Graduation Year
2023
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Reader 1
Marc Los Huertos
Reader 2
Branwen Williams
Reader 3
Char Miller
Abstract
The first half of this senior thesis examines the history of environmental justice and grassroots activism in the United States and some specific examples from New York state of both grassroots activism and laws that have tried to address systematic environmental injustices. The second half explores a legislative-centered grassroots approach to climate change with the 2021 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which combines climate change and environmental justice policy in hopes of reducing the state’s carbon emissions and combatting disproportionate climate change impacts on low-income communities of color. This section will also look closely at why the CLCPA is so different from past EJ laws and analyzes whether it will be a successful approach by grassroots leaders, in its goals or if it will fall short as other laws did. This thesis concludes by providing some ideas that may help improve this law’s standing and legitimacy in the courts and touches on the national implications of this act.
Recommended Citation
Tahbaz, Eleanor, "The History of Environmental Justice and Grassroots Activism and An Analysis of New York State's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act" (2023). Scripps Senior Theses. 1976.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1976
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
