History of a Timely Idea

What do we mean when we talk about environmental justice? Usually, we mean the crucial struggle against specific forms of injustice: dirty factories in poor, Black-majority neighborhoods; unequal access to green space; radioactive waste seeping into Native water supplies; the poisoning of Latinx farm workers; the flight of refugees from drought, famine, fires, and storms.

Aaron Sachs, Professor of History at Cornell University, will discuss how environmental justice can also offer a radical, positive vision of collective thriving—as a historical perspective reveals. The idea of environmental justice, connecting the common good to the protection of common, shared environments, goes back centuries. This talk will use the lens of history to reconsider the ways in which environmental justice could shape our common future.

About the speaker

Dr. Aaron Sachs is a Professor of History at Cornell University. His general focus is on nature and culture. He examines how ideas about nature have changed over time and how those changes have mattered in the Western world. He is writing a book called Environmental Justice: History of a Timely Idea, which explores a theme he has worked on since 1995, when he published a pamphlet for the Worldwatch Institute entitled Eco-Justice: Linking Human Rights and the Environment. He was also the founder and coordinator of the Cornell Roundtable on Environmental Studies Topics (CREST), which for a decade brought together faculty and graduate students across all the environmental disciplines on campus.

Host

Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies