Resources
We believe that learning is essential to transformation.
So we have pulled together a working archive of some of our favorite readings, activities, media and tips & tools. As we learn about and gather more resources, we will upload them here. You can filter by subject and then resource type below (activities, media, readings, tips & tools).
Green 2.0: The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations
This 2014 report has been the impetus for the nationwide effort in the environmental sector to dedicate resources to diversity and inclusion. In this report, Dr. Dorceta Taylor studied 191 conservation and preservation organizations, 74 government environmental agencies, 28 environmental grant-making foundations, and 21 environmental professionals. The report concludes that there is a significant gender and ethnic gap in the ranks of environmental organizations, a gap that needs to be addressed if the movement is to remain relevant in a nation with rapidly shifting demographics.
Read here.
The green insider’s club
This executive summary on the findings of Green 2.0, Dorceta Taylor’s initial report on the lack of diversity in the environmental movement and recommendations for making change, recommends that organizations focus on tracking and transparency, accountability, and allocating more resources. The report finds that foundations and the Obama administration are leading the way on diversity efforts, but that the nonprofit sector is lagging behind. Among the problems are unconscious bias, discrimination, and insular recruiting.
Read here.
Changing the social climate: How global warming affects economic justice, . . .
This piece provides an explanations for how what was then called “global warming” (now climate change) is not only an environmental issue, but a social justice issue.
Read here. (2006)
Conservation: Indigenous Peoples’ Enemy No. 1?
This article describes a successful case study of conservation efforts in Gabon. To do right by the thousands of tribal people living inside the boundaries of Gabon’s planned national parks, the country collaborated with them and enlisted their direct participation in the stewardship and management of the new parks. They would then not be passive “stakeholders” relocated to the margins of the park (as has been the case in the U.S.) or specimens in a “living history museum” (as was the case in U.S.), but but equal players in the complex and challenging process of defending biological diversity.
Read here.
The trouble with wilderness
William Cronon gives a brief overview of the idea of the wilderness and then discusses some of the inherent contradictions that lie within the concept. He notes that the concept of the wilderness is imbued with cultural values, which have resulted in the exclusion of indigenous peoples’ voices in environmentalism.
DownloadDramatizing the “death” of environmentalism doesn’t help urban people of color, or anyone else
A summary of research on the racialization of wilderness and how it impacts perceptions of nature among communities of color, and specifically the black community. Outdoor and environmental organizations seeking to be more “culturally relevant” often do not think that the very premises of their existence–wilderness and conservation–are words steeped in White privilege and a racialized history.
Read here.