Both projects seek public help in monitoring and interpreting the environment. For example, in Baltimore, teens will plot the location, identity and size of trees onto computer maps of city neighborhoods, helping scientists to better interpret satellite images of the city. This in turn will help a local community organization focus its efforts to protect the whole urban forest and thereby enhance neighborhoods. In 1998, urban environmental education was the theme of the North American Association for Environmental Education annual conference. Internationally, there is a new focus on ecology, social science and participatory research in the sustainable cities efforts of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, and in government-funded efforts from Germany and Great Britain to South Africa.
Environmental justice tops the agenda among many environmentalists today.
President Clinton signed an Executive Order in 1994 requiring federal agencies to focus attention on environmental justice issues. The federal Institute of Medicine has just published research, education and health policy recommendations toward environmental justice, encouraging citizen involvement at every step. Such a model was presented by IES conference participant Randall E. Raymond of Detroit Public Schools. Raymond said his students found what may be a troubling correlation among neighborhoods with high poverty, incidence of poisoning and concentration of special education students. Given the finding, officials at Detroit Public Schools are now wrestling with how to increase lead screening to understand the connections between their students and their local urban ecosystem.