Environmental Justice

#ORSummer, Diversity, Environmental Justice, National Parks, Outdoor Retailer, Podcast, Special Events, Summer, Yosemite / 10.08.2011

For those of us who spend a great deal of time outdoors it’s hard to believe that there are many of those who don’t. Especially when it comes to our national parks there is an entire segment of the United States population, natural born citizens who seldom if ever visit. This is particularly true among people of color. African-Americans, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities spend far less time in nature than their white counterparts. And in a shifting demographic where minorities will soon become the majority there’s rising concern throughout the conservation movement that one day in the not so distant future most U.S. citizens will have no personal relationship with or affinity for the natural world. This concern is expressed most eloquently by National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson. The only permanent African-American ranger at Yosemite National Park his mission is to share with audiences, black and white, lessons of stewardship that illustrate the bond with nature that is every U.S. citizen’s birth rite. An interpretive ranger that tells the story of the Buffalo Soldiers, African-American cavalrymen who projected Yosemite at the turn of last century, Johnson puts into context the importance of wilderness not merely as a point of national pride but an intrinsic value of what it mean to be human.
#ORSummer, Adventure Activism, Environmental Justice, Outdoor Recreation, Outdoor Retailer, Summer / 01.08.2011

[caption id="attachment_5626" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="portraits by Charlotta Janssen www.charlottajanssen.com"][/caption] In recent days environmental activist Tim DeChristopher began serving a two-year sentence in federal prison. Back in March the Utah economics student was convicted on two felony charges: making a false statement and violating laws on oil and gas leasing. He was also fined $10,000. Having disrupted a controversial auction to sell off the mining rights to public lands near two National Parks, DeChristopher committed in his words an act of civil disobedience in the hopes of doing good on behalf of the environment and future generations on this fragile planet.
Adventure Activism, Environmental Justice, Film Festival, Film Review, Freedom Ride West, Mountain Film / 03.06.2011

Port Arthur, TX is a long way from Colorado. But when Texas environmental justice advocate Hilton Kelley delivered a message to the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride, he demonstrated an activist power that transcends that distance. Kelley, who fights for the rights of poor populations whose health is negatively impacted by oil refinery pollution, spoke on the importance of protecting the rights of all to enjoy clean air, water and soil.

Adventure Activism, Art, Environmental Justice, Photography / 25.05.2011

Long after a natural disaster fades from the headlines the human tragedy continues. To most, the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami of 2004 is a distant memory. But a young photographer from Wyoming wants the world to keep in mind the thousands who died and hundreds of thousands more who survived but still suffer. Becca Skinner wants to tell their story. And working in collaboration with photographer James Balog and a grant from National Geographic, she and fellow student Chris Michael will make sure we never forget. “A place after a natural disaster is in the media for only a short period of time,” Skinner said. “Communities rebuild or don’t rebuild behind closed doors. Nobody really pays attention to how communities recover.”
Adventure Activism, Adventure Media Review, Diversity, Environmental Justice, Film preview, National Parks, PBS / 18.05.2011

Travel is an event of transformation. In 1961 a long bus ride from Washington D.C. to New Orleans changed the world forever. But the PBS American Experience documentary “The Freedom Riders” will likely do little to alter your perspective of a journey upon the open road. Instead I hope that it will open your awareness to the fear and vulnerability a conspicuous minority will face even today while traveling and exposed to the hostility of an entitled majority.

Art, Diversity, Environmental Justice, Film Festival, Mountain Film, Music, Podcast / 15.04.2011

Now that spring is in the air it’s time to start thinking about that next great road trip. In the coming weeks I’ll pack up the Jetta and head out on a tour of the adventure media and film festivals. Looking for stories that celebrate the active lifestyle and environmental conservation I’ll be reporting from the 5Points Festival in Carbondale Colorado and then the Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride. But as I’m making my plans I can’t help but think about how much our nation has changed over the past half century. Last year at Mountain Film I met a man who helped me put the freedom of road travel into a different perspective. Earnest “Rip” Patton is from Nashville, Tennessee. He’s considered an historian and a civil rights activist of the last 50s and early 60s.  Fifty years ago Rip was among first wave of student activists who road on buses into the Southern United States in the spring of 1961. Called the Freedom Rides the plan was to organize demonstrations in protest of racial segregation.