Allies in Environmental Justice: Frontline Communities and Anthropocene Alliance
09/07/22 • 40 min
House Warming Podcast, Episode 016: Allies in Environmental Justice: Frontline Communities and Anthropocene Alliance with Sheelah Bearfoot, Program Manager at Anthropocene Alliance
In this episode, Sarah talks with Sheelah about a grassroots efforts of communities to address environmental justice concerns in both the built and natural environments and how Anthropocene Alliance amplifies and facilitates their work.
Sheelah Bearfoot is a program manager at Anthropocene Alliance (A2) for communities in EPA regions 5,8,9, and 10 and for A2's Rights of Nature initiatives. She graduated with a degree in Genetics and Plant Biology from UC Berkeley in 2016. She's Chiricahua Apache, and worked at the Native American Health Center in SF for two years as a diabetes educator before starting a master's in Environmental Health Science at Hopkins, where she continued her focus on Indigenous health disparities. In her spare time, she loves reading scifi, hiking, and undermining colonialism.
On its website, Anthropocene Alliance describes itself thusly:
Anthropocene Alliance (A2) has 125 member-communities in 35 U.S. states and territories. They are impacted by flooding, toxic waste, wildfires, and drought and heat — all compounded by reckless development and climate change. The consequence is broken lives and a ravaged environment.
The goal of A2 is to help communities fight back. We do that by providing them organizing support, scientific and technical guidance, and better access to foundation and government funding. Most of all, our work consists of listening to our frontline leaders. Their experience, research, and solidarity guide everything we do, and offer a path toward environmental and social justice.
Supported by outstanding partner organizations with expertise in engineering, hydrology, public health, planning, and the law, A2 leaders have successfully halted developments in climate-vulnerable areas; implemented nature-based hazard mitigation strategies; organized home buyouts; and pushed for clean-ups at superfund sites, toxic landfills, and petrochemical plants.
We support everyone we can, but our special priority is people who have suffered the worst environmental impacts for the longest time; that usually means low-income, Black, Latinx, Native American and other underserved communities.
A2's website: https://anthropocenealliance.org/
Donate here: https://anthropocenealliance.org/donate/
During the episode, Sheelah refers to Citizens' Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT).
CRAFT's A2 page can be found here: https://anthropocenealliance.org/citizens-resistance-at-fermi-two/
CRAFT's own website can be found here: https://www.shutdownfermi.org/
House Warming Podcast, Episode 016: Allies in Environmental Justice: Frontline Communities and Anthropocene Alliance with Sheelah Bearfoot, Program Manager at Anthropocene Alliance
In this episode, Sarah talks with Sheelah about a grassroots efforts of communities to address environmental justice concerns in both the built and natural environments and how Anthropocene Alliance amplifies and facilitates their work.
Sheelah Bearfoot is a program manager at Anthropocene Alliance (A2) for communities in EPA regions 5,8,9, and 10 and for A2's Rights of Nature initiatives. She graduated with a degree in Genetics and Plant Biology from UC Berkeley in 2016. She's Chiricahua Apache, and worked at the Native American Health Center in SF for two years as a diabetes educator before starting a master's in Environmental Health Science at Hopkins, where she continued her focus on Indigenous health disparities. In her spare time, she loves reading scifi, hiking, and undermining colonialism.
On its website, Anthropocene Alliance describes itself thusly:
Anthropocene Alliance (A2) has 125 member-communities in 35 U.S. states and territories. They are impacted by flooding, toxic waste, wildfires, and drought and heat — all compounded by reckless development and climate change. The consequence is broken lives and a ravaged environment.
The goal of A2 is to help communities fight back. We do that by providing them organizing support, scientific and technical guidance, and better access to foundation and government funding. Most of all, our work consists of listening to our frontline leaders. Their experience, research, and solidarity guide everything we do, and offer a path toward environmental and social justice.
Supported by outstanding partner organizations with expertise in engineering, hydrology, public health, planning, and the law, A2 leaders have successfully halted developments in climate-vulnerable areas; implemented nature-based hazard mitigation strategies; organized home buyouts; and pushed for clean-ups at superfund sites, toxic landfills, and petrochemical plants.
We support everyone we can, but our special priority is people who have suffered the worst environmental impacts for the longest time; that usually means low-income, Black, Latinx, Native American and other underserved communities.
A2's website: https://anthropocenealliance.org/
Donate here: https://anthropocenealliance.org/donate/
During the episode, Sheelah refers to Citizens' Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT).
CRAFT's A2 page can be found here: https://anthropocenealliance.org/citizens-resistance-at-fermi-two/
CRAFT's own website can be found here: https://www.shutdownfermi.org/
Previous Episode
Saving a Drowning Town: Fighting Flooding in De Soto with Susan Liley and Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief
House Warming Podcast, Episode 015: Saving A Drowning Town: Fighting Flooding in De Soto with Susan Liley , Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief
In this episode, Sarah talks with Susan about De Soto and the Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief, a group that is working to fight flooding in the historic portion of De Soto.
Susan is Co-Founder of Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief and a passionate community activist. Susan is dedicated to implementing sustainable flood solutions and disaster readiness plans to protect her beloved, historic hometown of DeSoto, MO, which has suffered repeated flooding. She was a member of Anthropocene Alliance's Leadership Council and is an Advisor for Climitgration.
How Susan describes herself:
I have raised my children in De Soto. While being a stay at home mom, I decided to go back and pick up a few college courses. I then worked in several grocery stores and then for the school. My most important job ever was being a mother and grandmother. Then I decided to tackle the problems of other people's flooding. I have fought long and hard to fix this problem, and as I look around the world, it just becomes more intense and I tell myself to fight harder. My years are numbered but my grandkids will have to suffer from mine and others years of neglect.
Check out the following groups:
Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief: https://anthropocenealliance.org/citizens-committee-for-flood-relief/
Citizens' Committee for Flood Relief Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/609613372545223/
Anthropocene Alliance: https://anthropocenealliance.org/
Climigration: https://www.climigration.org/
Next Episode
Community Composting with Block Bins
House Warming Podcast, Episode 017: Community Composting with Block Bins with Dane Christianson, Founder and CEO of Block Bins
In this episode, Sarah talks with Dane about Block Bins, the importance of composting and the benefits of composting as a community.
Block Bins LLC is helping Chicago build an affordable curbside compost program by letting residents request compost bins, share them with neighbors, and drop-off their compost at one of over 600 existing locations. Chicagoans can visit blockbins.com to find a compost bin near them and bring composting to their block. Dane Christianson is the founder and CEO of Block Bins, who created Block Bins out of frustration at Chicago's inability to create a scalable and affordable compost service.
Block Bins: www.blockbins.com
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/house-warming-115299/allies-in-environmental-justice-frontline-communities-and-anthropocene-23529741"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to allies in environmental justice: frontline communities and anthropocene alliance on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy