The Environmental Justice Lab

Lesley Joseph
  • 4.7 (15)
  • News Commentary
  • Updated Weekly

Since the dawn of human history, the fight for environmental justice has always been a fight. Water wars between the people of Israel and herdsmen of Gerar in the book of Genesis, Chapter 26. The resistance of Native Americans to the pillaging of their land and resources at the founding of the United States of America. The refusal to allow a hazardous landfill to be built in the Warren County, a predominantly Black community in North Carolina, giving birth to the modern-day environmental justice movement. The struggle for clean water in places like Flint, MI and Newark, NJ and Jackson, MS. The struggle is real and the fight is on-going. And I'm here for it. My name is Dr. Lesley Joseph, a professor, an environmental engineer, and a fighter for environmental justice in our present day. Every other Tuesday, on this podcast, I explore issues related to environmental justice and the ways in which communities of color are impacted. Each episode will discuss a important environmental justice issue or situation and what we can do to fight for change. Let's learn, grow, and fight for a better world together! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support.

  1. 4d ago

    "Communities must be brought in and bought in" - The 7th Principle of Environmental Justice

    “Fair treatment and meaningful involvement.” That’s how the EPA defines environmental justice. Sounds good on paper. But here’s the question that I'm asking in this episode: What does meaningful involvement actually mean when a community is still told what’s coming, not asked? In this seventh installment of our walk through the Principles of Environmental Justice, we take on Principle 7: “Environmental justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision making, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement, and evaluation.” Keyword? "Right." Not courtesy. Not a listening session. Not a public comment period that ends with a polite nod and a pre-written decision. A right. In this episode, I break down the five stages where communities must sit as equal partners — and what it looks like when they’re shut out of every one: Needs assessment — Do we even need this? Convince us. If you can’t, don’t build it. Planning — Where does it go, and who bears the burden? Implementation — Who works there? Who monitors? Who benefits, and who just lives next to it? Enforcement — When something spills, who specifically steps in? Names, please. Evaluation — Water, air, soil, traffic, the school down the street. Who’s checking, and are they checking equally? This episode calls out the language corporations love — “community engagement,” “outreach” — for what it often is: PR that shields decision-makers from actual partnership. It names the pattern that every generation of this fight has had to face — industrial plants in the '70s, landfills and hazardous waste in the '80s, textiles in the '90s. And today? Data centers. Hyperscale, hundred-thousand-megawatt data centers — arriving with slick presentations and no invitation. But here’s the part that matters: communities are pushing back. Moratoriums. Permits denied. Local officials who do answer to the people who vote them in. Because the tech moguls may not care about environmental justice — but the people who need your vote will. And as this episode reminds us: the injustice always lands in the same places. Black and brown communities. Indigenous nations whose pipelines and rivers were never safe from the government’s reach. Rural towns. Low-income neighborhoods. The old part of town that “used to be nice.” The wealthy uptown and the coastal community by the water? They don’t have to worry about it. Remember, if your voice had no meaning to the people making the decisions — you are not experiencing environmental justice. You’re experiencing environmental injustice. Possibly environmental racism. Possibly environmental apartheid. An apology is not justice. A meeting is not partnership. Equal partnership is the floor, not the ceiling. Check out this episdoe and then ask yourself — and your neighbors — the only question that matters: Were you involved at every level? Was environmental justice truly served? Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen! Support our work by joining the Supporters Club: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support Connect with our Environmental Justice Lab community:  "No Sacrifice Zones" on Substack: @lesleyjoseph Instagram: @envjusticelab YouTube: @envjusticelab Email: theenvironmentaljusticelab@gmail.com

  2. Sep 30

    "No One Is Coming to Save Us": Drs. Wilson and Ali on the Past, Present, and Future of EJ

    What does environmental justice look like when you stop waiting for permission? In this episode, I sit down with two titans of the movement — Dr. Sacoby Wilson (University of Maryland, founder of the Center for Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health) and Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali (Executive Vice President of the National Wildlife Federation, founding member of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice). Together they trace the full EJ arc: from the communities who stood outside the EPA and demanded environmental equity in the late '80s, to the long fight to embed the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice into the federal government, to the reversals of the present moment. The conversation is unflinching. Dr. Ali lays it out with the line that anchors the whole episode: “No one is coming to save us.” Environmental justice, he insists, begins and ends in community — and if the voice of community isn’t framing the possibilities, you get “the crumbs from the table.” Dr. Wilson pushes further, calling for a plan that can’t be dismantled by whoever takes office next: a 50-year,  2076 vision of ecotopias, food, energy, and water sovereignty, and self-determination rooted in the fifth principle of environmental justice. They also make space for grief and joy in the same breath — honoring the dead who cannot cry out for justice, and celebrating the beauty and treasures inside the communities that must be protected. And they name the stakes plainly: Mossville, Cancer Alley, Institute, West Virginia — places dealing with the same toxic chemical exposures as the 9/11 first responders. It closes with a charge from Dr. Ali’s abuela: “You have power unless you give it away.” This isn’t a conversation about waiting for Washington. It’s a conversation about building the government — and the world — that the people deserve. Resources:  Center for Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH) National Wildlife Federation - Mustafa Santiago Ali Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen! Support our work by joining the Supporters Club: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support Connect with our Environmental Justice Lab community:  "No Sacrifice Zones" on Substack: @lesleyjoseph Instagram: @envjusticelab YouTube: @envjusticelab Email: theenvironmentaljusticelab@gmail.com

  3. Sep 22

    A "Rude Awakening" at Hunters Point: Environmental Racism in the heart of Progressive America

    Hunters Point Naval Shipyard sits on 638 acres of San Francisco waterfront. It was listed as a Superfund site in 1989. And 37 years later, plutonium has been detected in the air and soil — and still, nothing has been cleaned up. This week on the Environmental Justice Lab, I am joined by award-winning broadcaster Sabrina Jacobs, host of A Rude Awakening on 94.1 KPFA in Berkeley, to unpack one of the most egregious environmental justice failures in the country — and why it keeps happening in a historically Black neighborhood that happens to sit on some of the most valuable real estate in America. We trace the shipyard’s history from its 1870 origins as a commercial dry dock through Navy ownership, World War II radioactive testing, and deactivation — and into the decades of alleged fraud, secrecy, and delay that followed. The Navy’s contractor, Tetra Tech, was found to have falsified soil sample data, missing plutonium contamination. When an air sample turned up plutonium in November 2024, the Navy sat on the results for 11 months. Meanwhile, developers are already building luxury condos on cleaned-up parcels — while legacy residents, who moved to Bayview Hunters Point during the Second Great Migration, are left living beside contamination with no answers and no accountability. We dig into Proposition P — the 2000 ballot measure that called for full cleanup and was opposed by the Chamber of Commerce and a list of police associations — and ask why the burden of cleaning up a mess the federal government created fell on the City of San Francisco. They discuss what gaslighting does to a community’s psyche, what it means to demand restoration rather than mere remediation, and why the fact that this is San Francisco — the supposed heart of American environmentalism — tells us everything about environmental racism. Sabrina closes with the lesson she wants every organizer to carry: never give up. Because every movement that ever won was built on fire, steadfastness, consistency, tenacity — and a deep love and respect for oneself and for others. Resources:  The Gaslighting of San Francisco at the Hunters Point Shipyard - Greg Schwartz Lawsuit Filed Over Radioactive Waste at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard - Green Action Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen! Support our work by joining the Supporters Club: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support Connect with our Environmental Justice Lab community:  "No Sacrifice Zones" on Substack: @lesleyjoseph Instagram: @envjusticelab YouTube: @envjusticelab Email: theenvironmentaljusticelab@gmail.com

  4. Sep 9

    The Green Transition Has a Cost: Environmental Justice Crisis in the Congo

    What is the true cost of the global transition to clean energy? As the world embraces electric vehicles, renewable energy, batteries, and new technologies, the demand for minerals such as cobalt and other critical resources continues to grow. But behind many of the technologies powering our so-called sustainable future is a story that too often remains invisible: the story of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this episode, Dr. Lesley Joseph is joined by Sarah Backstrand, an environmental policy researcher, and Father Dr. Toussaint Kafarhire, a Congolese Jesuit priest, theologian, sociologist, and advocate. Together, they explore the Democratic Republic of Congo's long and complicated history of extraction — from colonial exploitation and rubber production to uranium, cobalt, and the minerals now essential to the global energy transition. The conversation examines the environmental and human consequences of mining, including pollution, displacement, dangerous working conditions, and the unequal distribution of the benefits and burdens of resource extraction. The guests also challenge common narratives about the Congo as an inherently unstable or “ungovernable” nation and ask listeners to consider the historical and global forces shaping the country's ongoing conflicts and extractive economy. But this episode is not about despair. It is also about agency, dignity, truth, spirituality, and hope. Father Toussaint and Sarah discuss the importance of listening to artisanal miners and affected communities as experts in their own lives, strengthening democratic accountability, and recognizing Congolese people as partners in shaping their own future, rather than objects of charity or intervention. Most importantly, this conversation asks a difficult question: Can the green transition truly be called sustainable if its benefits are enjoyed in one part of the world while its environmental and human costs are concentrated in another? Join us for a thought-provoking conversation about Congo, cobalt, colonialism, environmental justice, and what it will take to build a future where technological progress does not come at the expense of human dignity. Because a just transition must be just for everyone. Resources:  King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Finn, B., Backstrand, S., and Lukobo, E. (2026). Transformative cohabitation: A new approach to artisanal and small-scale mining interventions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Energy Research and Social Science 135: 104651.  Ahl, N. (July 17, 2026). Blood Batteries and the Green Transition: Energy Justice Lessons from Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Consilience: Blog for Journal of Sustainable Development Powering Change or Business as Usual? Forced evictions at industrial cobalt and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Amnesty International   Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen! Support our work by joining the Supporters Club: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support Connect with our Environmental Justice Lab community:  "No Sacrifice Zones" on Substack: @lesleyjoseph Instagram: @envjusticelab YouTube: @envjusticelab Email: theenvironmentaljusticelab@gmail.com

  5. Jul 28

    Data Centers, Environmental Racism, and the Fight for Justice with Env. Scientist Kibri Everett

    In this episode, I get to talk with Kibri Everett - environmental scientist, GIS specialist, PhD candidate at UNC-Charlotte, and founder of Key Environmental Consulting - to pull back the curtain on the data center boom sweeping the nation. Kibri has been on the front lines of this issue long before it hit the headlines. She recently testified before the Charlotte City Council, helping to secure a unanimous vote for a 150-day moratorium on new data centers - a major grassroots win. In this conversation, she breaks down what that fight looked like and why it matters far beyond Charlotte: How data centers consume staggering amounts of water and energy while gobbling up land in majority-minority communities The xAI/Memphis nightmare, where hundreds of diesel generators are spewing air pollution in a historically Black neighborhood Why the AI revolution is an environmental justice crisis, with hyperscale facilities are targeting the same communities that have always been sacrificed for industrial development What the Charlotte moratorium actually accomplished, and why 150 days is just a start Practical strategy for communities facing a data center proposal: where to organize, who to call, and how to bring data-driven expertise to your fight Kibri also shares how her company helps community groups arm themselves with the technical knowledge they need to stand up to billion-dollar tech companies, and why strength in numbers is the most powerful tool we’ve got. If you’ve ever wondered what’s really powering the AI boom, and whether your community could be next on the list, this episode is essential listening. Follow Kibri Everett: Key Environmental Consulting LinkedIn HBCU Environmental Justice Technical Collaborative Resources:  Charlotte, NC approves data center moratorium - The Charlotte Observer  "Stop Dirty Data Centers" Campaign - NAACP $64 billion of data center projects have been blocked or delayed amid local opposition - Data Center Watch Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen! Support our work by joining the Supporters Club: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support Connect with our Environmental Justice Lab community:  "No Sacrifice Zones" on Substack: @lesleyjoseph Instagram: @envjusticelab YouTube: @envjusticelab Email: theenvironmentaljusticelab@gmail.com

  6. Jul 14

    From Cages to Community: The Fight for Renewable Rikers

    What happens to a place built on punishment when a movement demands it be rebuilt for life? On this episode, Dr. Lesley Joseph sits down with two frontline fighters in the battle to close Rikers Island and transform it into something radically different: a hub of renewable energy and community sustainability. Manuel Figueroa — Member of Freedom Agenda, and a justice-impacted individual who lived through the system — brings the raw, on-the-ground truth of what it means to be caught between broken promises and political whiplash. He watched the city’s reentry programs get gutted under Mayor Eric Adams, and he knows what happens when people in power decide the “built-in forgetter” kicks in. Michael Higgins Jr. — Land use planner at the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance and coordinator of the Renewable Rikers Coalition — walks us through the legislative machinery: the Renewable Rikers Act, Intro 881, and the decades-long fight to not just close the jails but to reimagine the island — with wastewater treatment, solar energy, and infrastructure that actually serves the communities that have been choked by pollution and incarceration for generations. Together, they talk about the real obstacles — the developers circling, the political amnesia, the competing visions that would rather turn Rikers into a profit center than a public good. And they leave us with a challenge: What does justice actually look like when we stop treating it like an abstraction? This is the fight to turn a site of suffering into a source of renewal. And it’s not just about New York. Tune in and ask yourself: What’s your community’s Rikers? Resources:  Campaign to Close Rikers Website Renewable Rikers: Instagram & Website Freedom Agenda: Instagram & Website  NYC-EJA: Instagram & Website Recent Articles: NYC press release on RIker's Island Closures Rikers’ closure plan moves a step closer after long-awaited land transfers Mamdani transfers vacant Rikers Island facilities, restarting dormant piece of jail’s closure plan Former Rikers Island detainees cautiously optimistic the end of facility is near after jailhouse infirmary closure Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen! Support our work by joining the Supporters Club: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support Connect with our Environmental Justice Lab community:  "No Sacrifice Zones" on Substack: @lesleyjoseph Instagram: @envjusticelab YouTube: @envjusticelab Email: theenvironmentaljusticelab@gmail.com

  7. Jun 30

    Not in My Neighborhood, Not Anywhere: Unpacking the 6th Principle of Environmental Justice

    Environmental justice isn’t about making sure pollution is evenly distributed. It’s about making sure there is no pollution to distribute. In this episode of the Environmental Justice Lab, I break down the 6th principle of Environmental Justice. The principle demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous waste, and radioactive materials, and holds producers strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and containment at the point of production. Let's be crystal clear: the burden of pollution doesn’t belong on the backs of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities who are forced to live next to toxic facilities. It belongs on the producers — the corporations and industries who profit from poisoning our air, water, and soil. Think about it this way: If CEOs had to live next to their own plants, how quickly would they find cleaner ways to operate? This episode is a call to stop compromising, stop capitulating, and stop letting polluters shift the blame onto the people they’re harming. Environmental justice demands accountability. It demands detoxification. It demands we stop polluting. Tune in, get educated, and get engaged because we’re not wavering. References:  The Principles of Environmental Justice Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen! Support our work by joining the Supporters Club: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support Connect with our Environmental Justice Lab community:  "No Sacrifice Zones" on Substack: @lesleyjoseph Instagram: @envjusticelab YouTube: @envjusticelab Email: theenvironmentaljusticelab@gmail.com

  8. Jun 16

    When Legislators Won’t Listen, Make Them: Introducing the Digital Democracy Project

    The EPA has been gutted. Scientists are being sent home. NOAA is being dismantled. And in the middle of all this deregulation, our elected officials keep voting against what we actually want. So what do we do about it? On this episode of the Environmental Justice Lab, I sit down with Sadie Holzmeyer, National Organizing Director of the Digital Democracy Project — a nonpartisan nonprofit building a voter-driven system of government from the ground up. Sadie tells us how she went from a random Google search to living out of an RV, crisscrossing the country to build a movement that lets you — the registered voter — weigh in directly on the bills that shape your life, your community, and your environment. Using certified mobile voting technology, the Digital Democracy Project puts real legislation in front of real voters, with plain-language summaries, community-sourced pros and cons, organizational stances, and even an AI-powered VoteBot to help you cut through the legal jargon. The results? Public, transparent, and district-level — so your legislator can’t claim they didn’t know what you wanted. We talk about why this matters for environmental justice, how candidates running for office are vowing to use the platform to dictate their voting patterns, and why any politician who refuses to support this kind of direct voter input might just be telling you they’re anti-democratic. From federal bills to state legislation, from Florida to all 50 states by 2027 — and maybe even beyond U.S. borders — the Digital Democracy Project is proving that democracy doesn’t have to be a spectator sport. Finally, the call to action: Download the app, get verified, and start weighing in at digitaldemocracyproject.org. And if you’re in one of the 43 states that doesn’t yet have a state organizing director — maybe that’s you. Think about it. Resources:  The Digital Democracy Project Website Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen! Support our work by joining the Supporters Club: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support Connect with our Environmental Justice Lab community:  "No Sacrifice Zones" on Substack: @lesleyjoseph Instagram: @envjusticelab YouTube: @envjusticelab Email: theenvironmentaljusticelab@gmail.com

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About

Since the dawn of human history, the fight for environmental justice has always been a fight. Water wars between the people of Israel and herdsmen of Gerar in the book of Genesis, Chapter 26. The resistance of Native Americans to the pillaging of their land and resources at the founding of the United States of America. The refusal to allow a hazardous landfill to be built in the Warren County, a predominantly Black community in North Carolina, giving birth to the modern-day environmental justice movement. The struggle for clean water in places like Flint, MI and Newark, NJ and Jackson, MS. The struggle is real and the fight is on-going. And I'm here for it. My name is Dr. Lesley Joseph, a professor, an environmental engineer, and a fighter for environmental justice in our present day. Every other Tuesday, on this podcast, I explore issues related to environmental justice and the ways in which communities of color are impacted. Each episode will discuss a important environmental justice issue or situation and what we can do to fight for change. Let's learn, grow, and fight for a better world together! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-environmental-justice-lab--5583745/support.

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