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Living Downstream Visits Birthplace of Environmental Justice

Mac Shaffer PCB Story Photos 0146This story comes from Warren County, North Carolina.  In the early 1980s, Warren County became a flash point in the fight for something that didn’t have a commonly used name at the time: environmental justice. 

These days, members of this small, “majority-minority” community are taking new approaches to raising environmental consciousness. 

Jereann King Johnson and Joe O’Connell have teamed up to tell the story of local environmentalism in the present day. 

Jereann has been involved in social justice work in the county since the 1970s.  She knows Warren County intimately. Joe, on the other hand, was drawn to this story through his work as a folklorist.  He lives in Durham, about an hours drive to the south of where our story takes place.

Learn more about PCBs and global environmental justice conflicts. 

(Image: Anti-PCB demonstration 1982. Credit: Mac Shaffer)

Slideshow of protests against PCB site in Warren County, photographer Mac Shaffer:

PCB March September 15, 1982, photos by Matt Cooper, Jr.

2019 Knight Media Forum Live Stream

 
Watch the live stream of the 2019 Knight Media Forum on February, 26 and 27 hosted by Hari Sreenivasan of the PBS NewsHour.
 
The Knight Media Forum is the most important annual gathering of journalists, funders, information theorists and others interested in the future of the news media in this country.
 
Featured speakers this year are Danah Boyd, Founder and President, Data & Society; Tim Hwang, Harvard-MIT Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative; and David Brooks, New York Times columnist and commentator on PBS NewsHour.
 
The forum, held in Miami, will be convening leading experts at both the local and national level to explore solutions to assure that all citizens receive accurate, reliable news and information that serves the needs of their diverse communities. The forum will address how changes in technology affect the news we receive, encouraging new models for gathering and disseminating the news and the future of community access to information. See the forum’s two-day agenda.
 
Tuesday, February 26, 9:30-10:30 a.m. ET
Danah Boyd, Founder and President, Data & Society. Data & Society is a research institute in New York City that is focused on the social and cultural issues arising from data-centric and automated technologies.
Replicating the success of the Texas Tribune through the American Journalism Project
 
Tuesday, February 26, 2 – 3 p.m. ET
Evan Smith, Texas Tribune, Jennifer Preston, Knight Foundation and John Thornton, America Journalism Project. Moderated by Jeff Cohen, Arnold Ventures; Scribe: LuAnn Lovlin, The Winnipeg Foundation.
Artificial Intelligence: What You Need To Know Right Now
 
Tuesday, February 26, 3-4 p.m. ET
Tim Hwang, Harvard-MIT Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative; Craig Newmark, Craig Newmark Philanthropies; Julia Angwin, The Markup. Moderated by Paul Cheung, Knight Foundation.
The Aspen Institute/Knight Commission: A Roadmap to Rebuilding Trust in the Media
 
Wednesday, February 27, 8:30 – 9:45 a.m. ET
Charlie Sykes, The Bulwark, Raney Aronson, FRONTLINE, Joanne Lipman, author, journalist, Mizell Stewart III, USA Today Network. Moderated by Jennifer Preston, Knight Foundation.
Funding Local News: Community Models for Success
 
Wednesday, February 27, 10 – 11 a.m. ET
Kathy Im, MacArthur Foundation and Darryl Holliday, City Bureau; Jim Friedlich, Lenfest andJean Friedman-Rudovsky, Resolve Philadelphia; Mariam Noland, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and John Bebow, Center for Michigan; John Thornton, American Journalism Project. Moderated by Lilly Weinberg, Knight Foundation.
Embedding information as a strategic component of a community foundation’s work
 
Wednesday, February 27, 11:20 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. ET
Michael Murphy, Cleveland Foundation; Chris Barge, Community Foundation Boulder County, Mauricio Palma, Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Moderated by: Lilly Weinberg, Knight Foundation; Scribe: LuAnn Lovlin, The Winnipeg Foundation.
 
Wednesday, February 27, 12:30-2 p.m. ET
Closing. David Brooks, columnist, The New York Times and commentator for the PBS NewsHour.
Get a roundup of premieres, giveaways and special offers with our weekly newsletter.
 

Fire and Rain: Living Downstream Reports from Borneo

TOMS indonesia smog lrgThe peat swamp forests of Borneo are the site of a failed agricultural experiment. Planners believed that rice should grow in the swamps, but it couldn't. Even today, experiments with growing oil palms and other trees are changing the forests, with little positive to show for these efforts.

As indigenous people lost their livelihood, carbon poured into the atmosphere from uncontrolled fires. 

Daniel Grossman reports:

Learn more about peat fires in Indonesia. 

Read an article by The New York Times on the same region of Indonesia. 

(Image: Smog and smoke over Borneo and Indonesia, 1997. Credit: NASA)

 

Living Downstream - Episodes

Newark Energy Center

Seeking Justice: On Repeat, In Every Language, Unceasingly

For this final Living Downstream episode of the season, we're dropping in on three recent webinars: One gathering considered Social and Environmental Justice at Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico. Another knitted together poetry and a powerful environmental film. It was put on by the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Program. And a third event was cheekily called Toxics are a Drag, and was billed as a panel discussion on toxic beauty products in the queer community. That was hosted by one of the most important grass roots environmental groups in the country: New York City's WEACT for Environmental Justice. Find more information about all these events in the Resources section of our website at https://norcalpublicmedia.org/resources/living-downstream-resource-guide First, this show has an update on what's happening right now, the last week of October…
eddie lewis

Health, Wealth and Race in Today's Louisiana

This season, we’re looking at environmental racism across the country, and today that takes us to the sugarcane covered, oil-rich region at the intersection of southern Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico: Iberia Parish. In this episode of Living Downstream, we will hear from people who say they are fighting over something that their families have already fought for generations to maintain: wealth. In this case, we’re talking about land: what grows on it and what lies under it. We’ll hear from Black sugarcane farmers who say it’s become impossible to stay within the industry. These farmers describe the challenges of keeping their businesses afloat in an atmosphere of overwhelming racism, and they share with us how the stress is affecting their minds and bodies. And we'll hear the poignant story of a woman who documents how oil was taken…
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The Sea Next Door

From Northern California Public Media and Mensch Media, this edition of Living Downstream is guest hosted by Molly Peterson. This time, from the Coachella Valley, east of Los Angeles, we’re talking about the biggest lake in California — now starved of water — and the people who live around The Sea Next Door. The Salton Sea sits in a depression of land 30 miles from the Mexican border — and it poses a growing threat to public health. In this episode, two young women from the Eastern Coachella Valley introduce us to their neighbor. We begin with Adriana Torres, who lives in a rural community there: an area called North Shore. We'll also hear from her classmate Rosa Gonzalez.
Luis Soil Factory

The Little Town That Would Transform the World

On this episode of Living Downstream, we take you to a little city with big plans for changing the world. While we’re there, we ask what role local governments can play in the movement for climate justice — that’s where climate activism and the fight for social justice meet. Ithaca, New York sees itself as a living laboratory for climate justice. Climate justice is based on the recognition that the people whose lives are most disrupted by climate change — the people who tend to die in the storms and heat waves, or to lose their homes in the fires and floods — are generally the people with the least money, the most precarious jobs, the least access to health care, the shabbiest housing, and the least reliable transportation. So if you want to do something about the climate emergency, the thinking goes, you can’t just focus on things like…
lanza monitor cropped

Degrees of Injustice: The Social Inequity of Urban Heat Islands

On this episode of Living Downstream, Texas Public Radio’s Yvette Benavides takes us to Central and South Texas where summer days are frequently in the upper 90’s, but where in many low income neighborhoods the mercury climbs even higher. And with climate change, these areas will be experiencing more extreme temperatures, more frequently and for longer durations. New research shows how these hotter temperatures are taking a toll on the people who live in some city neighborhoods — typically in communities of color. The heat is affecting their bodies and minds — effectively shortening their lives. We'll be hearing from some Spanish-speaking residents as they explain how they coexist with the heat. Yvette will translate, but we’ll make room for these Texans to have their voices heard in their own language. What's the connection between…
NC image web SM

Chicken Country, North Carolina: Justice on the Factory Floor

On this episode of Living Downstream: The Environmental Justice Podcast, Victoria Bouloubasis visits a rural county where the multicultural workforce kept America fed during the pandemic. We'll meet Esmeralda, who has become a community health worker, and her mother Marta, who works in a poultry plant. In the face of blatant mistreatment and inadequate protection, food factory workers in North Carolina became sick, and died, in unacceptably high numbers. This mother-daughter team stepped up to protect the health of their neighbors and coworkers, efforts they continue today.
containers

West Oakland's 'Diesel Death Zone'

For decades, community members and allies have complained about the diesel truck traffic around the Port of Oakland. People who live in this neighborhood, between several freeways and backing up to one of the busiest ports in the nation, have elevated instances of asthma, and shorter life spans, than others in the county. We meet the activists who are trying to change this reality, and we hear about the complex politics and alliances that have resulted in some hope that change is coming. The phrase "diesel death zone" is used more often with areas in Southern California, but we believe it applies here as well. Sarah Holtz reports.
latonya mister sm

Generations in Houston's 5th Ward Contend With Contamination, Cancer Clusters

On this episode of Living Downstream, we visit Houston's Greater Fifth Ward, to learn how creosote contamination has degraded the health of people living near a rail yard. We talk with residents, who describe all the cancer cases in the neighborhood and with Dr. Robert Bullard, widely considered the father of environmental justice. Residents have organized to advocate for compensation from the railroad company that owns the yard. What will stay with you is the story of "Mister" — a young neighborhood resident who dreams of becoming a veterinarian. Laura Isensee reports.
Mac Shaffer PCB Story Photos 0146

New Growth in the Birthplace of Environmental Justice - Encore

The 40th anniversary of PCB protests in North Carolina is about to be commemorated. To mark the occasion, we revisit one of the most listened-to episodes from our first season. This story comes from Warren County. In the early 1980s, Warren County became a flash point in the fight for something that didn’t even have a commonly used name at the time: environmental justice. These days, members of this community are not only marking that history, they are taking new approaches to raising environmental awareness. Their work begins with support for small farmers, particularly those of color. Jereann King Johnson and Joe O’Connell have teamed up to tell the story of local environmentalism in the present day. As we continue this second season of Living Downstream, make sure to subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts. Please leave comments and…
Catherine Flowers

Catherine Coleman Flowers: Warrior for Environmental Justice

On this episode of Living Downstream, we meet Catherine Coleman Flowers. In 2020, she released her first book, Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirtiest Secret. The book documents her two-decade crusade to expose the shameful conditions that many of her Alabama neighbors endure. Some Americans take for granted that when they flush the toilet their waste will travel to a place where it can be safely and effectively treated. But for others, the sewage may go only as far as their back yards, to become breeding grounds for insects and disease. In 2020, Flowers became a MacArthur Foundation Fellow - an award colloquially known as the "genius" grant for her work in Alabama and around the world. She also is the founder of CREEJ, the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, and a current vice chair of the White House…

Struggling to Breathe in the Bronx

More than a year into the pandemic, the Bronx is still the New York City borough with the highest death rate from COVID-19. That's where we begin the second season of our Living Downstream podcast. Last year, Ese Olumhense, former Bronx reporter at THE CITY, explored why residents there were dying…

Living Downstream Podcast: Season 2 Preview

Season 2 of Living Downstream: The Environmental Justice Podcast premieres Earth Day (4/22/21). Producers are checking in from around the country, from California to North Carolina. And we'll talk with EJ warrior Catherine Coleman Flowers. Here's a preview.

'Living Downstream' Exposes Agent Orange Plight in Florida

Last year we brought you the story of civilian workers at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, who tested the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Today these workers are in their 70s and 80s and suffer from the same diseases that Vietnam veterans have shown were caused by their exposure to…

Environmental Justice for Non-Recognized Tribes

Non-Federally Recognized Tribes Struggle to Protect Environmental and Cultural Assets By Debra Utacia Krol and Allison Herrera Read more about federally non-recognized tribes. Valentin Lopez was handed a dilemma: how to honor his elders’ admonition to fulfill an ancestral directive to guard and…

Firing Forests to Save Them: Could Native Traditions Save Lives?

When we imagined a podcast about environmental justice – it was before the Tubbs fire here in Sonoma County – and the deadly fire seasons of 2017 and 2018. Even so, we wouldn’t have thought of Indians and their relationship to fire as a matter of environmental justice. But producers Allison Herrera…

Living Downstream: The Klamath Water Wars

This is the story of a 15-year conflict over what would be the biggest dam removal ever, a modern cowboys and Indians tale that shows how victories for Native American rights still come with fits of racism and armed conflict, and how rural folks learned to make peace (and collaborate on an…

Living Downstream Visits Birthplace of Environmental Justice

This story comes from Warren County, North Carolina. In the early 1980s, Warren County became a flash point in the fight for something that didn’t have a commonly used name at the time: environmental justice. These days, members of this small, “majority-minority” community are taking new approaches…

Fire and Rain: Living Downstream Reports from Borneo

The peat swamp forests of Borneo are the site of a failed agricultural experiment. Planners believed that rice should grow in the swamps, but it couldn't. Even today, experiments with growing oil palms and other trees are changing the forests, with little positive to show for these efforts. As…

Trailer Park Activists of Coachella Valley Fight for Health

You may be familiar with Coachella from hearing about the annual music festival there. But for 10 years, journalist Ruxandra Guidi has been visiting farmworkers in the area, learning about the deplorable conditions in which they live. There’s now some hope that community health workers are making a…

Uranium: A Toxic Legacy at Red Water Pond Road

For the Navajo people Mother Earth is sacred. She places her mineral riches below ground. That’s where they’re meant to stay. If the Earth’s elements are hauled up to the surface, Navajos believe they can turn monstrous -- or they can unleash the monsters in humankind. Uranium mining produces…

Smackdown: City Hall vs. Big Oil

"Smackdown" tells the story of Richmond California, a working class town that grew up in the shadow of a massive Chevron refinery. The refinery emits a toxic soup of chemicals and residents suffer an asthma rate that is double the national average. Explosions and fires have periodically shaken the…

Forgotten Civilians of Eglin Air Force Base

During the Vietnam War the U.S. military defoliated large swaths of Vietnam with Agent Orange to deprive enemy forces of jungle cover. In the process it exposed American soldiers to this toxic chemical as well. Our own civilians back in the U.S. were also exposed to Agent Orange, along with other…

Preview: Living Downstream Addresses Environmental Justice

Here's a preview of our 12-part podcast, featuring stories from California and the rest of the country (and the world). We're doing a deep dive on environmental justice issues. The timing couldn't be better, as the media is now turning its attention to this issue with full force. Most recently, the…

Living with Lead: Public Housing on a Superfund Site

In East Chicago, Indiana, authorities built a public housing project on land once occupied by a lead smelting operation. The area has been declared a Superfund site, and residents of the housing project, but not the surrounding area, have been moved. After we produced this episode of our podcast,…
  1. Bay Area Bountiful - Resources
  2. Bay Area Bountiful - Listen
  3. Trailer Park Activists of Coachella Valley Fight for Health
  4. Uranium: A Toxic Legacy at Red Water Pond Road
  5. Smackdown: City Hall vs. Big Oil
  6. Forgotten Civilians of Eglin Air Force Base
  7. Preview: Living Downstream Addresses Environmental Justice
  8. Roseland Community Learns Medicinal Herb Use at Bayer Farms
  9. Living with Lead: Public Housing on a Superfund Site
  10. Reporter Bios
  11. Center for Environmental Reporting Resources
  12. Center for Environmental Reporting Listen
  13. Center for Environmental Reporting Student Participation
  14. Center for Environmental Reporting Presentations
  15. Center for Environmental Reporting Videos
  16. Contact
  17. Local Stories
  18. Featured Programs
  19. Environment
  20. Water Wise Education
  21. Hiking Resources
  22. California and Trump Administration Will Clash Over Environmental Policy
  23. Native Americans Invented 'Environmental Management'
  24. Rev. Billy Ramps Up His Environmental Evangelism
  25. Environmentalist Pushes New Water Bond
  26. Environmental Groups Challange Fracking in CA
  27. Environmental Groups Challange Fracking in CA (2)
  28. Environmental Groups Sue State Over Pesticide Plan
  29. Environmental Groups Sue State Over Pesticide Plan (2)
  30. Stories of the Coast
  31. US Forest Service & Environmentalists Reach Agreement on Sierra Nevada Forests
  32. Living Downstream
  33. Orcas' protection is endangered, too
  34. Glassy-winged sharpshooter a continuing threat to grape industry
  35. What People Are Saying
  36. Master Gardeners recycle Styrofoam
  37. Two Sides Unite for a Healthier Pacific Ocean
  38. Christmas Bird Count
  39. $1 Million Grant Funds Future Mark West Park
  40. Immigration's Environmental Impacts
  41. Immigration's Environmental Impacts (2)
  42. California Puts a Price on Carbon
  43. West Coast Salmon Show Up in East Coast Courtroom
  44. Death Valley Celebrates Halloween
  45. Water Supply Leak Contained
  46. Red Cross Wildfire App Released
  47. Anti-Fracking Suit Filed
  48. Hefty Fines, Penalties for Mendocino County Abalone Poachers
  49. Agriculture and Climate Change
  50. California's honeypot, from cradle to grave
  51. Monitoring Marine Protected Areas
  52. Growing more than veggies in California school gardens
  53. Sonoma Compost Wins Small Green Business Award
  54. 1st Russian River Chinook of 2012 Captured on Video
  55. Judge Restricts Spraying for Light Brown Apple Moth
  56. Local Organizations Form Russian River Science Panel
  57. U.S. EPA Releases San Francisco Bay Delta Action Plan to Address Toxins and Stressors that Harm Fish
  58. Forest lands may benefit from active restoration after wildfire
  59. Sea Otter Census Released
  60. Researchers Determine That Mineral Can Reduce Pollution From Diesel Engines
  61. Poisons on public lands put wildlife at risk
  62. New National Park?
  63. California Creates Nation's First Statewide Underwater Park System
  64. Burn Local--The campaign against importing firewood
  65. GMOs on the ballot next fall?
  66. Snow growth and slow growth
  67. Toxins at your fingertips
  68. Lake Tahoe water clarity improved in 2011
  69. Stewards Proposes Operating Agreement for Austin Creek and Sonoma Coast
  70. New 554-acre Bohemia Ecological Preserve created near Occidental
  71. Habitat Restoration and Enhancement at Copeland Creek
  72. UC wildlife research team seeks single socks
  73. A Lone Wolf Travels Toward California
  74. Growing Wine in Northern California - A Sustainable Natural Resource or the Next Boom to Bust?
  75. INCENTIVES FOR HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY INCREASED
  76. Vision for Greenway to Spring Lake
  77. Equine Herpes Virus Update
  78. TRIBES JOIN CEREMONY TO RETURN NATIVE SALMON TO EEL RIVER
  79. Documentary revisits agriculture’s “bracero” program
  80. A Garden Grows in Downtown Santa Rosa
  81. North Bay Water Projects win State Funding
  82. New management plan for Russian River's mouth approved
  83. The Inside Story of California's Spring Storm Disaster 
  84. Sonoma County's Climate Protection Campaign Announces Ride-Share Initiative
  85. Bird Stories Sought
  86. Spare The Air Alert Issued for June 21
  87. Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner "What's New" Update
  88. Environmental Discovery Center Programs Update
  89. Petaluma River Cleanup Begins
  90. Anomalous June Weather
  91. SR Greenway Project Town Hall: Monday night at 7 PM
  92. Mussel Farming
  93. Climate Change and Agriculture
  94. Eradicating Mice on the Farallones
  95. Economic Environmentalism in Brazil
  96. Around the Bay
  97. Organizing Against Poverty
  98. Hike Pomo Canyon to Shell Beach, Jenner
  99. Hike Healdsburg Ridge Trail
  100. Hike Armstrong Woods
  101. Hike Jack London State Park, Glen Ellen
  102. Hike Santa Rosa Creek/Prince Memorial Greenway Trail
  103. Hike Schollenberger Park, Petaluma
  104. Sonoma County Hiking Trails
  105. Sonoma County Bike Trails
  106. Seeking Completion Funds
  107. Rebels With A Cause Preview
  108. Support Rebels With A Cause
  109. Rebels With A Cause Contributors
  110. Rebels With A Cause Story
  111. Rebels With A Cause
  112. Powering Up
  113. Sonoma County Appellations
  114. Coastal ranchlands protected

Page 12 of 41

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