Pensacola environmentalists discussing Rolling Hills injustice at U.N. conference in Egypt

Two Pensacola men are traveling to Egypt this month to raise awareness of local environmental justice issues during a United Nations sponsored climate change conference.

Calvin Avant with United in the Family Ministries and Timothy Grier with Revelation Christian Ministries are among approximately 50 representatives who will staff a first of its kind climate justice pavilion during the two week conference.

An estimated 120 world leaders, including President Joe Biden, are expected to attend the conference.

"It will be a place we can specifically sit and put environmental justice in the U.S. at the forefront of the conversation," said Avant, who was scheduled to board a plane for the conference Tuesday.

Fighting local injustice: Advocates want to improve two embattled Pensacola communities, but will residents buy in?

To the rescue: These Pensacola neighborhoods were done a 'total injustice,' but activist has plan to help

The trip has been co-sponsored by the Deep South Center For Environmental Justice, WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. Avant and Grier will be representing the Bullard Center and its associated Gulf Coast Equity Consortium.

The concept of environmental, or climate, justice has been around for decades, brought to the forefront primarily through the efforts of sociologist Robert Bullard, who has long worked out of Texas Southern University to validate his proposition that environmental damage has disproportionately affected communities of color in the United States.

Bullard and others working in his field have revealed that underserved communities, particularly those of color, are disproportionately impacted by social, economic and environmental factors — such as residents of Escambia County's Rolling Hills and Olive Heights living in close proximity to unlined borrow pits and landfills — and that these factors often prove detrimental to the health of people in these areas.

"Those who visit the pavilion will hear about sectors of climate policy routinely overlooked and marginalized because of historic environmental racism," Bullard said his organization's release announcing the trip to Egypt.

Avant and Grier have ties to the Gulf Coast Equity Consortium, which focuses on identifying and tackling environmental justice issues in the cities of Pensacola; Houston; New Orleans; Mobile, Alabama; and Gulfport, Mississippi.

Avant's latest local project has involved advocating for federal funding to install sewage connections, storm water connections, street lights and paved roads in the historically underserved Escambia County communities of Olive Heights and Rolling Hills.

Within a roughly 25 mile radius bounding the three communities of Olive Heights, Rolling Hills and Wedgewood, there exist 11 unlined landfills and six borrow pits. Toxins that have floated, blown or leached out of the sites for decades are thought to be continuing to cause serious health problems within the communities.

Long fight for environmental justice: Wedgewood community continues fight to clean up pollution as court battle languishes

"We (Avant and Grier) will both be on conference panels talking about our plight," Avant said. "We'll be able to put Wedgewood, Olive Heights and Rolling Hills on an international stage."

Avant said "equity" is a term whose definition he'll be hammering home at the climate change conference.

"Equity is a big part. Equity and equality are not the same. Equality is everybody getting a brand new pair of shoes, but they're all size four," he said. "Equity is everybody getting a brand new pair of shoes that fit their feet. That's a big part of what we're working for, seeing that everyone is treated equitably."

At previous climate conferences, "zones" have been set aside for different groups of attendees, Avant said. A green zone is made available for the rank and file visitors while a blue zone had traditionally been set aside exclusively for visiting dignitaries.

In its news release, the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice announced that the Climate Justice Pavilion will make its debut inside the exclusive blue zone.

"The Climate Justice Pavilion will help to bridge (the) gap by serving as a space for productive conversations in the blue zone, which is where the majority of diplomats, policymakers, business, and professional advocates convene," the news release said.

Peggy Shepard, co-founder of We Act for Environmental Justice, lauded the "historic nature of the Climate Justice Pavilion."

"You cannot talk about solving the climate crisis if the people most impacted are not at the table," she said in the Bullard Center release. "The historic nature of the Climate Justice Pavilion cannot be understated, as it creates a space for those voices, their stories and perspectives, to be heard by decision makers on the international stage. We look forward to elevating the discussion of climate migration, energy justice, and the risk of false solutions to our communities as well as the need to center equity when addressing climate change."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola advocates going to United Nations climate change conference