Changes With the Season

As we transition into a new season and year, I want to share an important update about my professional journey with the broader Tishman Center community.

I am thrilled to start a new role as the Resource Mobilization Officer at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), an organization I've known and admired for a long time. My work will focus on resourcing GAIA’s mission to catalyze a global shift toward environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance waste and pollution solutions, working across the globe. In this role, I will continue my efforts to move philanthropic resources to be more justice-centered, equitable, and accessible to the broader climate and environmental justice movement. This career shift feels like a natural continuation of my work here, as GAIA’s values deeply align with those of the Tishman Center.

Active Solidarity for New Jersey’s Landmark Environmental Justice Bill

Solidarity to everyone leading the fight for justice at the frontlines. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been paraded as the first and best climate bill in the country, although it is not representative of the needs of those who will be harmed by this very bill, and is no climate bill at all. The economic benefits of the wealthy still take precedence over the lives of the most vulnerable. It is out of touch and can be seen played out across the nation. However, local power movements in states like New Jersey are taking the lead on making sure legislation like the New Jersey Environmental Justice Law is made to protect the dignity of all people.

climate justiceTishman CenterAugust 31, 2022newark, Climate Justice, student, staff, Featured AlumComment

El Tema: A Youtube Documentary on Climate Change

Gael Garcia Bernal, is a Mexican actor, director, and producer, popularly known for his performance in Amores Perros and Motorcycle Diaries amongst others. In a career spanning over two decades Bernal has also ventured into creating more conscientious films. As a part of this endeavor, during the pandemic, Bernal produced a six part documentary series centered around the climate crisis in Mexico. The series is called ‘El Tema’ which translates to ‘The Theme’.

climate justiceTishman CenterAugust 15, 2022documentary, video, Climate Justice, mexicoComment

2021-2022 Student Award Recap

As we are still in the midst of both a global pandemic that continues to affect the lives of everyone on the globe, multiple deadly conflicts in places such as Yemen, Syria, Ukraine and other locales, and the active stripping away of rights in the United States of America, we are glad to find inspiration and hope in the work of our student awardees. These students are dedicating time and effort to addressing not only environmental and climate injustice, but also advocating for democracy, civil rights, accessibility and methods to deal with trauma. We are proud to support the work of these amazing people and are happy to share their work with you. If you are interested in hearing more or want to further support their work, please feel free to reach out to us. And to all of the awardees, thank you for the time and commitment you put into your projects.

IPCC WGII 6th Assessment Summary: EJ

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC WGII AR6) was released on February 28, 2022: a 3,675-page tome that focuses on climate “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”. Governments around the world use this report as the authority on how climate change impacts nature and humanity.

climate justice, NewsTishman CenterMarch 8, 2022ipcc, climate crisis, Climate Justice Comment

Tishman Center Proud to Announce Joel Towers and Ana Baptista's role on the NPCC

New York faces severe challenges posed by climate change including dangerous heat waves and flooding from sea-level rise. The New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC), founded in 2009, is an independent group that assesses climate and environmental risks to NYC and recommends changes in an advisory report, much like the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) .

Faculty, Highlights, NewsTishman CenterMay 25, 2021npcc, Climate Justice, policy, nyc, facultyComment

Making the Uneven Visible: Narratives of Ecomodernism and Environmental Justice in Sweden

The last few decades have seen an exponential rise in the deployment of wind energy worldwide, mostly through the development of large-scale wind farms. Onshore wind is land-intensive: because wind energy is more dispersed than fossil fuel energy, it has significant spatial requirements, and with those requirements come an increasing number of conflicts—from the Americas to Asia, Africa, and Europe (Avila 2018). Two key features of these conflicts are pressures on land and patterns of uneven development, which create problems of space and justice (Avila 2018).

TED Talk: The people who caused the climate crisis aren't the ones who will solve it

“Frontline communities are the only ones who can get us out of this crisis.”

This past December, Angela Mahecha, Program Director of the Environmental Justice Fellowship Program, participated in TED Salon: Fairness and Our Future where she shared firmly and unapologetically that frontline communities, those most impacted by the climate crisis, are the only ones who can lead us towards a just future.

Environmental Justice Leadership is Non-Negotiable

We are in a pivotal moment where things once unimaginable are now undeniable. We can't continue to rely on technocratic approaches that have proven ineffective or that only make superficial change. To build a just world, we need people-centered strategies that challenge the political, social, and economic leaders and systems that produced decades of environmental racism and inaction on climate change. Environmental Justice Movement leaders, specifically the people who are closest to the dangers of climate change, should lead us in identifying solutions.

2020 Student Awards Update Part 3

Our last (but certainly not least) projects from the 2020 Student awards! We would like to thank all the students for their hard work and are proud to see them making a positive difference in the world.

Awards, StudentsTishman CenterDecember 15, 2020Student awards, Student Highlights, Climate Justice

2020 Student Awards Update Part 2

The previous semester (Spring ‘20), the Tishman Environment and Design Center created student awards to help support the work of students doing research and projects around environmental and climate justice, which was especially critical during the beginning phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were glad to support fourteen projects which were carried out by twenty-three students from across the university.

In part two of the series, we highlight four more projects and as always we would like to thank all the students for their hard work and are proud to see them making a positive difference in the world.

Awards, StudentsTishman CenterDecember 2, 2020student awards, Student Highlights, Climate Justice

2020 Student Awards Update Part 1

We are facing a climate crisis and the threat it poses to life on Earth, frontline, fenceline and marginalized communities (including Women, Indigenous, People of Color and Global South communities) are among the foremost challenges of our time. Globally seas are rising, coastlines are eroding, weather patterns are changing, droughts and forest fires are increasing and species extinction is rising exponentially. Solutions to the climate crisis vary among stakeholders from across disciplines.

Awards, StudentsTishman CenterNovember 9, 2020student awards, Student Highlights, Climate Justice

Radical Reimaginations Recap

Imagine a world where climate justice is no longer a debated concept, but rather a lived, achieved reality for all. How did we get there?

That was the question the Tishman Environment and Design Center, in collaboration with the Social Movements + Innovation Lab, explored over the course of the five-part Radical Reimaginations for Climate Justice series.

Tishman CenterOctober 27, 2020Environmental Justice, Climate Justice, Just Transition, Social Justice

Video Interview Series 03: Susan Blaustein on how to Adapt to Changing Times and Global Issues Affecting Women

Our third conversation in the interview series was with Susan Blaustein, the Executive Director of WomenStrong International, a community of organizations across the globe that focuses empowering women and girls. We spoke with Susan about how climate impacts affect women, inequalities that have stemmed from COVID-19 among other things. We hope you all enjoy this episode and please share your feedback with us.

Video Interview SeriesTishman CenterSeptember 15, 2020interview series, women and girls, Climate Justice, covid-19Comment

Apply for the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Fellowship

The Tishman Center is excited to announce the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Fellowship. The fellowship is designed to support student learning and practice at the Tishman Center. The Aronson Fellowship seeks to provide financial support to students who are, through their studies, research, or practice, finding solutions to the most pressing sustainability challenges facing the world today. Fellows will advance the mission of the Tishman Center and delve deeply into design, policy and environmental justice approaches intended to address the climate and equity crises.

OpportunitiesTishman CenterJuly 20, 2020Fellowship, Students, Environmental Justice, Climate Justice

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