Postponed: Our Communities and Climate Change

Part of the “Community Voices to Empower Change” series

In conversation with environmental justice activist Ratha Lai, author and scholar Julie Sze will discuss how the immigrant and refugee communities are impacted by urban and rural pollution and how communities mobilize for change and justice. Topics include the Standing Rock Sioux struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline, environmental racism in Flint, Michigan and California’s Central Valley.

After the discussion, learn herbal home remedies and tea-making from UC Berkeley’s Multicultural Community Center Garden and Wellness Workshop!

Julie Sze is Professor of American Studies and Founding Director of the Environmental Justice Project at the University of California, Davis. She has authored and edited two other books and numerous articles on environmental justice and inequality, culture and environment, and urban and community health and activism.

Ratha Lai has worked for 10 years as an environmental justice activist with the Greenlining Institute, Greenlining Action, Sierra Club Bay Chapter, the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Richmond Our Power Coalition, and the Solidarity to Solutions Week of Action in 2018. He is currently Executive Director of Critical Impact Consulting and a devoted father to his 4 year old daughter.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.

Co-presented by Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Eastwind Books Multicultural Services, and UC Berkeley Multicultural Community Center Garden & Wellness Committee.