The New York Restoration Project is hosting a virtual event “Turning Red Tape Green: Making Government Work for Environmental Justice” on March 11, 2021 from 6:00PM-7:00PM EST.
Join us on Thursday, March 11 for a panel discussion with accomplished leaders in the environmental justice movement about what it takes to use the tools of government to make change.
From a new Presidential administration and political majority beginning work in Washington, DC, to major local elections in New York City, 2021 marks a new chapter in US government, with multiple, overlapping crises dominating political agendas at all levels. The fight for environmental justice takes many of these issues head on, championing concurrent action towards racial equity, public health, green jobs, and a livable planet.
Please contact Michael Cady at mcady@nyrp.org if you have any questions.
About our panel:
Vic Barrett is a youth climate activist who became involved in activism in high school as a member of Global Kids, an organization focused on developing leadership skills for youth. Barrett then became a Fellow with the Alliance for Climate Education and, at the age of 15, spoke at the COP21 UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris in 2015. Barrett is among 21 youth activists who are actively suing the government in Juliana Vs. United States, which states that the government violated youth rights by allowing activities that harmed the climate and are asking for progressive changes to current carbon dioxide emissions.
Rhiana Gunn-Wright is the Director of Climate Policy at the Roosevelt Institute. Previously, she was the policy director for New Consensus, charged with developing and promoting the Green New Deal, among other projects. A 2013 Rhodes Scholar, Gunn-Wright has also worked as the policy analyst for the Detroit Health Department and at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research She also served on the policy team for former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Maria Lopez-Nuñez is the Deputy Director of Advocacy and Organizing of Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) in Newark, NJ. She has organized and helped the passage of historic and landmark city and state legislation, such as the Right to Council, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), and the Environmental Justice Cumulative Impacts Bill. She is a member of Right to the City, Grassroots Global Justice, the Coalition of Healthy Ports, and a steering committee member of the Climate Justice Alliance as well as a volunteer Board Member and trainer for ROOTS. Lopez-Nuñez and her organization team are featured in the 2019 film, The Sacrifice Zone.
Bill McKibben is a contributing writer to The New Yorker, a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org and the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has written over a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature, published 30 years ago, and his most recent, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?