'Fight for it to be better'

In Boyle Heights, a working class neighborhood of Los Angeles, members of the community have taken to the streets armed with clipboards and pens to document environmental hazards, zoning violations, and and other things that endanger their fellow residents. They then took this on-the-ground information, which they called "ground truths," to local politicians to advocate for change.

When lead and arsenic levels threatened the communities in Southeastern Colorado, the Environmental Protection Agency was asked to step in. In order to have a seat at the table when decisions were being made, community members in the city of Pueblo created a Community Advisory Group. This allowed them to not only increase their understanding of possible decisions, but also offer feedback. It has also offered a model for surrounding communities that are facing similar situations.

Chispa Arizona is working to encourage members of the Latino community to spend time outdoors. The environmental justice organization created “entry points,” or free outdoor activities each month that anyone can attend like hiking, community gardening, and park clean-ups. There has been some hesitation from people attending these events, but one member says these experiences are necessary so they can educate others about the importance of green spaces.

The city of Louisville, built and sustained largely by pollution-inducing industries such as rubber factories and bourbon distilleries, is grappling with how to make the city air cleaner. The novel Air Louisville study integrated a partnership between a technology healthcare startup and a government-sponsored initiative that tracked incidence of asthma in different areas of the city. The results are already leading to healthier residents, but it is also just the starting point for long-term change.

For urban residents, participation in city-planning often means navigating complex administrative bureaucracy and struggling through a lack of transparency, but in New York City, efforts are being made to engage citizens in the renewal (and preservation) of Brownsville, Brooklyn. The city’s Housing Department has worked with the online platform coUrbanize to facilitate community-sourced ideas for the future via text. These residents’ responses are then inputted into a publicly-accessible map, which the city has pledged to incorporate into its planning.

While the U.S. economy enjoys the cheap fuel prices afforded by fracking, the consequences on the environment and communities like Grant Township in Pennsylvania reveal the ugly underbelly of the oil and gas industry and the broken regulatory infrastructure of state and federal government. But Grant wasn't willing to roll over and just let their woodlands and water sources be polluted, so they worked together and took a creative defense against the installation of a toxic injection well in their town: by granting the trees, animals, and streams rights to protection and battling it out in court.

Women4Climate is a new alliance of women mayors from major cities who are determined to act against climate change with or without federal support. Instead, they mentor each other in innovative solutions, cross-promote important causes, and share best practices to help stem the negative effects of greenhouse gas emissions, empowering women everywhere to participate.

Around the globe, countries have taken actions that have helped reduce carbon emissions and increase the use of renewable energy. Although the state of Florida feels the effects of climate change, its state representatives have not produced policy addressing it. Local policy makers and organizers have made the biggest difference in the state.

Worker cooperatives like the bookstore/cafe Red Emma's partnered with other organizations to create Seed Commons, a national financing network that provides loans without requiring individual collateral. Seed Commons has distributed over $100 million in loans supporting 15,000 workers nationwide. In the Baltimore region specifically, the network has invested $25 million, created 250 ownership-track jobs, and supported 23 cooperatives.

Mobile homeowners are buying the land their homes are on to form resident-owned cooperatives so they can upgrade infrastructure faster. This allows them to combat and adapt to climate change by installing things like solar panels and drainage systems.