The university community is invited to the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities’ 2018 Issa Lecture, which will feature a discussion titled “The Quest for Environmental and Climate Justice: Why Race and Place Still Matter.”
Robert D. Bullard, a Distinguished University Professor at Texas Southern University, will give the lecture Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center, Ballroom A.
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is available online.
Lecture details
Climate change is the defining global environmental-justice, human-rights and public-health issue of the 21st century. The most vulnerable populations will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks because of where they live, their limited income and economic means, and their lack of access to health care.
Climate-sensitive hazards are forecast to increase in the coming years. However, not all of the populations residing within these hazard zones have the same capacity to prepare for, respond to, cope with, and rebound from disaster events.
Bullard’s presentation will focus primarily on:
- The need for empowering vulnerable populations;
- Identifying “hot-spot” zones for environmental justice and climate change; and
- Designing fair, just and effective adaptation, mitigation, emergency-management, community-resilience, and disaster-recovery strategies.
He also will discuss his book The Wrong Complexion for Protection, which analyzes more than eight decades of government response to natural and human-made disasters.
Bullard will offer strategies to dismantle institutional policies and practices that create, exacerbate, and perpetuate inequality and vulnerability before and after disasters strike.