Activist Leah Thomas created a platform to address the ways environmentalism impacts not only the planet, but the people on it, too.
She calls the platform Intersectional Environmentalism, a movement that addresses and incorporates lawyer and scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw’s feminist framework of intersectionality.
The platform Leah co-founded is now home to resources, information, and action steps to dismantle systems of oppression in the environmental movement.
In the first half of this episode, Leah lays out how environmental issues affect different communities uniquely and how intersectional environmentalism addresses these differences. In the second half, Leah explains how we all can embrace intersectional environmentalism through simple, everyday actions.
Update: We've partnered with Leah Thomas to create The Intersectional Environmentalist Edition of the Goodnewspaper — all about intersectional environmentalism.
Guest: Leah Thomas, co-founder of Intersectional Environmentalist
Follow Intersectional Environmentalist and Leah on Instagram
Visit Intersectional Environmentalist’s website to learn more and explore resources
Background reading:
- Interview with Kimberlé Crenshaw and explanation of intersectionality
- Intersectional Environmentalist resources by community
- Intersectional Environmentalist resources by topic
- Minority and low-income communities are more likely to live in areas exposed to toxic waste, landfills, highways, and other environmental hazards (American Journal of Public Health, 2011).
- People of color have less access to clean air than their white counterparts (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019).
