SUST 122: Intro to Sustainability

This book examines the issue of environmental justice across eleven short chapters, with the aim of creating a resilient society. Topics covered include smart cities and environmental justice, climate change and health equity, the Flint water crisis, coastal resilience, emergency manageent, energy justice, procurement and contract management, public works projects, and the impact of Covid-19. Each chapter provides a unique perspective on the issues covered, offering practical strategies to create a more resilient society that can be applied by practitioners in the field.

Flint's water supply tainted with lead. Chicago's toxic "donut." Louisiana's "cancer alley." Corporate waste poisoning developing nations. With no political clout and few available resources, these victims find themselves abandoned by the environmental movement and bullied by environmental policies. The burgeoning environmental justice movement argues that environmental protection is a basic right.

From the 19th-century extermination of the buffalo in the American West to Alaska's Project Chariot (a Cold War initiative that planned to use atomic bombs to blast out a harbor on Eskimo land) to the struggle for recovery and justice in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, this book provides readers with an enhanced understanding of how poor and minority people are affected by natural and manmade environmental crises. Includes 50 such case studies that range from local to national to international crises.

The Intersectional Environmentalist examines the inextricable link between environmentalism, racism, and privilege, and promotes awareness of the fundamental truth that we cannot save the planet without uplifting the voices of its people -- especially those most often unheard. Written by Leah Thomas, a prominent voice in the field and the activist who coined the term "Intersectional Environmentalism," this book is simultaneously a call to action, a guide to instigating change for all, and a pledge to work towards the empowerment of all people and the betterment of the planet.  Thomas shows how not only are Black, Indigenous and people of color unequally and unfairly impacted by environmental injustices, but she argues that the fight for the planet lies in tandem to the fight for civil rights; and in fact, that one cannot exist without the other.