Environmental Justice Conference Encourages Action

Three-day dialogue promotes environmental initiative and education

After months of uncommonly dreary inclement weather, climate activists gathered in Locatelli Student Activity Center on, ironically, one of the hottest days of 2023. The participants discussed injustices exacerbated by climate change during the Environmental Justice and the Common Good Conference April 27 through 29. 

The lead organizer of the event, Dr. Christopher Bacon, stated that the goal of the conference was to build community and partnerships by facilitating discussions about environmental impacts on underrepresented communities in California. 

“It's now evident that climate change is not something that's going to happen in the future–it's here now and the impacts are uneven,” said Bacon, an associate professor in the department of environmental studies and sciences. “We don't have to look further than the most recent series of atmospheric rivers affecting farm workers disproportionately in Salinas and Monterey County. These patterns are even more amplified if we look at conditions worldwide, particularly in lower-income countries in the tropical regions.”

The conference began with a welcome from President Julie Sullivan and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Daniel Press, during which the speakers acknowledged the Santa Clara community’s Jesuit responsibility to the environment. Sullivan mentioned Santa Clara’s obligation to sustainability as the community prepares to enact its 7-year plan according to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical.

“This conference is very timely in terms of continuing to enrich our thoughts and our planning,” said Sullivan. “It’s a bridge to the next several years and the next chapter in deepening our commitment to this work.”

The first panel of the conference focused on Indigenous voices in climate activism. The Vice-Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, Monica V. Arellano, Ahma Mutsun Chairman Valentin Lopez and Stanford professor Michael Wilcox joined together to encourage reflection on the role of colonialism in climate injustice. 

“We have done a lot of research with Berkeley, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz and Santa Clara and we need to recognize that,” Lopez said during the panel. “But I don’t call that research anymore; that is validation. They are validating the way our people took care of Mother Earth, and that is what we need to get back to if we are going to be successful in addressing climate change.”

Bacon reiterated this point and emphasized the importance of respect and accord as comprehensive research and knowledgeable action is completed. 

“The panelists addressed the potential for restoring these relationships and moving towards reconciliation as we recognize questions of land justice in terms of land management strategies,” said Bacon. “We need to build relationships rooted in trust and mutuality that hold both the university faculty and students accountable to our community partners.”

The next panels asserted the need for coordination between university communities and grassroots environmental organizations. Rev. Michael Garanzini, S.J., the president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, gave a keynote address at the conference discussing the university-level action required to address the uneven consequences of climate change.

“A Jesuit education, we hope, prepares you by giving you the tools for living a life of meaning and purpose,” said Garanzini in his talk. “Environmental justice is one issue that you must deal with if you are going to become a citizen of the world.”

Garanzini explained the work a commission of faculty members from Jesuit universities across the country are doing to integrate such equity in a university-level Jesuit education.  

“Father Garanzini saw the potential for Santa Clara in terms of sharing its leadership role, doing community-engaged research for climate and environmental justice and bringing together the sort of faith-based and community-based traditions in collaboration for action,” said Bacon. “He was asking us to step up and not only continue developing a network here but start sharing it across both the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and the worldwide network of Jesuit higher learning institutions. I hope we are able to answer that call.”

The discussions that occurred over the course of the three-day-long conference intended to build partnerships and direct strategies to research and respond to environmental injustices. 

“We were able to do this thanks to all of the work that the frontline environmental justice communities have done,” said Bacon. “The creation of community-based organizations by the people that are on the frontline–suffering the consequences of climate change or disproportionately high concentrations of air pollution or lack of access to clean water or healthy foods–allows us to partner with those people. We wanted to foreground many of these voices.”

A similar event was hosted in 2019 to promote the environmental justice initiative. This year, faculty organizers and frontline environmental guest leaders encouraged moments of reflection on how community action is required to address pressing environmental issues. 

“The event does build from a history,” Bacon said. “We had a much stronger presence of community leaders from frontline environmental justice groups in the Central Valley, this time. There were also even more participants from across California and more participants from other Jesuit colleges and universities.”