Spring 2022 Lecture Series at Alabama A&M University
Spring 2022 Lecture Series in honor of Black History Month at Alabama A&M University
The Department of Community and Regional Planning in collaboration with the Department of Biological and Environmental Science at Alabama A&M University proudly present the Spring 2022 Lecture Series in honor of Black History Month on Friday, February 25th at 10 a.m. – noon.
Dr. Robert D. Bullard will serve as the keynote speaker. The lecture is open to the public.
Registration is required at https://aamu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUlcuGrqzgtG9a9bYVuF0G9Uwths0qobDOC
Dr. Robert D. Bullard is distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University. Professor Bullard received his B.S. degree from Alabama A&M University, M.A. degree from Atlanta University and Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University. He is often called the “father of environmental justice.” He is the founding director of the Robert D. Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at TSU, co-founder of the HBCU Climate Change Consortium and the National Black Environmental Justice Network. Dr. Bullard is the author of 18 books. His latest book is The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities (2012). In 2008, Newsweek named him one of “13 Environmental Leaders of the Century.” In 2019, Apolitical named him one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Policy, and Climate One presented him with the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. In 2020, WebMD gave him its Health Heroes Trailblazer Award and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) honored him with its Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award. And in 2021, he was appointed by President Biden to serve on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC).
The title of his presentation is “The Quest for Environmental and Climate Justice in the United States”. America is segregated, and so is pollution. Historically, people of color communities in the United States have borne a disproportionate burden of pollution created by others, including pollution from highway traffic, landfills, garbage dumps, incinerators, refineries, chemical plants and a host of other polluting facilities. Climate change is the number one environmental justice, human rights and public health threat of the twenty-first century. The most vulnerable populations in the United States and around the world 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. Professor Bullard’s presentation will focus primarily on the U.S. and the need for empowering vulnerable populations, identifying environmental justice and climate change “hot-spot” zones and designing fair, just and effective adaptation, mitigation, emergency management and community resilience and disaster recovery strategies. He will also discuss his book, The Wrong Complexion for Protection, which analyzes more than eight decades of government response to natural and human-made disasters. Finally, Dr. Bullard will offer strategies to dismantle institutional policies and practices that create, exacerbate and perpetuate inequality and vulnerability before and after disasters strike.
For more information about the event, please contact Dr. Deden Rukmana, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Community and Regional Planning at Alabama A&M University, by email: deden.rukmana@aamu.edu