Video Interview Series 02: Maria Lopez-Nuñez on Lessons from COVID-19 for the Climate Crisis and Environmental Justice
For the second part of the Tishman Center’s video interview series, we would like to highlight Maria Lopez-Nuñez. As the Deputy Director of Organizing and Advocacy at the Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) in Newark, NJ, Maria is an environmental justice activist deeply rooted in the Ironbound community. Located in the city’s east ward, the Ironbound is home to many working class and Black and Brown families. The neighborhood has endured a long history of environmental injustice and racism with cumulative negative health and environmental impacts from multiple industrial sites: an incinerator, an international port, a power plant, and airport.
ICC acts as a pillar of community engagement and grassroots activism and has done for decades. Rooted in the Jemez Principles, ICC builds systemic change through housing justice, environmental justice, youth mentorship, mental health services and much more. As the Deputy Director of Organizing and Advocacy, Maria plays a huge role in activating and uplifting her community while also pushing for policies to address environmental injustice locally, regionally, and nationally. In an interview with the Tishman Center, Maria spoke to the various intersections between inequality, COVID-19, and environmental injustice.
Just last week, New Jersey passed a first in the nation, Environmental Justice bill S232. The bill allows the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to deny polluting facility permits due to cumulative impacts in environmental justice communities. Despite industry pushback, Ana Baptista, Maria Lopez-Nunez, Nicky Sheats, and Kim Gaddy worked hard in collaboration between ICC, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance (NJEJA), and Clean Water Action to pass the bill. As Maria stated in a press release, "S232 gives us hope. Hope that our pleas for the right to breathe will be heard next time we face off with polluters who have been targeting Black and brown neighborhoods for decades. We can't end environmental racism with one bill but we must take this historical first step. Newark has a fighting chance to breathe easier thanks to this bill.” As Maria mentioned, while the work does not end here, the passing of this bill is a historic moment for environmental justice communities and the decade-long push for this policy deserves to be celebrated.
A People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy: https://climatejusticealliance.org/regenerativeeconomy/
Environmental Justice bill S232: http://www.njeja.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/EJ-Bill-Pass-Press-Release.pdf
Ironbound Community Corporation: https://ironboundcc.org/