fought against land use policies

A key avenue through which planners can engage in climate justice action is to assist with creating measures to specify envi- ronmental impacts of proposed development projects presented to government planning and zoning commissions.

Noting that “protecting the health and welfare of the public” is “a basic duty of government,” they urge commu- nication, sharing information, coordinating programs, and developing “comprehensive rules that will ensure consideration and mitigation of localized environmental and public health impacts, especially in low-income and people of color commu- nities” (3).

Zoning decisions are among the most important for affecting con- centrated contamination and subsequent public health issues

Bolivia, Mexico, and the Shoshone Nation. The exploit- ative aspects of extractive industries often trigger an array of impacts and actions, including interference with that countries” politics and Indigenous People’s Tribal Sovereignty and in many instances circumventing the process of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

hese climate justice activists insist on the centrality of the “place-based leadership of peoples with the longest-living knowledge of Earth’s natural ecological systems.”

extractive-based economy, the nature of work is exploitative, whereas in a regenerative economy, work is viewed as more cooperative in nature

survival for human society as a whole

to ensure a Just Transition for workers, and survival for human society as a whole

CEOs of multinational companies, or govern- ments that refuse to break with the current paradigm of endless growth, the imperative of profit, and the enforced chaos of compe- tition

he transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future cannot be left to the investor class

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED), formed in 2012, is a global network of unions8 that believes that a just transition “needs to address the immediate concerns of workers in a way that can advance the extension of social ownership and democratic control of energy as part of a broad, inclusive, and vibrant social movement

n 2013, at its 102nd session, the International Labour Conference adopted a set of principles and guidelines and a policy framework for protecting workers in the transition to renewable energy.

This points to the essence of a just transition perspective – that as the shift occurs away from fossil fuel or toxic contamination industries, the economic needs of workers who will lose their jobs must be addressed, particularly to obtain their support in the fight against climate change. This is the fundamental tenet of a “just transition.” The Just Transition Alliance formed in 1997.

identified five areas where EJ activists had built strong relationships and where the union could assist in labor disputes.

stopping this kind of production would mean job loss for many, including those from the union that he represented. While he supported the transition away from toxic substances and fossil fuels, he also wanted the economic needs of workers to be addressed in this transition.

record of obtaining protection for workers through legislative action.

Environmental justice networks were approached in 1994 by Tony Mazzocchi, of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW)

with rec- ommendations for both international and national strategies and policies.

he more than 500 participants drafted a preamble

he more

express the con- cerns about accountability, interference, and the problematic role of their various organizations in “communities of people of color in the Southwest.” Noting that the region’s people of color have for centuries, “been subjected to racist and genocidal practices including the theft of lands and water, t

Regional Activist Dialogue with eighty activists from twenty- five organizations. One result was the creation of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice

This heightened attention was a key catalyst in the formation of the Environmental Justice Movement.

heir use as cheap, exploitable labor was compounded by conditions that included the use of pesticides and other toxic materials includ- ing those found in agricultural fields, chemical plants and the manufacturing of garments and high-tech micro-chips

ecent decades, to the struggles against the invasion of their lands by extractive industries such as uranium mining and oil pipelines

a labor organizer’s vision for a “just transition;

ecause of that history and experience, have relevant insights on climate action in planning policy.

There is value in remembering the source and motiva- tion for the original uses of these terms to bring forward the per- spectives from frontline communities

stem from front line workers and communities of color, who, for decades, have been fighting against the poisoning of their workplaces and communities

life in America has gone fantastically right

sustain one’s life in the city, and yet refuse to make good on those connections

And all this nature is of such critical importance because these connections—how we use and move and transform nature here— entail enormous consequences for places in the U.S. and throughout the world

explore our daily, intertwined connections to nature and to each other

being the great right place is much too easy when you don’t have to live with a lot of the problems you creat

make cities more livable and more equitable, we have to move nature through them more

Go ahead and ignore your topography, your climate, your hydrology.

The saga of the concrete

discarded American computers shipped to China,

along with alarming asthma rates

. Begin with the mangoes. Follow them, and you can tell an intricate set of stories as farm workers harvest mangoes in rural Mexico, and drivers truck them into the L.A. area and into the SkinMarket factory in Simi Valle

But there are so many more kinds of nature stories to tell here. I head for L.A.’s wild spots when I can, and delight in hawks, dolphins, and sunsets as much as the next nature lover. I have a special soft spot for ducks. But the anthologies ignore about 90 percent of the nature

“Enjoy the beauty of another culture while learning more about wastewater treatment and reuse”

Walden Pond, but need to tell us far more about our everyday lives in the places we actually live.

onfluence with the Arroyo Seco, near Dodger Stadium downtown. L.A. was founded near here in 1781: this area offers the most reliable aboveground supply of freshwater in the L.A. basin. It’s a miserable spot now, a trash-strewn

Experience the beauty... of another culture while learning more about wastewater treatment and reuse. —Brochure for the combination water reclamation plant and Japanese garden in the San Fernando Valley

This other Eden, demi-paradise, this precious stone set in the silver sea, this earth, this realm, this Los Angeles. —Steve Martin (and Shakespeare), L.A. Story