'Father of environmental justice' tackles questions of inequality amid increase in disastrous weather events
Speaker to visit University of Cincinnati College of Arts and Sciences Nov. 5
Many people who don't live in 'the cone of destruction' for a hurricane, tornado, or other weather event often have the question — why don't the people just leave?
Robert D. Bullard, professor and environmental policy researcher, has studied the geographic and demographic inequities of pollution and environmental risk for nearly 50 years. Photo/Provided
Robert D. Bullard plans to answer that question during a presentation at the University of Cincinnati on Nov. 5.
Bullard is an award-winning author of 18 books that cover sustainable development, environmental racism, climate justice and emergency response.
He is also the director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice and a distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University.
In his extensive publications, he attributes the perceived lack of urgency or respect for Mother Nature to limited economic means. During the Nov. 5 lecture at UC's College of Arts and Sciences, he will touch on how inequality breeds the inability to prepare for, respond to, cope with or rebound when disaster does in fact strike.
The U.S. Marine Corps veteran worked with New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina decimated the area. He also witnessed firsthand Hurricane Harvey in Houston. During the presentation, Bullard will focus primarily on how the United States is, or isn't, empowering vulnerable populations.
Emergency management strategies that include all people, at all income levels, he says is integral in building community resilience. He will also discuss his book, The Wrong Complexion for Protection, which analyzes more than eight decades of government response to natural and human-made disasters.
Bullard's presentation titled "The Quest for Environmental Justice" is 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, at Probasco Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.
Featured image at top: Robert Bullard gives the keynote address at the American Geographers Annual Meeting in 2018. Photo/Provided
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