Every year, UC hosts a student-organized Sustainability Summit where UC students can hear from a variety of speakers, create long-lasting bonds, and workshops ideas for how to make UC a more equitable and ecologically-minded campus. Due to the pandemic, this year’s summit was held online; however, it was a success nonetheless! With a focus on the intersection between social and environmental sustainability, we discussed an array of topics from health, history, and public policy, and learned how to be better advocates in our community! If you didn’t get the chance to tune in, here are some of the key takeaway points and recorded lectures from this year’s summit:
Health Disparities and the Impact of Environmental Justice with Renee Harris:
· Advocate for the underserved populations in Greater Cincinnati
· Works with the Health Gap as President and Chief Executive Officer
· Focused on physical determinants of health such as the built environment, housing, transportation, safety, parks, walkability, and geography
· Physical determinates such as gun ranges cause up to 15-20 tongs of lead entering into the surrounding areas annually
· Outdoor gun ranges cause 80,000 tons of lead to enter into the ground and atmosphere annually
· Lead core wrapped with copper flies off into the air and causes risks for nearby residents
· On October 6th, Hamilton County had a testimony public hearing for lead poisoning
· Whoever controls resources drives the conversation, but when the bottom-up (such as citizens and public hearings) conversations emerge, there is accountability and movement made through the viscosity
Panel for Public Policy Discussion with Dr. Blessett and Anthony Johnson
· Dr. Brandi Blessett is an associate professor and Director for the Masters of Public Administration
· Anthony Johnson is the founder of Bluebird and a Senior Associate at Siemens
· We need to name systems in order to change them
· Whatever policy is happening at the National level trickles down to all communities=all policy is urban policy
· When it comes to city codes, the ideas/rules are there, but the will of the people/administration to implements them sometimes aren’t held accountable
· Urban development looks the same in every city and overlooks the characteristics that make a city unique… there is a difference between building and investing
· Citizen engagement should not be an after-thought or a check box; public policy should not be about the “quick fix”
Sovereignty and the History of the Present with Dr. Wingo
· Dr. Wingo is the Director of Public History and an Assistance Professor of Public History at the University of Cincinnati
· Sovereignty is the ability for people to govern themselves
· Treaties are the “supreme law of the land” and there are 500+ treaties made with Native Americans (most have been violated)
· Doctrine of Discovery discourages Indigenous people and lawyers to take out cases they don’t think they can win
· Due to the Doctrine of Discovery, many Indigenous women do not have the same protection as other people in American
· Over 6,000 indigenous women are reported as missing (predicted to be more)
· Dakota Access Pipeline threatens indigenous land, water, and people
· As a bare minimum, treaties should be upheld if reconciliation is to be obtained
Panel on Student Organizing and Taking Action with Cincy Gentry and Abby Stidham
· Cincy Gentry is an environmental engineering student at UC
· Abby Stidham is in the B.S. of Environmental Sciences at UC
· Student Government representation does not have the same voting rights as the Board of Trustees
· Boldly Bankrupt’s goal is to demand transparency from UC with where resources are allocated
· The University of Cincinnati does not provide students with a receipt for where their money is going
Environmental Justice and Action in Cincinnati with Sophie Revis
· Sophie is the Program Manager at Groundworks Ohio River Valley
· Focuses on distributive justice, procedural justice, and creating a sense of justice
· 1925 zoning laws still affect marginalized communities
· Groundwork’s strives to enable youth with environmental and professional tools to change the Cincinnati area
· Regenerating the environment means investing in communities