Earth Day 2020 and Combatting Environmental Injustice
by Betsy Eckhardt and Brad Forenza, MSW, PhD
Historically, social workers have practiced at the intersection of people and their environments. In 1922, Mary Richmond documented our profession’s conception of human ecology in What Is Social Case Work. Richmond noted that “the environment ceases to be the environment in space merely - it widens to the horizon of (hu)man’s thoughts, to the boundaries of [their] capacity for maintaining relationships” (p. 99).
Today, social workers employ this perspective as a framework for assessing clients: individual problems (and strengths) are bound by context. We recognize the implicit injustices created and maintained by contextual realities. In fact, the NASW added environmental justice as an explicit dimension of social justice in 2018. To this end, social workers cannot practice without consideration for the environmental realities in which our clients grow and function.
As Earth Day 2020 approaches, we sat down to write about green-themed environmental issues like Australian wildfires, global warming, and the remediation of lead-based paint. But we can’t ignore the current state of our global environment: the COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed micro, mezzo, and macro systems overnight. The contextual injustices are unavoidable: disparities in healthcare (e.g., access to, and availability of, providers), education (e.g., socioeconomic and accessibility concerns related to distance learning), and work (e.g., who is an essential employee, and what protections are workers entitled to?) are suddenly visible and overwhelming to all, but particularly to those with an eye toward environmental justice.
As the impact of this pandemic becomes more palpable, and the foundation beneath our feet trembles, we are reminded of Fred Rogers’ famous adage: “Look for the helpers.” Peppered within the 24-hour news cycle - typically in the last block of a telecast - are stories of people helping people, in real time. In Washington, DC, organized volunteers are delivering food and essential supplies to neighbors isolated at home (Neighborhood groups, 2020). In the Bay Area, a group of activists, who happen to have physical disabilities, are producing homemade sanitizing supplies for low-income communities (Green, 2020). Even sharing a simple roll of toilet paper with neighbors is now considered an unparalleled act of charity (Mazzola, 2020).
This is what happens when our macro environment becomes the feeding ground for a global crisis: the helpers organize to counterbalance the structural inequalities that are just below the cracks of our bedrock. Now more than ever, our country and our world needs helpers. It needs social workers to identify inequities and ensure that the least among us are included in, as FDR termed it, relief, recovery, and reform.
April 22nd is Earth Day. Most of us won’t be able to beautify our local parks and neighborhoods this year, per the rules of social distancing and mandated park closures. But perhaps our professional Earth Day challenge is, ironically, more “micro” this year. In 2020, perhaps we, as social workers, are the ones best able to combat injustice by helping to beautify another person’s social environment, however big or small. This is what environmental social work is truly about.
References
Green, M. (2020, March 17). Coronavirus: How these disabeled activists are taking matters into their own (sanitized) hands. KQED Public Radio. https://www.kqed.org/news/11806414/coronavirus-how-these-disabled-activists-are-taking-matters-into-their-own-sanitized-hands
Mazzola, J. (2020, April 9). Family’s huge HOPE sign, nurse’s hotel family. Shouting out coronavirus acts of kindness. NJ.com https://www.nj.com/togethernj/2020/04/familys-huge-hope-sign-nurses-hotel-family-shouting-out-coronavirus-acts-of-kindness.html
Neighborhood groups across the Washington area are forming militias of caring and help: From food delivery to online tutoring to dog walking, we are stepping up to help each other. (2020, 16 March). Washington Post. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.montclair.edu/usnews/docview/2377581223/F7201BD3D27A45BDPQ/1?accountid=12536
Richmond, M. (1922). What is social case work? An introductory description. The Russell Sage Foundation.
Betsy Eckhardt is an MSW candidate at Montclair State University.
Brad Forenza, MSW, PhD, is an assistant professor at Montclair State University. His research foci include child welfare, youth development, and civil society. His academic career is accentuated by direct practice at youth and family development agencies, as well as public policy analysis and advocacy.