Dear Lehman College Colleagues:
Today is Earth Day and it is a challenge to give it the recognition it deserves. Our attention this week has been riveted by the Derek Chauvin murder trial. Over the past year, it has been on systemic racism in the United States and on the COVID-19 pandemic. But let’s take this day to focus on Earth Day and the climate crisis that is directly linked to both systemic racism and the pandemic.
Earth Day encompasses more than the climate crisis, but that crisis is so urgent now that it has our greatest attention when we consider the environment. There are such distinct differences between this Earth Day and last, when I wrote an In Depth newsletter noting the parallels between the previous administration’s disregard for scientists and experts on COVID-19 and its ignoring and undermining the findings of climate experts who were sounding the alarm over the urgency of reducing greenhouse gases. Fortunately, we now have national leadership that is heeding the scientific advice of leaders like Dr. Anthony Fauci and others on the pandemic and is also moving to repair the damage done to our climate efforts during the past four years, moving us forward into a new era of vigorous climate action.
Speaking of the pandemic, I am pleased to note that Lehman College is now a vaccination site, in partnership with SOMOS. Everyone over the age of 16 is now eligible to get vaccinated, so please do make an appointment to do so if you haven’t yet – you may do so online or call (877)829-4692 to schedule an appointment. Individuals age 50 and over may walk in to receive the vaccine but need to be able to show proof of age. Everyone else, ages 49 and under, must make an appointment.
I am pleased to write to you on this Earth Day on the heels of Lehman College’s first, immensely successful Bronx Environmental Summit. We had about 300 attendees from around the US over the course of two days, and they offered rave reviews of our keynote speakers Radley Horton, Peggy Shepard and Robert Bullard, and of our discussions. The summit covered the local impact of climate change along with the environmental careers that are possible as we continue to fight for climate justice. The summit also provided a tremendous launching point and foundation for the development of a more robust Climate Justice studies program at Lehman with the generous support of the Sloan Foundation.
While the Bronx, and communities like it, which are predominately people of color, working-class and low-income, are generally left out of conversations about climate change, they should continue to be at the center of our discourse. This is especially true as we continue to see the ways that systemic racism has led to and exacerbated persistent health disparities such as those we find in the Bronx. Environmental inequity, after all, has meant that a disproportionate number of residents with respiratory illnesses prior to the pandemic, such as asthma – exacerbated in parts of the Bronx by air pollution caused by the Cross Bronx and the Major Deegan expressways -- were twice as likely than their counterparts in other boroughs to die from COVID-19.
The intersections between environmental justice and health equity have been among the many things that have been laid bare during the pandemic. Hearing solutions and plans that are underway to address these problems was one of the highlights of the summit.
We also have reason for hope on other fronts. Like other parts of New York City, the use of bicycles as a primary mode of transportation has gone up in the Bronx during the pandemic. And in the Bronx’s Community Board 7 district, where the Lehman Campus sits, Citi Bike is in the final planning stages of its work to install its stations around our campus, which is great news. You may have seen the Citi Bike stations elsewhere in the Bronx or around the city; not only is biking better for the environment than using a car (and more affordable), the Citi Bike stations are solar powered and not wired into the grid. You can view more information, see the map of the area for Citi Bike’s expansion and learn more about Citi Bike’s progress in the Bronx by visiting the NY DOT website: https://nycdotbikeshare.info/maps_plans
We have other major exciting developments on sustainability in the works at Lehman College that will keep us moving in the right direction. So, as we redouble our efforts to confront racism and we work together to vanquish the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s keep our focus on addressing climate change as well. Confronting each of these three crises is fundamental to our effort to build a more equitable world where everyone matters and everyone has access to a good quality of life.
Daniel Lemons
