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"The New Political Ecology of American Capitalism:
Environmentalism at a Crossroads" |
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In his talk, Dr. Faber will discuss some of the major achievements and challenges confronting the environmental movement. Pressured by increased international competition and the demand for higher profits, American largest and most powerful corporate polluters are leading a political offensive aimed at weakening many of the country's most essential environmental, occupational, and consumer protection laws. In addition, corporate-led globalization is also facilitating the export of ecological hazards abroad. The result is a deepening of the ecological crisis in both the United States and the Global South. However, not all people are impacted equally. In this process of capital restructuring, it is the most marginalized segments of society —poor people of color and the working class—that suffer the greatest environmental abuses. Hence, the environmental movement is at a crossroads. This talk will address new forms of environmental activism that are beginning to take root in American society. |
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Dr. Faber
is Director of the Northeastern Environmental Justice Research
Collaborative. A longtime environmental justice advocate, researcher,
and scholar, he co-founded the Environmental Project On Central
America (EPOCA) in 1984. Based with Earth Island Institute in
San Francisco, and the Environmental Policy Institute in Washington,
D.C., EPOCA worked to broaden and deepen the movement for peace,
social justice, and sustainable development by addressing the
human and ecological impacts of U.S. policy in the region, and
involved U.S. environmentalists in efforts to change that policy.
During
his tenure as Research Director (1984- 90), EPOCA organized
a regional network of Central American environmentalists (REDES)
for the purpose of coordinating research efforts and policy
proposals; organized regional and international environmental
justice conferences, such as the 1989 Congress on the Fate
and Hope of the Earth held in Managua, which included over
1,200 participants from over 70 nations; and organized international
support for a number of popular-led “leader” environmental
justice projects and programs throughout the region, including
Campesino to Campesino in Nicaragua.
Dr. Faber
is the author of numerous publications on environmental injustice.
His book on Central America’s ecological crisis, Environment
Under Fire, is one of four works recognized by Choice Magazine
as an “1993 Outstanding Academic Book of the Year on Latin
America.”
His latest
books are the edited collections, The Struggle for Ecological
Democracy: Environmental Justice Movements in the United States
(1998), and Foundations for Social Change: Critical Perspectives
on Philanthropy and Popular Movements. Dr. Faber is currently
an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
and a faculty member of the Latino, Latin American and Caribbean
Studies (LLACS) and Environmental Studies Programs at Northeastern
University. Dr. Faber has also served as a consultant to many
environmental organizations and foundations. He has recently
completed a major study with Dr. Eric Krieg entitled, Unequal
Exposure to Ecological Hazards 2005: Environmental Injustices
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Another
recent report by Dr. Faber and Deborah McCarthy, Green of
Another Color: Building Effective Partnerships Between Foundations
and the Environmental Justice Movement, makes a series
of recommendations to foundations for improving their grantmaking
practices with respect to the U.S. environmental justice movement.
Dr. Faber
is a Board Member of the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow (AHT),
a broad-based coalition of citizens, scientists, health professionals,
union officials, business leaders, and environmentalists working
to implement a precautionary and preventive approach to environmental
policy in Massachusetts. He is also the author of Capitalizing
on Environmental Injustice: The Polluter-Industrial Complex
in the Age of Globalization (Rowman & Littlefied, 2008).
Required
Reading:
Recommended Readings:
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