Day #11: Environmental Justice 
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About this Act
Welcome to day #11 of the 2024 Billion Acts Earth Month Campaign! You can visit the main campaign page here! Let us know how you joined today's call-to-action by clicking on "Share and Earn Peace Points" on the right side of the screen. We also welcome you to add your own Earth month events and calls-to-action to the campaign page as well. We're on a mission to reach 1,000 acts by April 22nd!
While protecting the environment is in everyone's best interest, the consequences of issues such as pollution and climate change are often not equally felt. The Environmental Justice movement(s) refers to efforts to address the unfair exposure of low-income and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses. Climate change is no exception to this trend, as some of the most heavily impacted communities are the same ones affected by other environmental hazards. Within tropical climates, for example, rises in extreme weather have already brought increasing threats to coastal communities. In areas such as the Philippines, many already marginalized and threatened communities are having to face these already increasing dangers with finite resources. Unfortunately, examples of environmental injustice do not necessarily arrive as single events. Last February, an oil tanker containing 800,000 liters of oil sank in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. The environmental catastrophe has led to at least 122 injuries/illnesses and impacted the livelihoods of over 13,000 fisherfolk families.
2022 Awardee Mitzi Jonelle Tan has been working alongside her organization Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines to raise awareness of the oil spill and offer support to affected communities. Mitzi became involved in environmental justice causes after spending time with the Lumad indigenous leaders in her country of the Philippines. She became fully committed to organizing alongside marginalized communities for climate justice and became a co-founder and international spokesperson of Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines, a nationwide alliance of youth organizations, individuals, and councils that advocate for immediate global climate action.
Action:
- Support a current environmental justice initiative by YACAP by signing a petition or passing information on to your networks --> https://yacap.org/take-action/climate-justice-sign-donate/
Explore the worldwide Environmental Justice Atlas or the EPA's Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool (US) and learn about an example near you.
Petition: Consider signing The United States Must Act on Climate Change
- Environmental Injustice: A Call to Action with NASA Earth Observations: https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/our-impact/story/environmental-justice-call-action-nasa-earth-observations
Focus Areas:
Change only takes place through action, not through meditation and prayer alone.
The Dalai Lama