You can't have environmental justice without DEI

Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

February 14, 2025

Two empty chairs sit inside Ahmanson Auditorium Feb. 4 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Two scheduled conference panels on air quality and environmental justice were canceled after federal workers withdrew from participating due to the Trump administration's directives on diversity programs. (Cecilia González-Andrieu)

In my first-ever EarthBeat Weekly newsletter when I joined NCR in 2022, I spoke about how our reporting here isn't just about living sustainably or saving the planet, but that precisely because we approach conversations about the climate from a decidedly Catholic perspective, our coverage emphasizes that connection and community are important parts of the ecological justice conversation.

"A focus on solidarity has always been present in the way religious people talk about ecological justice; Pope Francis brought this into sharp focus with the language and example of his 2015 encyclical 'Laudato Si': on Care for Our Common Home,' " I wrote at the time.

Three years later, the need to consider how climate justice intersects with other issues of marginalization and inequality remains critical. According to Catholic teaching, it's actually impossible to truly care for creation without this integral approach. As we often see Francis quoted from Laudato Si', "Everything is interconnected."

"Father of environmental justice" Robert Bullard defined environmental justice as "the principle that all people are entitled to equal environmental protection regardless of race, color or national origin," and said the four major priorities of environmental justice are "reducing environmental, health, economic and racial disparities," reported NCR environment correspondent Brian Roewe in a 2020 "Burning Question" titled "What is environmental justice?"

And it's that intersectional nature of environmental justice that has seen it caught in the crosshairs of not just the Trump administration's attempted silencing of science, but also the erasure of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives.

Reowe reports this week that days before an environmental justice conference at Loyola Marymount University earlier this month, federal workers withdrew their participation, citing President Trump's orders against DEI initiatives.

Peter Jenkins, senior counsel with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which supports current and former public employees working on environmental issues, said while it's normal for a new administration to put some work on hold, "I don't think it's common to prevent people from speaking at conferences."

Cecilia González-Andrieu, a theologian at Loyola Marymount, was nearly moved to tears by the sight of the empty auditorium where the planned panels on air quality and environmental justice should have been held, but sat vacant due to the withdrawal of federal panelists.

"Sometimes those who have been silenced speak truths that are much louder than words," she said.

What else is new on EarthBeat:

'Martyr of the Amazon': Recalling Sister Dorothy Stang's ministry 20 years after her murder

by Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News

In the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the death of Sister Stang, who is considered by many as a "Martyr of the Amazon," a relic containing blood-soaked soil from the site of her murder was enshrined at the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on Tiber Island in Rome on Jan. 10.

How Trump's USAID shutdown threatens the world's climate goals

by Jake Bittle, Grist

The U.S. Agency for International Development was a key player in renewable energy and disaster protection around the world — until Elon Musk showed up.

Pope calls for respect for Indigenous peoples' land, water, food

by Catholic News Service

Defending Indigenous communities' rights to land, water and food "is not only a matter of justice, but also a guarantee of a sustainable future for all," Francis wrote in a message to the global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples' Forum at the International Fund for Agricultural Development held in Rome Feb. 10-11

Sisters bring support to children with disabilities attributed to endosulfan

by George Kommattam

"My life was shattered when I came to know my son Kashi was unable to walk or talk. Now, I have hope because of Sister Mareena [Mathew]," Keerthi Ramakrishnan said. Mathew's congregation manages a school for children with disabilities in Kerala, India.

Taxes should fund solidarity at home and abroad, Cardinal Parolin says

by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

Individuals and corporations have a moral obligation to pay their fair share of taxes, and wealthy nations have an obligation to use that money to help their poorer citizens and provide aid to developing nations, the Vatican secretary of state said.

What's happening in other climate news:

EPA chief seeks to claw back $20 billion in climate funding —Valerie Volcovici for Reuters

Environmentalists gear up to fight Trump in court —Karen Zraick for The New York Times

In Seattle, advocacy groups pitch 'social housing' as a climate solution —Joseph Winters for Grist

As war halts, the environmental devastation in Gaza runs deep —Fred Pearce for Yale Environment 360

Giving a dam: Wyoming tribes push to control reservation water as the state proposes sending it to outside irrigators —Jake Bolster for Inside Climate News

U.S. Aid agency's climate programs aimed to curb migration. Now they're gone. —Christopher Flavelle for The New York Times

Trump's LNG strategy makes no sense —Delaney Nolan for Sierra magazine

The high price of scrapping the social cost of carbon —Cass R. Sunstein for The Washington Post

Final Beat:

In a guest column today for NCR, Cuban-American author and theologian Kat Armas writes about the "divine reciprocity" between "the migrant and the land that receives them."

"On Feb. 11, Pope Francis issued a poignant letter to U.S. bishops with grief in his pen, urging a nation to rediscover its own soul. He spoke of mass deportations that have torn apart families, of lives discarded like refuse. His words were clear: No policy can stand if it does not uphold human dignity. No law is just if it turns its back on the vulnerable. These are not abstractions. They are flesh and bone. They are mothers and fathers, children and elders, seeking what any of us would seek in the face of danger — life," she writes.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat.

Stephanie Clary
Environment Editor
National Catholic Reporter
sclary@ncronline.org