Teen-led climate change group seeks more youth to fight for environmental justice
Two local students are on a mission to rally people for a fight against environmental injustices faced by Stanislaus County residents, as they lead a coalition that’s aiming to bring solutions.
Climate Justice Action Now (CJAN) leaders will first work to influence the environmental justice section of Modesto’s general plan, so that the needs of disadvantaged neighborhoods can be prioritized. The nonprofit plans to host a virtual climate change rally in September with the hope of motivating more people, especially youth, to join their effort.
Launched in March 2020, CJAN is a product of the environmental justice organizations Valley Improvement Projects (VIP) and the Modesto Peace/Life Center. Originally, the group had 20 members — a mix of adults and teens — but participation has dropped as the pandemic continues to push gatherings online.
The environmental justice movement strives to correct policies that have allowed pollution and other hazards to be concentrated in disadvantaged neighborhoods by reducing the hazards and including those communities in decisions that affect their health.
CJAN youth coordinator Morgan Haydock said her passion to fight for her community began in spring 2018, during her freshman year at Turlock’s Pitman High School, when an estimated 700 people joined the March For Our Lives to demand gun reform.
“That just got me a lot more aware of the problems that we face in our community,” she said. So when the Modesto Peace/Life Center and VIP approached her with the opportunity to lead the effort, the now-18-year-old didn’t hesitate.
Now a student at Modesto Junior College, Haydock said she will continue her advocacy efforts as she hopes to make a real difference in her community.
New to the activism scene, Robin Siefkin, CJAN youth coordinator and a senior at Hughson High School, said he decided to join the movement after attending the first CJAN meeting, where he learned how climate change was happening not only on a global scale but locally.
“It really opened my eyes. ... There are all of these things in my local community that I had no idea were happening,” he said. As a Hughson resident, Siefkin said he knew about the water issues in the Valley but didn’t realize how dire the situation is.
Push for environmental justice policies
The group said its top concern is that disadvantaged communities in the county will bear more climate change inequities than others. Residents living in the central, western and southern portions of the city are disproportionately burdened with pollution, ranking around the 90th percentile, while the rest of Modesto ranks in the 50th percentile, reports CalEnviroScreen.
“We can’t fix the whole problem,” Haydock said, “but we can make things better for our own community.”
In 2016, it became a requirement under SB1000 for local governments to identify disadvantaged communities and include them in efforts to reduce the pollution burden in their area. However, in 2018, the state’s Bureau of Environmental Justice told Modesto leaders in a letter that their general plan amendment needed improvements, citing its failure to identify the specific location of disadvantaged communities, as well as limited opportunities for community input.
In its new plan, the city must include policies that reduce pollution exposure, improve air quality, further food access, promote public facilities, boost safe and sanitary homes and encourage physical activity in the identified disadvantaged regions, states the bureau. Haydock said CJAN has already spoken with Modesto City Council members and they’re working on seeing what solutions are possible to implement.
Although the organization’s first focus is Modesto, Siefkin added that they plan to eventually address other parts of the county as they build their coalition.
“Modesto is important, but it isn’t our entire demographic,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that everyone in this county was equally representative.”
Advocates will rally to highlight injustices
John Lucas, a volunteer with CJAN, said environmental injustice needs immediate attention. “It’s not something that’s coming in the future, it’s going on right now. There’s injustice in this environment,” he said, pointing to the environmental racism that segregated Blacks and Latinos to live in areas of high pollution.
Laura Stokes, retired engineer and a CJAN volunteer, said it’s by design that wealthy homes are built in the northwest, where the air is cleaner and blows to the southeast, where “nasty” things are developed.
“You build incinerators and sewage treatment plants and all that other stuff down there, where there’s people you don’t care about, because they can’t do anything about it,” she said.
As disadvantaged communities brace for a future destined for climate change, Stokes said she’s concerned those residents won’t have the resources, like adequate tree shade and air conditioning, to deal with the extreme temperatures.
On Sept. 18-19, CJAN will host its first annual rally via Zoom on what people can do to their own neighborhoods to combat climate change. Although CJAN invites people of all ages to join, its leaders want more youth, as they believe that generation will be the one to carry the movement forward. Youth can also sign up to showcase their work during the climate art gallery.
For more information, including how to register for the climate change event, go to the CJAN website at www. cjanstanislaus.wixsite.com/website.
This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
