Professor Maxine Burkett was a guest on the season premiere of The Center for Progress Reform’s Connect the Dots podcast.

Professor Burkett has written extensively on climate change law with a particular focus on climate justice.

The episode, titled “They Can’t Breathe,” centers around climate justice as part of a season-long focus on people living in the crosshairs of climate change and disproportionately suffering on a daily basis.

According to Burkett, the current devastation to the global climate is closely linked to “a deep element of racism,” as evidenced in part by the relationship between the carbon economy and sacrifice zones.

“There are these places that we’ve decided are disposable, and the people that inhabit them are disposable – places like Port Arthur, Texas, places like Cancer Alley in Louisiana, almost innumerable places in indigenous lands,” she said.

Burkett was joined on the podcast by Leslie Fields, the Sierra Club’s Senior Director of Environmental Justice and Healthy Communities, and Mychal Johnson, the co-founder of South Bronx Unite, a coalition of residents, organizations, and allies that confront policies perpetuating harm and build support for community-driven solutions in the South Bronx.

The podcast episode can be found here. 

JU 9/17/20