Introduction

Institutional Diversity

Since the 1980s, EJ scholars have researched on the lack of diversity in the American environmental movement and the environmental workforce. Studies usually find that the environmental workforce is predominantly White (Taylor, 2014). Recent efforts by diversity advocates have focused on disclosing diversity data publicly. The landmark 2104 report, TheState of Diversity in Environmental Organizations, called for environmental organizations to collect and reveal their diversity data. Such efforts, the report argued, would lead to greater transparency and could enhance efforts to foster greater diversity in environmental nonprofits (Taylor, 2014). Since that time, research has focused on the extent to which environmental organizations reveal their demographic data on GuideStar (Taylor et al., 2019; Green 2.0, 2015).

Dorceta Taylor’s article explores the topic of diversity and transparency in environmental organizations. She studies 516 environmental organizations to examine the extent to which the data organizations collect are revealed, where they divulge their data, and to whom. Currently, transparency campaigns are primarily focused on whether environmental organizations disclose their demographic data on Candid (formerly GuideStar). In her article, “The Transparency Challenge in Environmental Organizations: Factors Influencing whether Institutions Collect and Reveal Diversity Data,” Taylor found that the demographic characteristics of the leadership of environmental nonprofits are related to whether the institutions collect diversity or reveal such data. She also found that more organizations are collecting diversity data than are sharing this information publicly. Moreover, environmental nonprofits reveal diversity data internally and externally to various stakeholders and on multiple platforms. Taylor urges diversity advocates to collect information on more organizations than they currently do and encourage organizations to divulge their diversity data on other platforms besides Candid. Taylor also encourages diversity advocates to pay more attention to the types of diversity data being collected.

Energy Justice

In the past decade, the field of energy justice has grown to become a vital component of EJ scholarship. EJ scholars and activists recognize that, quite often, many low-income residents and people of color are forced to choose between feeding and clothing themselves and their families and paying energy bills. Diana Hernández and Jennifer Laird’s article, “Surviving a Shut-off: U.S. Households at Greater Risk of Utility Disconnections and How They Cope,” exemplify the kind of cutting-edge research that is currently underway in the energy justice subfield. Hernández and Laird’s first-of-its-kind paper examines how household characteristics relate- to coping behaviors associated with utility disconnections in the United States. The scholars use the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) administered by the U.S. Energy Information Administration to analyze the prevalence of disconnection notices, disconnecting services, and coping strategies. Such coping strategies include forgoing basic necessities, maintaining an unhealthy home temperature, and receiving energy assistance. The study found that households coped with the threat of disconnections or actual disconnections by forgoing basic necessities, keeping their homes at unhealthy temperatures, or seeking energy assistance.

Natural Disasters and Mental Health

The theme of coping is also evident in the work of Claire Luce, Tara Powell, and Youngmi Kim. Their research examines mental health in vulnerable communities prone to experience natural disasters. The article, Mental Health, Social Support, and Active Coping in Nepali Earthquake Survivors” examine the relationship between exposure to natural disasters and common disaster-related mental health disorders. The researchers argue that much more can be done to fully explore how protective factors such as perceived social support or active coping strategies are related to mental health in the context of natural disasters. Hence, the study examines the relationship between mental disorders and active coping. The paper also analyzes the moderating effect of perceived social support on mental health. Data were collected in August 2016 as part of a longitudinal study on mental health and psychosocial interventions in post-earthquake Nepal (n=660). Our findings suggest that perceived social support moderates the relationship between mental disorders and active coping in Nepali earthquake survivors.

Food Insecurity

The ability to secure healthy and affordable food is essential to survival. Taylor et al. examine this phenomenon in their article, “Racial, Gender, and Age Dynamics in Michigan’s Urban and Rural Farmers Markets: Reducing Food Insecurity and the Impacts of a Pandemic.”

The authors argue that though farmers markets have been described as White spaces (Alkon & McCullen, 2011), they can play important roles in reducing food insecurity. It is particularly true in Michigan, where farmer’s markets were crucial collaborators in pioneering programs such as Double-Up Food Bucks that help low-income residents and people of color gain access to fresh, healthy, locally grown food. The article the findings of a 2020 study that examined the extent to which 79 Michigan farmer’s markets served low-income customers and people of color and participated in food assistance programs. This paper is also one of the first to study the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on farmers markets’ ability to serve low-income customers. The study found that farmers markets operated by people of color attract more customers and vendors of color than those operated by White market managers. The pandemic forced almost half of the farmer’s markets to start operations later than usual. Markets also reported that while they were receiving increased requests for food assistance, they had less funding, and the number of their vendors and customers declined.

Climate Justice

Carla Dhillon’s article, “Indigenous Climate Change Boundary Organizations Contending with Colonialism,” examines the crucial climate work in which U.S. tribes are engaged. Dhillon studies practitioners involved in eight boundary-organization partnerships. She uses the framework of colonialism to examine gender dynamics and the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous network participants. This article asks how large-scale U.S. climate boundary organizations that convene Indigenous and non-Indigenous climate practitioners contend with ongoing colonialism. Analysis indicates that Indigenous-settler networks offer avenues for incorporating Indigenous values into climate science. Such organizations also provide limited opportunities to utilize climate science in tribal climate adaptation. While these boundary organizations aim to build meaningful cross-cultural and mentoring relationships, uneven power dynamics and resources permeate the partnerships. These structural inequalities cause tensions to arise in the partnerships.

Exposure to Hazards

Research on the exposure of people of color and low-income groups to toxins has been foundational to the development of the EJ field. Kerry Ard and Kevin Smiley’s article entitled, “Examining the Relationship between Racialized Poverty Segregation and Hazardous Industrial Facilities in the U.S. Over Time” is in this genre. However, Ard and Smiley introduce a new line inquiry into this subfield of EJ research. They examine the relationship between concentrated poverty and exposure to hazardous industrial facilities using spatial measures of poverty segregation to do so. They use multilevel models to analyze how the density of industrial facilities is related to the economic health of a host tract, the broader economic context of the county, and the level of poverty segregation (both within and between racial/ethnic groups). The results show that high segregation is associated with a greater likelihood of poor racial/ethnic groups living in census tracts with hazardous facilities.

Nature, Space, and Perceptions of Nature

The final article in the issue examines people of color and their relationship to nature and the outdoors. It has been a long-time concern of EJ scholars and activists, like exposure to hazards. Dorceta Taylor’s article, “Understanding Black, Asian, Latinx, and White College Students’ Views of Nature: Frequent Thoughts abut Wild, Remote, Rural, and Urban Landscapes,” probes how one segment of the people of color population thinks about natural spaces. The paper reports on a study of 287 American college students that seeks to find out what students think about when they reflect on nature. The study investigates whether there are significant racial/ethnic differences in the way students think about nature. The study also examines how gender, social class, age, educational attainment, and academic interest are related to what students think about when they reflect on nature.

The study found that though the racial differences were significant, the results show that ethnic minority students do not fixate on urban landscapes; less than half of the students of color said they thought about urban landscapes regularly when they thought about nature. Instead, most of the respondents thought about the wild, wilderness, and untamed lands regularly when they cogitated nature. Respondents were also much more likely to report that they thought about connectedness to nature rather than disconnection from it. This paper found that the students’ educational attainment and parental/guardian education were significant in multivariate models than other explanatory variables. The paper urges researchers to investigate a broader range of explanatory variables in studies of this kind.