Opinion: Environmental justice must be foundational to the new School of Sustainability
Artwork created to support the first comprehensive Intro to Environmental Justice course at Stanford, first offered in fall 2018. By Stephanie Muscat, used with permission.
on January 27, 2021
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
– Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
We are writing as a diverse group of Stanford staff, students, and faculty committed to Environmental Justice for Sustainability at Stanford. This weekend, faculty will gather for a deliberative democracy process guiding plans for the new School of Sustainability and Climate (SoSaC). We strongly encourage serious discussion on this vital question: how will Stanford build a truly innovative institution that addresses the most important, interconnected racial justice and sustainability problems of our times?