To meet the challenges of the global climate crisis, we need bold ideas and to speak truth to power. That’s the idea behind Climate/Justice, a new Planet Detroit column by Detroit-based environmental justice activist Michelle Martinez. Martinez writes not only as an activist but as a mother and fourth-generation Detroiter. She brings a clear-eyed perspective to the climate and justice issues facing our community, and she pulls no punches.
Martinez is a founding member of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and is a Visiting Scholar at the Tishman School of Environment and Design at the New School in NYC. She has been practicing environmental justice in her hometown of Detroit since 2006, from urban farming to corporate campaigns and climate justice with a focus on race and equity in the environmental sector. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, SEAS, earning her Master’s in Environmental Policy in 2008.
Martinez will be donating all proceeds from this column to Black to the Land Coalition, and she urges readers to donate to the organization via CashApp at $blacktotheland.
Stay tuned for her first column this week, and track all future columns here.