We are back with a special 4-part series on transportation justice, trucking, and the climate crisis. Part 3 of this series lands us in the Chicago region, where North America’s largest inland port is just 40 miles southwest of the city. Approximately 3.5% of America’s GDP flows through this area, yet resources are purposely withheld from the community. While industry seeks to pit laborers against the community, leaders like Roberto Clack, the Associate Director of Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ), and Kimberly Wasserman, the Executive Director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), are tackling transportation justice as a united front with warehouse workers, labor unions, and environmental justice activists.
In this special 4-part series we explore transportation challenges and solutions for which dynamic leaders in frontline communities are fighting. Listen to this episode and the other three in this series. We focus on how the larger movement as well as the new administration can take action now to protect and uplift working class Black and brown communities while putting a meaningful dent in our climate pollution emissions. Transportation and warehousing are a fundamental part of the nation’s economy and one of the most significant contributors to the climate crisis. Trucks make up only 4% of vehicles on the road but contribute a baffling 90% of nitrogen oxide and diesel vehicle emissions. We see this reality in neighborhoods near highways, ports, and inland ports across the nation. Racist interstate planning makes Black and brown people most vulnerable to this pollution, elevating cancer risk and lowering life expectancy.
Listen and subscribe here or at TheCoolestShow.com!Follow @Think100Climate and @RevYearwood. #BlackLivesMatter #ClimateJustice #Think100
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