Marisol Becerra and Mindy Faber of Open Youth Networks presented OurMap of Environmental Justice along with a video about the impact of industrial pollution on residents of Little Village at the Columbia College School of Journalism’s Conference on Environmental Reporting on April 25th. Marisol explained how news outlets often position the environmental movement as one driven by young educated whites. Stories about personal responsibility to limit one’s carbon footprint trump investigative analyses about the irresponsibility of capitalist industry in creating the crisis in climate change and generating massive health effects on those working in and around those industries.

Photo by Mark Hallett

Moreover, the story about the environmental justice movement in the US — one led primarily by low income communities of color battling environmental racism, a policy of “selective victimization” — is often omitted or distorted by major news outlets. Little Village is a low income Mexican-American community that has been designated as an “ecological sacrifice zone” by both the industry and the state. Yet, the overwhelming majority of Chicago residents are completely unaware of the health and environmental crisis in the neighborhood.  Faber and Becerra explained that this is why it is important that residents and youth living in those communities have access to the tools of communication and technology that allow them to become citizen journalists reporting on their own experiences.

Youth members Marisol Becerra and Zane Scheuerlein worked with Mindy Faber to produce The Cloud Factory: Putting Justice on the Map. They also trained youth members of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization how to collaboratively author a multimedia Google MyMap documenting the toxics and assets of the neighborhood through stories, videos and photos. The map also reveals how many schools are located within a one and two mile radius of the Crawford Coal Power Plant. The asthma rate in Little Village is twice as high as the national average and 40 people in the community die each year from asthma attacks while thousands more must visit emergency rooms and clinics.

Open Youth Networks along with youth partners at LVEJO and their youth membership, Young Activists Organizing as Today’s Leaders are working to expand the map and add content and data about other neighborhoods in Chicago, particularly around the South Side. Visit their blog El Cilantro to learn more. Dozens of allies - other environmental justice organizations in the US -  are also included on the current map, denoted by the icon of a Lorax. If you would like to join the map as a collaborator, send an email to Mindy Faber (mfaber@colum.edu).

View OurMap of Environmental Justice in a larger map