EJ Summit II Authors Pens Record Number Policy Papers

October 30, 2002, Washington, DC -- An impressive team of environmental justice scholars, educators, scientists, lawyers, and policy analysts developed a series of resource papers for use at the Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. The Summit, held this past week, attracted over 1,400 environmental justice leaders from around the United States and a dozen foreign countries.

The job of assembling the authors to write the resource papers was given to Robert D. Bullard, who chaired the Summit's Policy and Documentation Subcommittee. "We sent out a global call for papers, raised the funds to pay the authors a small honoraria, and badgered them to complete their writing assignment in time for the meeting," said Bullard, who also directs the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. The original plan called for 15 resource papers. "We had no idea who would respond and who would actually finish their paper. The response was incredible," stated Bullard.

Over two-dozen resource papers were written and distributed at the Summit and another half-dozen are being prepared as part of the post-summit activities. The topics covered in the resource papers range from asthma to zoning and a host of other areas such as children's health, worker safety, environmental education, energy, transportation, toxic wastes, brownfields, parks and open space, sustainable agriculture, smart growth, land rights and sovereignty, human rights, and globalization. The resource papers were used as background materials and helped guide the discussion in the workshops. The papers and the executive summary can be viewed on the Environmental Justice Resource Center's website at www.ejrc.cau.edu.