Editor's Note from April 2024 Networker
Our largest problems won’t be solved by heroes. They’ll be solved, if they are, by movements, coalitions, civil society. —Rebecca Solnit
The nationwide carbon capture and storage (CCS) coalition that SEHN Executive Director Carolyn Raffensperger launched and convenes continues to be a remarkable journey of connection. All of us at SEHN participate at various levels; for example, I’m on the “Messaging Committee,” a working group strategizing and carrying out pithy communications campaigns. We’re all continuously absorbing new technical information and details of industry’s new plans, conceptualizing new policy avenues to stop CCS, and finding ways to support frontline communities. No less important are the connections and relationships forming and growing through this work.
The SEHN Board of Directors—past and present, a who’s who of incredible minds and changemakers—is now benefitting from the coalition. We welcome our newest member, Jade Woods, the Louisiana CCS Campaigner for the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).
Jade is immersed in frontline responses to CCS in Louisiana. As quoted late last year in a media report,
“I wanted to note to you all how quickly communities are mobilizing against carbon capture and sequestration,” said Jade Woods, a representative of the Center for International Environmental Law. “We have had communities educating themselves in Cameron, in Calcasieu, Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. James, St. John, East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Ascension, and more, as well as Orleans Parish.”
“No community that I have engaged with in the past year leading these community meetings and attending them has supported carbon capture and sequestration,” she said.
It’s an invaluable connection for our Board. As Carolyn Raffensperger says:
We at SEHN work to fulfill Arundhati Roy’s promise that “another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” Over the past couple of years as I have watched Jade bring a consummate grace to her work on behalf of the community and the Earth, I too can hear that world, full of beauty, health and justice, exhale a big sigh of relief: “Jade is here.” I am thrilled that Jade agreed to join our wonderful board.
We can’t express enough gratitude to Bhavna Shamasunder, Occidental College professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Public Health, who recently stepped down after many years of service on the Board. Bhavna’s work on chemical exposures faced by low-income communities and communities of color has long been and continues to be an inspiration for me (and source of data for my work). Her approach exemplifies the critical endeavor of linking scholarly work with on-the-ground environmental justice communities and movements. If I were a professor, I’d want to be just like Bhavna. SEHN will always be in touch!
In this issue of the Networker, SEHN Science Director Ted Schettler and I each provide a brief look at how two new studies on different types of micro- and nanoparticle pollution relate to two contemporary and vibrant policy campaigns: a Global Plastics Treaty and building electrification. On behalf of SEHN, we bring our public health expertise to amplify the science and help lead it to actions that protect all beings. In her column, Sandra Steingraber talks about a new report that gives an “F-” to cancer organizations that employ fossil fuel lobbyists. All three pieces touch on industry interference with the progress we need. But, our coalitions are strong.
We hope you are having a beautiful Spring, even while bearing witness to the darknesses of this time and working so hard to better this world.
Carmi Orenstein, MPH