It is time, past time, for the UUA to take the lead in defending the earth. Environmental activism is not merely consistent with our commitment to social justice, it is demanded by it. Poor people and people of color are the first victims of environmental poisons and natural disasters. Disparities of wealth and status lead to waste and pollution by both the affluent and the deprived. We simply cannot solve the problems of ecology without facing the problems of inequity, nor vice versa.
All environmental work is justice work.
Automobile fuel economy is an environmental issue. But when an Inuit fisherman has to import frozen seal meat because he cannot take it safely from a bay fouled by an oil spill resulting from the rush to meet soaring demand for gasoline, that is a justice issue. Recycling is an environmental issue. But when an African-American develops lung cancer from breathing fumes emitted from an incinerator in her neighborhood that burns recyclable trash, that is a justice issue. The greenhouse effect is an environmental issue.