{"id":67244,"date":"2020-02-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2020\/02\/25\/livegreen-social-justice-black-history-month-and-sustainability\/"},"modified":"2022-09-02T17:21:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T22:21:13","slug":"livegreen-social-justice-black-history-month-and-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2020\/02\/25\/livegreen-social-justice-black-history-month-and-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"LiveGreen: Social justice, Black History Month and sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the United Nations marked World Day of Social Justice<\/a>, promoting equality, removing barriers and helping people living in poverty, unsafe conditions, and\/or without dignity. The field of sustainability has advanced beyond what we would mostly classify as “environmental sustainability” — taking care of the physical environment. While that’s still important as we are all products of our environment, there are other areas of sustainability that we need to address separately.<\/p>\n

Social justice and sustainability intersect in equity<\/a> and in health (our mission). In North America<\/a>, virtually all areas where low socioeconomic status communities are located experience higher concentrations of air pollutants. Air pollutants lead to a variety of health conditions — asthma, cancer, birth defects, etc. In the United States<\/a>, racial and ethnic minorities are more likely than non-minority groups to experience poverty. Given this, it’s not surprising that African Americans are exposed to pollutants and suffer the maladies they cause at a higher rate<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In honor of Black History Month, we offer a few pioneers in this important work.<\/p>\n