 |
|
Rhonda Anderson |
The
Sierra Club, the oldest and largest American environmental organization, has
opened a new office in Detroit's Cass Corridor at 2727 Second Avenue in the
Metropolitan Center for Higher Technology. This location is in charge of
Detroit's Environmental Justice Program and will be the base for southeast
Michigan conservation.
|
|
Rhonda Anderson |
Rhonda
Anderson is leading the Environmental Justice Program in Detroit. The Sierra
Club's Environmental Justice Program supports local communities fighting for a
clean environment in neighborhoods targeted by polluting industries. It also addresses issues affecting the health and safety of
citizens – particularly minorities – residing in low-income communities.
The
board of directors of the Sierra Club say they have called on all parts of the
club to discuss and explore the linkages between environmental quality and
social justice and to promote dialogue, increased understanding and appropriate
action.
"It is exciting that our Environmental Justice Program is opening up its doors in a new Cass Corridor location where the Sierra Club can now welcome community members from all across the city as we continue to work for cleaner, safer, healthier neighborhoods," says Allison Horton, Midwest Regional Staff Director for Sierra Club. "The Detroit office is a great partnership between the Michigan chapter and a national Sierra Club program."
David
Holtz, Sierra Club's southeast Michigan media coordinator, is assisting local
environmental groups in the efforts to communicate with the public through the
local news media. Holtz is media advisor to 11 environmental groups in southeast
Michigan, including Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice.
Holtz
says the Environmental Justice Program was originally a pilot program a few
years ago, but it is now firmly established in Detroit. Through the program,
Holtz will be working on mass transit issues and Detroit incinerator problems. He will also try to help prevent the construction of a huge
freight terminal location in southwest Detroit.
Other
issues the club is focusing on include the cleaning up old power plants that are
polluting the air, water and soil; and getting rid of dirty diesel emissions
that cause hundreds of thousands of tons of soot and millions of tons of
nitrogen oxide.
"Sierra
Club's Detroit office ads an important new dimension to our longstanding
commitment to conserving the air, water and land – the natural heritage of
Detroit and southeastern Michigan," says Anne Woiwode, director of the
Sierra Club Mackinac Chapter. "This was a major commitment by our volunteer
leadership and reflects the importance of this region to the environmental
health of Michigan."
The Sierra Club was developed in 1985, and its purpose is to protect the wild places of the Earth; to practice and promote responsible use of the Earth's ecosystems and resources; to educate and enlist humanity; to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.