens to be an African-American; just because we have an attorney general that happens to be an African-American; does not mean that we are in a post-racial, post-environmental justice era."

[9:43a] Dr. Bullard called for an interdisciplinary "policy incubator" to tackle issues of urban environmental justice. He said that "narrowly focused", "stovepipe" initiatives lose effectiveness by losing sight of the big picture: the diverse and complicated array of "pollution and co-pollution" problems in an urban setting.

[9:49a] "To what extent are these things going to be too green for us?" - Dr. Bullard linked urban "greening" initiatives with the "displacement of people of color".