So, today I spent some time interviewing Portland State Urban Planning Professor Vivek Shandas about his work on what he calls climate justice, a term that was new to me. It differs from environmental justice in that it’s not really focused on the factory belching pollution into people’s backyards. Rather, climate justice considers how climate change affects marginalized communities more than privileged communities. In our conversation, we focused on how heat waves (projected to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change) hit poor communities with higher temperatures and fewer resources to handle the stress of intense, prolonged heat.
In November, we’ll air the interview with Dr. Shandas — he’s passionate about environmental activism and the responsibility urban planners and government decision-makers have to all urban communities (not just wealthy neighborhoods).
Later this month (9am, Friday, October 22) he’ll be giving a lecture on “Blue Planet, Green Neighborhoods” at Portland State’s Smith Memorial Student Union as part of the PSU Weekend events. You should definitely check it out.
Here’s some information about Dr. Shandas’ latest work: http://www.pdx.edu/profile/meet-associate-professor-vivek-shandas.
Thanks for this interview – really love Dr. Shandas’s work! Keep up the important reporting APA Compass