Miles Levesque

To me, climate justice means everyone has the right to a safe environment; the air in your neighborhood shouldn’t burn your lungs, your job shouldn’t expose you to toxic chemicals, and your kids should be able to play in the yard without risking exposure to dangerous herbicides. Fighting for healthy environments is the only logical option when faced with such a fundamental threat to safety. Climate justice interrogates when, why, and how marginalized communities are stripped of these basic rights, and what is being done to secure these rights for present and future generations. This adds context to cases of environmental injustice, showing them to be intentional acts of violence against a targeted demographic.

My goal as a student is to understand all I can about the world to figure out where I may be able to best serve my community. I explored many different fields of study, looking for where I can make the biggest impact. I considered various medical disciplines, law, and counseling before deciding to pursue environmental studies and sustainability. My research into human health revealed the hazards of climate change and how they’re disproportionately felt throughout the world. Law taught me methods of communicating these disparities and persuading others to recognize the direness of our current state of climate collapse. Psychology pointed to means of understanding the perpetrators of environmental injustices. An understanding of the complex inner workings of the mind is needed in environmental communication because if we cannot understand each other, we can’t get anything done.

Since moving to Philly, I’ve worked with the city’s chapter of the Sunrise Movement, a national environmental justice advocacy organization. We aim to shift the policy and practices of local governments and corporations to align with the needs of human and environmental health. I work closely with the recruitment and retention branch and the mutual aid branch. We explore communication and planning strategies to direct people’s powerful emotions on the topic to action. For mutual aid, we focus on meal distribution, recognizing this as the base of wellbeing. This advocacy work informs other areas of my life, such as my meetings with Eco-Reps, a Drexel student-led organization aimed at making our campus more sustainable.