Thursday, October 6, 2022 5 WNY Organizations Working Towards Climate Justice
Environmental journalist Elizabeth Kolbert visits Buffalo on Friday, October 14th for a BABEL author talk at Kleinhans Music Hall. Kolbert’s research and writing on species extinction in her Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book The Sixth Extinction is fascinating, terrifying, and absolutely necessary as we face the realities of climate change. But how do we move forward with this knowledge? How do we turn away from despair and toward action?
Look to the people in our own Buffalo & Western New York community working towards environmental justice! Here are five WNY organizations to learn about, along with ways to get involved.
Massachusetts Avenue Project
Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) is a nonprofit urban farm on Buffalo’s West Side. MAP employs youth year-round and teaches them job readiness and leadership skills through farming, a Mobile Market, kitchen and nutrition education, food policy, and civic engagement.
Watch this video of MAP youth talking about the project!
WNY Land Conservancy
WNY Land Conservancy envisions a future in which forests, farms, meadows, and waterways are connected, cherished, and protected in Western New York. Clean air, clean water, and fertile soils will equitably support the health and well-being of future generations of every living thing.
Read the WNY Land Conservancy’s 2021-2026 Strategic Plan here!
Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper
In the late ‘60s, the Buffalo River was officially declared dead. Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper worked tirelessly for the last three decades, and with many partners, to bring the Buffalo River back to life. It was a tremendous, largely untold success story that played a large part in the city’s resurgence and renaissance in recent years. The story of the Buffalo River is a tale of caution, determination, hope, and resurgence. The Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s mission going forward is to work to achieve the same successes on other waterways, in addition to protecting headwaters throughout the watershed.
Read about some of their success stories from 2021 here!
Clean Air Coalition
The Clean Air Coalition builds power by developing grassroots leaders who organize their communities to run and win environmental justice and public health campaigns in Western New York. Their organizing work is planned and executed through campaign teams that consist of members who live in the communities their campaigns are based in.
Read about their ongoing campaigns here!
Global Justice Ecology Project (GJEP)
GJEP explores and exposes the intertwined root causes of social injustice, ecological destruction, and economic domination. They envision a world where all societies are justly and equitably governed with full participation by an engaged and informed populace living in harmony with the natural world and one another. GJEP accomplishes this mission by (1) prioritizing campaigns that are key leverage points for advancing systemic change and (2) linking struggles and strengthening diverse movements with strategic action, information, and analysis.
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