DeepSummary
The episode features an interview with Catherine Coleman Flowers, an environmental activist and recipient of the 2020 MacArthur Genius Grant, who has brought attention to the failing wastewater infrastructure in rural parts of the American South. She discusses the systemic racism and classism that have contributed to this crisis, and how it led her to found the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice.
Flowers describes the shocking conditions she witnessed in Lowndes County, Alabama, where raw sewage was running on the ground near homes, and children were playing near ditches filled with sewage. She talks about how a United Nations official declared these conditions unacceptable in the developed world, and how her work helped uncover the presence of parasitic diseases like hookworm in the area.
Flowers emphasizes the importance of listening to grassroots communities and understanding the intersections of environmental justice, poverty, and climate change. She calls for a comprehensive approach to addressing the issue, involving innovative technology and global collaboration, and sees her work as a way of protecting the environment and honoring her faith.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Catherine Coleman Flowers, a 2020 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, has brought attention to the failing wastewater infrastructure in rural parts of the American South.
- The crisis is rooted in systemic racism and classism, with marginalized communities facing criminalization for their inability to afford proper septic systems.
- Flowers witnessed shocking conditions in Lowndes County, Alabama, with raw sewage running near homes and children playing in ditches filled with sewage.
- Her work helped uncover the presence of parasitic diseases like hookworm in the area, prompting international attention and outrage.
- Flowers emphasizes the importance of listening to grassroots communities and understanding the intersections of environmental justice, poverty, and climate change.
- She calls for a comprehensive approach to addressing the issue, involving innovative technology and global collaboration.
- Flowers sees her work as a way of protecting the environment and honoring her faith, with a responsibility to respect and care for the earth for future generations.
- The episode highlights the need for systemic change and a holistic approach to addressing environmental injustices faced by marginalized communities.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I think the one lesson that people from the environmental community needs to learn is how to listen to people in the community. And listening to people in the community doesn't necessarily mean just listening to elected officials, because if I had listened to elected officials, I never would have learned about this because that was not their priority.“ by Kathryn Coleman Flowers
- “And it made the national and international news for him to say that. And it underscored the inequality that I have seen for most of my life.“ by Kathryn Coleman Flowers
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Episode Information
Broken Ground
Southern Environmental Law Center
5/6/21
Catherine Coleman Flowers was recently named to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. A 2020 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, her environmental health research brought to light the failing wastewater infrastructure in rural parts of the South. She
spoke with Broken Ground about how systemic racism and classism have played a large part in this crisis and how it led her to found the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice.