DR. ROBERT BULLARD TO LECTURE AT CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY THIS MONTH

nvironmental justice scholar Robert D. Bullard is slated to give 2018 Issa Lecture at Case Western Reserve University on October 16, 2018. Professor Bullard will speak on “The Quest for Environmental and Climate Justice: Why Race and Place Still Matter.”  Climate change is the defining global environmental justice, human rights and public health issue of the twenty-first century. The most vulnerable populations will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks because of where they live, their limited income and economic means, and their lack of access to health care.  Climate-sensitive hazards are forecast to increase in the coming years. However, not all of the populations residing within these hazard zones have the same capacity to prepare for, respond to, cope with, and rebound from disaster events. Professor Bullard’s presentation will focus primarily on the need for empowering vulnerable populations, identifying environmental justice and climate change “hot-spot” zones and designing fair, just and effective adaptation, mitigation, emergency management and community resilience and disaster recovery strategies. He will also discuss his book, The Wrong Complexion for Protection, which analyzes more than eight decades of government response to natural and human-made disasters.  He will offer strategies to dismantle institutional policies and practices that create, exacerbate and perpetuate inequality and vulnerability before and after disasters strike.